Breaking Ground(s)

They say you're supposed to measure twice, cut once. Whoever came up with that obviously never worked in Mali. Here it's likely to turn out double: measure 4 times, cut twice. At least that's how it happened at the groundbreaking in Tongo.

The Mayor didn't show up (he now says he's coming to lay the first brick...), but we kicked off nonetheless. We measured the footprints of the buildings manually by tying strings to metal rods and stretching them across the ground, using geometric cunning to make sure the lines were square:




Once the area was marked, pick axes and shovels sent dirt flying as a team of volunteers from the village got to work digging the foundation.











All the construction materials arrived in Tongo. We unloaded the truck and took an inventory:






Everything came that we ordered, but upon further inspection we deduced that the number of metal roof sheets (determined by the supplier) would not be enough to cover both buildings. We could either pay for a few more sheets plus their transportation from Bamako to Tongo, which would put us over budget, or we could reduce the size of the classrooms. We chose the latter and set about re-measuring the building footprint, filling in the old, and digging the new.



As an architect, I'm quickly learning an important lesson regarding when to accede to changes and when to stick to my guns and uphold the original design. At this point, the school that will be built is, in physical appearance, far from what I initially imagined but, in concept, still right on the mark. Due to limitations in the technical skills of the construction workers in Mali, as well as budgetary considerations, we've changed many of the details of the design such as using concrete columns instead of I-beams, sitting the roof directly on the wall instead of raising it up, etc. The key concepts (sustainability, cost-effectiveness, transfer of technical skills) are still manifest in the use of compressed bricks, rainwater harvesting, and training of members of the village.
We are also 'breaking ground' in another sense. BuildOn specifies that 15 men and 15 women from the village work each day. However, Tongo is a Muslim village and the men were initially not comfortable with the idea of their wives leaving their household chores to assist with the school construction. After several meetings with the village elders, we came to a compromise that the women would be responsible for supplying water for the work site. This means working along side the men to draw water from the well, fill up large barrels, and generally keep water in stock. So not only is this the first use of compressed bricks and rainwater harvesting in the area, it's a small step toward woman's empowerment in Tongo.