This week mostly consisted of preparing for the laborious task of pouring the concrete roof in block 2. Not only does all the scaffolding have to be in place but an intricate mesh of do-it-yourself steel columns and rebar must be woven on top of the roof before the pouring can begin.

The columns are a task it itself. First, a number of steel bars must be cut and bent into a rectangular shape using nothing more than a little leverage and a couple of nails and hinges strategically placed on a plank of wood. Second, the rectangular rings are slid onto four long pieces of rebar. Lastly, using metal twist ties, each rebar is tied to one of the four corners of the ring and this process is repeated all the way down the line until the a column is formed. Thursday was concrete day.

Using what can only be described as a ‘sketchy’ wooden ramp to shuttle buckets of concrete from the mixer to the roof by hand, this concrete day ended up being one of the most exhausting ones to date. Volunteers resembled an army of ants hard a work carrying the buckets up and down the ramp. Floor and wall tiles have been selected and will be laid in the bathrooms and the kitchens and once the roof dries and the scaffolding can be disassembled. It’s exciting to get to finally make some of the decisions about paint, furniture, and decorations for the classrooms. It’s a sign that the project is going to start to resemble some sort of finished product in the upcoming weeks.