Bricks!

Today we arrived to find that some magic fairies had completed most of the remaining concrete for the floor (thank you, magic fairies), so there was only a batch or two of concrete left to mix on the street.

If you were ever wondering how to make concrete on a lane on Addis Ababa, the formula is like this (including some personal comments on how to make your work day better):

1. Choose an area that is as level as possible and does not impede the people, dogs, and donkeys that use the lane on a regular basis.
2. Use the home-made measuring bucket (tin on the bottom, wood on the sides, and tree branches along the sides for handles). I recommend being on the end that has the straightest handles since that end is much easier to pick up.
3. Fill and tip onto the chosen location the following, in order: one bucket of sand, one bucket of rocks, a second bucket of sand, and then another two  buckets of rocks - all on top of one another.
4. Slice open a bag of cement (at the top please, so they can re-use the nice strong bag for other purposes), and scatter the cement over the pile. If there is a breeze at all - stand up-wind.
5. Mix everything up. This is hard, so take turns. You can shovel from the pile to another pile just one foot away and then back, or just mix in place - whatever works for you. This is done until everything is well mixed.
6. Pile it all up again to one big mountain and make a depression in the middle. In some countries this is called the 'volcano' stage.
7. Get water from the water-supply tank in smaller buckets. You have to create a line of people to do this as it is on a fairly high ledge. Someone tall needs to lower the bucket by rope into the water-supply tank.
8. Continue to add water and mix. Start from the outside by taking a shovelful of dry mix and placing it in the wet area. Be careful not to allow holes so that all the wet mixture leaks out down the street. If you do get a leak - shovel lickety-split to plug the hole and recapture the mix.
9. Continue to add water and mix until it looks like brownie batter with lots of walnuts in it - or until someone who knows better tells you to stop. This is definitely the hardest part - so you may want to use this time to take a break, or at least work beside a local or someone more in shape than you. If there is a short-handled shovel - they are best.
10. Place the concrete into the orange metal concrete-carriers, and the job passes off to the 'trucking crew' who carry it around the corner, up the ten stairs (OK - nine full stairs and two half-stairs, and tip it into the desired location as directed by whoever is in charge.
11. Rinse, lather, and repeat.... until you run out of cement, water, sand, rocks, or places to put it.
12. If you end up with extra concrete, use it wherever it might help, or use it for arts and crafts projects.
13. When finished, try to clean off the rocks in the lane as much as possible.

One use for extra concrete...

Today for break time, Tammy was given the traditional clothes to wear for the coffee ceremony. Although her skills putting all that ground coffee into the small coffee-pot spout were 'acceptable', her coffee-pouring skills were outstanding!

The Coffee Queen

Then we started on bricks (how exciting!). We used the standard brick-passing lineup to get our first load of bricks in place, and then proceeded to lay mortar, line up rows, place bricks, and crack-fill. By the end of the day when the rain started again, we had 6 rows on one wall complete, and between 3 and 4 on most other walls. Good progress indeed.

How to place a corner brick... with a smile!

Neighborhood Watch?

A Hard-Working Group

With the rain threatening again, we left about 30 minutes early from the worksite, which also saved about 20 minutes on the drive home since we avoided the rush hour. Excellent!