Ground Breaking

9/14/2014 01:08:00 PM sendtheroths 0 Comments

To get the building permit, we needed to get the land title in our name, to get the land in our name we needed to get our provincial non-government organization (NGO) documents completed and all of these steps take time, money and much patience. (Over a year and a half long process to be exact.) 

Other setbacks occurred as well, a few months ago when we were ready to start building, our building manager's wife died suddenly after giving birth but the baby lived. She was survived by her husband and now four kids. This was another huge set back. The timing of this was catastrophic, unforeseeable. We let him have a month to grieve and plan how to make arrangements for his family for when he will be occasionally gone to oversee building in Masisi.

Plotting the ground for the Masisi Training Center.

We are finally ready!

Finally last month Moise and I traveled to Masisi to check on the land, build the security wall, and to finish the final discussions about how to build with our "new" (to the Congolese) innovative method called earth sack building.

A bit about earth sack building. Have you sever seen a military base with all of those sand bags around the guard towers? Well picture that with smooth plastering over the walls and a proper tin roof, in a nutshell that is the basis to an earth sack building. Earth sack building is very inexpensive, uses local available materials, is resistant to bullets and grenade attacks, and overall is sustainable long-term. 

Foundation dug, and the dirt on the inside will be used to fill the earth sacks.

Based on these criteria, we chose this method of building. 

It will be a small learning process for all of us but we believe that we will be able to build it quickly and hopefully in time before the worst of the rainy season. 

Pray that there won't be any hold ups and that all will go well.