Everyone smile.
So, after a very busy and productive introduction to Yogjakarta, I suppose I had should settle in and do some actual work. Time to meet the crew and build a house. To be honest, I was really looking forward to this part, as I have never built anything from the ground up and meeting a whole bunch of new people is always fun!
This was our crew of 14 people!
Back row top left to right: Corrine, Jon, Tanner, Bernie, Jeremy aka Jer-bear, Mackenzie,
Middle row left to right: Mandy (HFH Group leader), Likan, Alissa, Me! Valerie and Jim (Love that T-shirt! Super jealous!)
Bottom row left to right: Kay and Joyce. The hardest working people on the team!
We were picked up by our Habitat for Humanity liaison team; Djingga Djiwa and Nofi Fuanda. Djingga worked tirelessly all day with us to help make our stay in Yogyakarta more enjoyable. He picked us up in the morning, drove us around, organized dinners during the week for all of 16 of us, and put up with all of our nonsense! No wonder he slept in the work vehicles so much. We also had the amazingly happy and friendly, Nofi Fuanda and her impressively large and colorful collection of hijabs. I don't think I ever saw two the same for the whole build project! Impressive!
Thanks for the pick Likan. :)
The daily commute.
After introductions and photos at HFH Indonesia HQ we were driven about 1 hour south to Selopamioro village in the Imogiri Sub District.
Puji Raharjo with the sharpest knife I have ever seen. We never got to do this in case we lost a finger...right Corrine.
We were split into two teams at the site and introduced to our site foreman who would look after the running of our house build.
Ladies and gentlemen...our foreman Puji Raharjo!
He would be in charge of us, instruct us on how to use tools, keep us safe (no mean feat) and helped us build our house. Oh, and he cut up and fed us fresh coconuts!
Awesome!
Some of the children and a few from the local village.
The family, mother and father. They have 3 children too.
We were then introduced to the family that would move into the new house. They were so friendly and accepting, it was amazing. In fact, the whole local village was, and it was all very humbling.
Our house was a 3 week build and we would be working on it for 2 weeks to get as much done as possible.
Right let's get started!
The build plan.
So, if like me, you have never built a house here is what you need to do:
- Move all the material (boulders, bricks, grit/sand) to site.
- Hand dig foundations.
- Shovel through a large sift all of the grit/sand for concrete.
- Make concrete.
- Lay foundations.
- Build walls.
- Make and install reinforcing bar (Rebar) columns and layers whilst building walls.
- Install windows.
- Build joists and install roof.
- Lay floor.
- Move in.
Well that is a bit simplified, but you get the idea and all this is done by hand. There was no machinery involved during our build.
The first few days of the build.
Now the first few days we dug foundations, moved material and laid the first foundation stones. We were also very lucky to have the neighbors help too. When we left for the day they would pick up where we left off and continue. That meant our build came together very quick. It was great!
One of the greatest things was how happy, friendly and inquisitive the local kids were. It made working in the baking sun all worth it.
During the third day I met the one pictured below on the right. His name...Kevin...What a great name! But I never could get him to smile in photos.
Kev on the right....Kev on the left and Riza in the middle. Both not looking impressed.
The other major part of this particular build was reinforcement bar (Rebar). It is long pieces of metal that had to be hand cut to exact sizes, and then bent and then wired tied to the beam/column for the house. It was a long process but a great way to chat to the guys and get to know people.
During all of this rebar making our blue tarp/tent (it was just like being in a U.S. campground) that shielded us from the sun collapsed in the wind. So in true "get your hands" dirty fashion we helped to fix the tarp, and held up ladders and supports until the locals fixed it. Then it was straight back to making rebar.
No rest for the wicked!
In the first week the house made great progress, and we completed: digging the foundations, constructing foundation walls, started to build the house walls on the foundation and made some great friends with the locals and each other.
The weekend arrives.
So after a very productive and busy few days it is the weekend and we all have time to relax, and do some site seeing around the wonderful Yogjakarta area. What better way to do this but to return to Borobudur to see if we could all see the sunrise!
After a really early start, and along bus drive we all arrived in the dark to climb the stairs of this amazingly peaceful temple to wait the sunrise. There was a slight sunrise which was cool, but I also got more time to explore the temple afterwards, which gave me a real appreciation of the intricacy and detail that went into building the world's largest Buddhist temple.
Borobudur Buddhist Temple just at sunrise.
After such an early cultural start it could only be topped off with thrashing around in a jeep around Merapi to see the remains of the last volcanic eruption. The jeeps where great fun, and we all had a blast!
What a week! I took it easy on Sunday while others explored the city center. Next Indonesian blog update, we continue building the house, we get invited to a local wedding, we explore a cave and we have an emotional good bye ceremony with the family and all the HFH team.
Come back for more!
Cheers,
Kev
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