Wednesday was a cool but very windy day. This prevented us from working on roofing and made it hard for other tasks outside - a lot of dust caused several people to have to stop working at times. Some team members started helping family members put up walls on house #7.
Another group of team members put face boards on the ends of house #5.
I worked with the family on house #6. This consisted of the wife (a real dynamo and strong worker who is only as tall as my shoulder) and the 70 year old father of the husband.
Although none of our team worked on them, I noticed that the foundation for house #8 has been laid, and the foundations for houses #9 and #10 have been dug. This means all 10 houses are in some phase of work - even houses #1 and #2 still have family members coming in to continue with interior finishing.
In this photo of house #10, you can see that they have also started marking off the individual land plots (the horizontal line about one third from the bottom of the photo) and have started digging the foundation for the wall that will enclose the ten house lots (the horizontal line about one third from the top of the photo) - the wall that will keep the livestock out of their land. Note also the nice view of the mountains in the distance.
Earlier in the week, I had met and helped some of the Khutul firefighters on house #5. I asked if I could get a tour of the fire station. My friend Alex is the head of the Fire Science program at Vermont Technical College and asked me to learn whatever I could about firefighting in Mongolia. About 15 minutes before lunch, I was offered the chance to go visit the station. My ride to the station was a learning experience. In America, we expect fire stations to be in or near the middle of residences and stores. In Khutul, there is a huge cement factory in the northeast section of town. The fire station is at the far north side of this, meaning it is the furthest possible point (more than 2 km) from the residences and stores in the center of town and more than 4 km from the residential area where we are building homes. I guess the Soviets thought that the cement plant was more important than the homes and the local government has not moved things since the Soviets left - either because of lack of money or because they agree that the greater need is at the factory, where I have heard that 70% of the town's jobs are located.
The firefighters were very proud of the main classroom where their many awards are stored.
They have a large room with about 6 bunk beds for 12 firefighters to sleep when on duty overnight. A full crew was present when I visited.
On my way back into town, I took a couple of photos to try and show the size of the cement factory. My rough estimate is that it covers nearly one square mile.
On the Habitat build in Nepal, after the first week, several of us volunteers started walking to or from lunch - rather than taking the Habitat provided bus. While much of our work there and here in Khutul has us using upper body muscles, we are not really doing any significant amount of walking. So today, I decided to walk back to the work site after lunch. While the ride seems longer (because of the poor quality of the dirt roads), it only took me 15 minutes - that would be 3/4 of a mile at my usual 20 minute per mile pace. Along the way, I took this photo of a large house under construction. It is using what appear to be the same style and materials that we are using - the big difference is that it has at least twice the floor space and a second story. Note the fancy windows at the central peak on the front of the house.
While mixing mortar this afternoon, I broke a shovel handle - and later discovered that others had done the same. Since a local firefighter was there, I asked our translator to find out where the local hardware store was. With our Habitat driver, we made a quick trip into town where I purchased three new shovel handles and two new square shovel blades. While not of the greatest quality, they will be very useful at the work site. The total for all five items was 13,500 MNT - about $9.10 US.
I was very busy all afternoon, so busy that I did not get to take any pictures until I got into the van to leave. House #7 walls are more than half way up.
The same is true for house #6 where I had been working. This photo was taken from the back of the van - the horizontal lines are the defroster wires in the window. Part of what kept me busy was the building of house #6 but also unloading cement. A large truck arrived early in the afternoon with many 50 kg (110 lb) bags of cement. I helped unload some 25 bags for houses #6 and 25 bags for house #7. At house #6, once the bags were on the ground, we then had to put them up on a platform to keep them dry - that is the nice pile between the tent on the left where the family stays and house #6 on the right. Most of the bags were moved by me and the wife, or me and the 70 year old father-in-law, or for a couple of bags, by myself.
Another group of team members put face boards on the ends of house #5.
I worked with the family on house #6. This consisted of the wife (a real dynamo and strong worker who is only as tall as my shoulder) and the 70 year old father of the husband.
Although none of our team worked on them, I noticed that the foundation for house #8 has been laid, and the foundations for houses #9 and #10 have been dug. This means all 10 houses are in some phase of work - even houses #1 and #2 still have family members coming in to continue with interior finishing.
In this photo of house #10, you can see that they have also started marking off the individual land plots (the horizontal line about one third from the bottom of the photo) and have started digging the foundation for the wall that will enclose the ten house lots (the horizontal line about one third from the top of the photo) - the wall that will keep the livestock out of their land. Note also the nice view of the mountains in the distance.
Earlier in the week, I had met and helped some of the Khutul firefighters on house #5. I asked if I could get a tour of the fire station. My friend Alex is the head of the Fire Science program at Vermont Technical College and asked me to learn whatever I could about firefighting in Mongolia. About 15 minutes before lunch, I was offered the chance to go visit the station. My ride to the station was a learning experience. In America, we expect fire stations to be in or near the middle of residences and stores. In Khutul, there is a huge cement factory in the northeast section of town. The fire station is at the far north side of this, meaning it is the furthest possible point (more than 2 km) from the residences and stores in the center of town and more than 4 km from the residential area where we are building homes. I guess the Soviets thought that the cement plant was more important than the homes and the local government has not moved things since the Soviets left - either because of lack of money or because they agree that the greater need is at the factory, where I have heard that 70% of the town's jobs are located.
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| Offices and classrooms are on the left |
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| Stall #1 had a pumper truck |
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| Stall number 2 has a tanker truck, stall 3 an ambulance and a second pumper truck |
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| Tanker in stall 2 |
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| Pumper and ambulance in stall 3 |
On my way back into town, I took a couple of photos to try and show the size of the cement factory. My rough estimate is that it covers nearly one square mile.
On the Habitat build in Nepal, after the first week, several of us volunteers started walking to or from lunch - rather than taking the Habitat provided bus. While much of our work there and here in Khutul has us using upper body muscles, we are not really doing any significant amount of walking. So today, I decided to walk back to the work site after lunch. While the ride seems longer (because of the poor quality of the dirt roads), it only took me 15 minutes - that would be 3/4 of a mile at my usual 20 minute per mile pace. Along the way, I took this photo of a large house under construction. It is using what appear to be the same style and materials that we are using - the big difference is that it has at least twice the floor space and a second story. Note the fancy windows at the central peak on the front of the house.
While mixing mortar this afternoon, I broke a shovel handle - and later discovered that others had done the same. Since a local firefighter was there, I asked our translator to find out where the local hardware store was. With our Habitat driver, we made a quick trip into town where I purchased three new shovel handles and two new square shovel blades. While not of the greatest quality, they will be very useful at the work site. The total for all five items was 13,500 MNT - about $9.10 US.
I was very busy all afternoon, so busy that I did not get to take any pictures until I got into the van to leave. House #7 walls are more than half way up.
The same is true for house #6 where I had been working. This photo was taken from the back of the van - the horizontal lines are the defroster wires in the window. Part of what kept me busy was the building of house #6 but also unloading cement. A large truck arrived early in the afternoon with many 50 kg (110 lb) bags of cement. I helped unload some 25 bags for houses #6 and 25 bags for house #7. At house #6, once the bags were on the ground, we then had to put them up on a platform to keep them dry - that is the nice pile between the tent on the left where the family stays and house #6 on the right. Most of the bags were moved by me and the wife, or me and the 70 year old father-in-law, or for a couple of bags, by myself.
It was another great day. I am told that other team members continued putting the finishing cement based plaster on houses #3 and #4, but I did not have a chance to see the results nor take photos.
For dinner, seven of us went to Texas - we were all punch drunk from the hard work (some of us even a little drunk from the beer) and there was much laughter as we enjoyed the evening. All seven of us at dinner are part of the crew that will be going to the Gobi Desert tour for four days starting Saturday.
