Footings and Walls a la DR

This post is a little story for my carpentry students because the photos take too long to upload on my carpentry blog.

The typical construction of a new home in the outlying villages starts with a lot of back breaking labour to dig the trenches for the footings.  No frost here, so the trenches are shallow, just enough to create a level surface to work from and also so that the soil acts like a form for the concrete.

The concrete is mixed by hand close to the trenches:

Then is is carried by bucket to the site, usually in a bucket brigade fashion where it is placed and consolidated.  Once the footings are set, the walls will be made of concrete blocks and the roof of wood joists and corrugated steel.  A home like this will accommodate a family of up to 10 people.....wow.

In this case the home is being constructed with the help of a group of volunteers from Quebec who are staying in the village for about three weeks, by which time the house should be finished.  The group has not only paid for their trip, but has brought 6000.00$ with them to pay for the materials needed for a typical home of this area.  The finished product will look something like this:

And may even be finished with parging and paint to look like this:

Which is way better than this:

You don't know how fortunate we are until we see how others live....