Notes from the Construction Team

notes from our hard working, home construction teen member, AJ...

March 23 2008
After lunch instead of going to the school and help with the "donation sort", the home team found out they had to go to the home sites. We didn’t know where we were going or what we were going to be doing. Thirteen of the twenty one of us stayed at the first house and built a foundation for the house to be. The other eight of us went to another house that is being built on the river side for a mother and five children. It was a house in a really skinny alley. I never expected so many house in such a little space. The first thing that I did was break tiles that were in the ground into smaller pieces so I could use them to help level out the place where the cement slabs are going. That’s what four out of the eight were doing while I did that. After smashing tile into smaller pieces I had to hall buckets of sand to level out the ground. Once I got the ground all leveled me and alex and to move five concrete pieces three feet by three feet out of the way so we could level out the back of the house.

After moving all of the pieces we found that the ground was still unlevel so we had to hall some more sand to make it level. We were finally done with all the house stuff we could do for the day. So we went and look to see what the other four were doing. They were still working on the slabs that were going to be put on the level ground that me and alex just did. We helped with that for a little bit. Todays high was really hot it felt like it was over 120 degrees.

March 24 2008
Today we started to build a house for a mom and five children. When we first got to the site their was a ground and cement pillars sticking out of the ground. We found out what we were going to do we had to break the tiles that were in the ground into smaller pieces and spread them to make the ground even, after breaking the tiles and making it as even as we could we decided to haul in sand and try to level it out some more. Once we leveled the ground out we had lunch at 12 and ate till 1. Lunch was done at when we came back to the house we found out to make mortar so we can start laying brick for the walls and haul them all to the place where the walls were going to placed. This house was across a river and down into an alley where there was a whole lot of houses made of aluminum, brick, and a whole lot of things you would imagine. Also the back of the house was above the river by like three feet. We learned how to lay brick and once we did that we went off on laying bricks and we did that for about six hours until it was time to leave for dinner.

March 25 2008
Today we went to the same places and did some more work on that same house. Once we got there we found out that we would have to make a ceiling made out of tin and rafters that were going to be put on the cement pillars that were made the day before. We also would have to lay more brick on the second and third wall. Also we would have to move three by seven feet of cement slabs that we were carrying to the part of the house that was over the river. The first thing that we did that morning was had two to three people switch in and out on laying brick. While the second part of the crew was putting together the tin ceiling for the top of the cement pillars. The wall building crew probably got three fourths of the way done on one wall and a fourth of the way done on the other wall before lunch. After lunch the people that were laying bricks went back to laying bricks and we went to put the ceiling on the house. So all three of us and two more people that were helping us build the house helped us move the cement slabs to the back of the house. It was time to go and we were really sad to leave the surroundings and how we did not get as far as we planned on getting. Thankfully at the end we got to get a picture in the house that we did all the work on with the family that will be living in the house. So that made my day.


March 26 2008
Today we split into three smaller groups, and two of the three groups were going to be doing house renovations on two different houses and the third group was going to be laying more brick. The group that I was on going to do renovations because we were sick of laying brick. We got to the site and looked at our surroundings we were out in the middle of nowhere any shad at all and there were four standing walls. We found out our renovations were going to be putting wood up on three of the four walls. On the fourth wall there was going to be aluminum. We had a power saw for half of the day. So we had to use a hand saw for four more hours. We got done with the house around 2:30.After that we found out we were going to be going to the first house where they were laying brick because the second renovation team only had to put one more wood piece and they were done. There were twenty-three people at the first site and only seven trowels for twenty-three people. So both renovations teams got to go back to the hotel and rest, while the first crew finished up as much as they could.

March 27, 2008
Today we divided our groups up into three groups again the same as yesterday. One brick laying crew and two renovations crews. The second renovation crew got to their site and noticed that the house that they got to was all weird and didn’t have enough done to do the work they were told they were going to be doing. So they decided they would go and help out the brick laying crew lay brick. The first renovation crew had gotten to their site and found out they again had to put up stuff on the walls of the building. One of the four walls we were putting up aluminum on a wall. The other two walls we were putting up corn leaves on the wall that were dried up and flipped out. The last wall we had to put up chain-linked fence on the upper ¾ of the wall and on the other ¼ of the wall we put aluminum. We finished the house around 11:45 and ate lunch. After lunch we had to go back again and help the brick laying crew. Yes the same as day four not enough trowels for twenty-four people. So the renovation crews got to go home and relax while they finished it up.


March 28 2008
Today was our last day working (for our team) we went to breakfast at 6 and left the hotel around 7:30 to head out to our work sites. But before we could leave we had to load the bus for the entire luggage from everybody. We were only going to two sites today and it was pretty easy work. We just had to put tin up on the side of the house instead of brick or wood for both houses. We were done with both the houses by twelve. So we went out to lunch before we had a two hour bus ride to dinner with 16 people on a coach bus and a lot of luggage. After eating dinner it took us two and a half hours even though it was only thirty miles. That’s how busy the roads are here in Vietnam.


March 29 2008
Today was a really really easy day we had the day off. A lot of us went shopping and went to look around Saigon. We got up for breakfast at 6:30 and said goodbye to the distribution and medical team because they had to work today. Our bus didn’t leave till 8:30 to go see the markets and a lot of other things. And then our bus left for beach at 1:00 it was a two and a half hour bus ride. We got to the beach/hotel around 4:00 and checked in and got our room assignments. Most of the home and distribution team went swimming before they had to get ready for the bus that was leaving at 5:15 for dinner.