The little kitchen in our bamboo hut
Awaken damn ass early, as per usual when the culture you are living with rises with the sun and there are no doors or real walls to keep out the sound and all. So the morning starts at 5:30am and a meeting is scheduled for 8am to look over the site and talk more about the TB lab building. Usually the time in the States between 5:30am and 8am would be filled with email checking, breakfasting, and maybe even reading the news on the computer, but not in a place that has barely any electricity and definitely no internet service! After the usual bathroom time, Andrew and I try to help cook breakfast, which is extremely amusing to Mweh Paw since men don’t usually cook in Karen cultures when there is a woman around to do it.
Karen Breakfast: lots of rice, like every meal, with fish paste, also like every meal
That only takes us until 6:30am and then there is just nothing to do until the 8am meeting. This is what I like to call camp-time, which is filled with lots of nothingness. Usually it involves people just sitting around, but now since it is Karen New Year official games of soccer and volleyball started at 7am so at least we get to look out of our window and watch the games taking place. Since we are in Sector 1, we are in essence in the “downtown” of the camp and are right by all of the official KNU offices, the clinic, the TB lab, and the large sports field area.
A view of the main thoroughfare of Sector 1 from our bamboo hut
Apart of me feared that I would show up and they could have just decided to go ahead and rebuild the TB lab without me, since such things can accidently occur here. Luckily that was not the issue and in fact the lab became even more dilapidated since my last visit in July! So fear not, nothing was attempted in my absence!
Visiting the site with the 2nd in Charge, the Clinic in Charge, the TB lab tech, and Mweh Paw was extremely helpful. When I was first there in July I was pushing for a change of location for the new TB lab since the current one is located on a very steep hill and there was no attempt at making any sort of barricade to stop the hill from sliding on to the back wall of the lab. Also since I was last there in July it seems that the earth has totally eroded from under the concrete foundation of the lab, so the foundation has cracked and is being held up by purely the wire inside of the concrete – not good. Luckily now that I have the heads of the camp involved I was able to suggest the idea of a new site and it was actually taken into account after showing them my observations. The new site will be just down the hillside from the current one, on flat ground, and will allow for the new structure to be much bigger – which is good for the fact that they wanted storage space and a washing area to be included. We were also able to look at the different places where they think that suitable soil can be used and picked an area where they wanted me to try to use the soil from. Luckily making mud bricks is pretty forgiving and almost all types of soil can be used.
Site of the soil used in the mud brick making
After the meeting it was time to do some soil sample testing to see if I could really use the soil in the area they wanted me to. I start with three simple tests: a visual test, a smell test, and a touch test. The visual test involved me digging into the soil about 1 foot and seeing what the soil looked like, which was homogenous and devoid of any plant growth or large rocks. A more homogenous soil is best since large rocks or plants would need to be taken out if we were to use that soil so that it would not interfere with the mixture once it was made for the mud bricks.
Soil sample
The smell test was to see if there was a musty or moldy smell to the soil indicating that there is organic material in the soil that might be problematic once the mud bricks were made. You don’t want to make all the bricks and then have something start growing in the middle of them! The smell of the soil was happily completely neutral.
The last test was a touch test which I did by rolling a piece of dry soil in my hands to see if it was lumpy or grainy. The lumpiness would indicate a clay soil and the graininess would indicate a sand soil. From those three tests I gathered that this soil could be used for my mid brick making.
After those tests a series of other tests were conducted to see what type of soil it actually was: clay, silt, or sand. The first test was to wet a small piece of the mud, not so wet that the soil started to come off on my hands, but wet enough to work into a ball. I then cut it with a knife to see the interior of the ball. The interior was slightly greasy looking, indicating that it was probably a clay soil. I then took that ball and smacked it against my palm and when no water leaked out that was also a sign that it was a clay soil.
Soil slightly saturated with water
The last test I did was to make a long and narrow strip of slightly wet soil and holding only one end see at what distance it breaks off. A break between 5cm and 15cm is a good indication that the soil will be strong enough to make bricks out of- this soil broke off right at the 10cm mark- perfect!
Test piece breaking off at 10cm
So I decided that the soil in that area can be used for making mud bricks and that it is most likely a clay soil type, meaning that it will work really well in compression (much time concrete), but need something to help it deal with tension, such as straw, bamboo, grasses or the like. I made a few very small handmade bricks with and without bamboo additives to see how they would dry and how much shrinkage would occur.
Little test bricks, the Xs have bamboo added to them for tensile strength
Afternoon there is nothing to do, but enjoy camp-time. It is always an adjustment coming from my very time and task driven lifestyle back in the states to just doing nothing here in the camp. There is always a few things that I can work on when I am here, but for the most part one needs to either learn how to just sit and do nothing or find something to fill the time with. Usually with camp-time there is a cycle of a. getting used to doing nothing, b. loving the fact that I don’t have anything that I could possibly be doing, c. going insane because there is nothing to do. Right now I am in part a., happily though at 3pm the games start back up so there is at least something to watch.
The sun sets at 6pm here so that means either read by headlamp light or go to bed. Luckily I have prepared so such lack of light when reading so I requested a new Nook glow for X-mas and have installed at least 6 fantasy novels on it just for this occasion! It is going to be a life saver. I also remembered that sleeping on a bamboo floor is a bitch and just gave into being that lame-ass foreigner that can’t sleep on bamboo floors like the rest of the Karen and brought a sleeping mat. I might feel a bit lame now, but in a few days when I don’t have back pain I will be glad I brought it! Not surprisingly buildings without any insulation in them get pretty damn cold at nights, and even though it is only getting down to the 50’s I definitely need to wear at least 3 layers of clothes, a hat, and socks since I only get a few blankets to sleep with.