Leaving on a jet plane ...

Nine days to departure. This week we received our construction manual: thirty pages of how to build a bamboo house. The tools and equipment listed are mostly the standard drills, screw drivers, chisel, container for mixing mortar, etc. It is the materials list which gets interesting: different sizes of bamboo, bamboo nails, tin sheets (to make the roof), woven mat for ceiling and more.

And the instructions: which begin with a warning, "drilling holes in bamboo pieces should be done very carefully and precisely." Hmmm. Drawings, photos and text then show how to make walls, by weaving horizontal bamboo strips between the vertical bamboo posts and followed by brushing a slurry mixture of cement and water to fill in the gaps.

Not only do we have to figure out how to build in this manner, our team has to finish a complete house in one week. Enthusiasm coupled with quick learning and stamina will be the ticket for success. 

Of course, stamina will also be necessary for the week following when most of the teams venture onto the trekking trails in the Himalayas. Photo shows Nancy and Christy taking a break on a readiness hike up one of the NJ mountains ... just a little hill to anyone from Nepal :-)