Building a School, Building a Future 1 of 3

The Yams Farm community is a breath of fresh air

As I drive down the hill I am struck by the beauty of my surroundings. Just outside of Freetown, compared to the busy, messy, smelly, craziness of the city, Yams Farm Warf is like a peaceful haven. Since the rains came and settled the dust, the stark brown rocky hillside explode into green, replacing the dusty gravel with head high grass. Down below the estuary winds it’s way through the knotted mangroves, the life blood of this small community. With shouts of “Abpoto,” “Rhymes” and “Bambalela,” children chase after the big Landrover Bakkie. Grannies smile and wave from their stoeps and men just look up briefly, wiping the sweat out their eyes before continuing breaking stones, repairing vehicles, building or doing whatever it is they are doing.

The Mudblock school/church is extremely crowded

From inside the whitewashed mud walls the sound of learning spills out. Pastor Mark established this church in the predominantly Muslim community a few years back despite being met with death threats and hostilities. The church is used by a small congregation on the week end and during the week it is crammed full with about 200 students on wooden benches with five years being taught consecutively by various teachers. Despite the limited resources, cramped conditions and that there was no government support, the children’s scores in standard government tests were amongst the highest in their district for the two years it has been in operation. After completing the external  pit latrines, we offered to construct a school building as well. A second Gateway group of new recruits would be heading out in November and we would put them to work on the school.

The Design

The initial design of the school

Roof Truss Design

There was a lot input from Helen Clark who is a professional architect back home, and in collaboration with the community we decided on a design, trying to make the largest space possible, for as cheap as possible, without jeopardizing functionality and form. The walls are built of cement blocks  with circular vent blocks being used instead of windows and are strengthened with reinforce concrete columns and ring beams. The roof is a lattice scissor truss structure fabricated from sapling poles, with sawn battens and corrugated zinc sheeting as a covering. The lattice scissor design of the truss allows the walls to be lower, saving on materials, without compromising ceiling height. It also allows good air circulation and lighting and the steep gradient of the roof reflects more sunlight, helping to keep the school from turning into a sauna.

Collecting Materials

Making blocks in preparation for the school construction

Prior to the arrival of the Gateway group, the preparations all needed to be completed so that we could get as much done as possible during the two weeks that the Gateway group were out there. I had to arrange building sand, stone, cement, timber and poles for the roof, door and door frames as well as a long list of other bits and pieces. In order to maximise the size of the building for the money we had, the village elders promice both stone and sand at a minimal cost. They also advised on where to get timber and poles direct from the lumber jacks at a much lower price than would be possible from retailers.

Loading sand from the 'wharf'

Building sand is collected from sand banks in the estuary using a wooden boat which could carry about 5 cubes. At high tide the boat pulls up at the “wharf” where the sand is offloaded. Once the water recedes enough I would reverse the 4x4 Land Rover bakkie onto the mud flat where we would load it up to transport it the 500 meters to the school. A special driveway of rocks had been lade so the vehicles tires would not sink into the mud. The one time I strayed from the path, the loaded vehicle sank to its axle in the sticky goo which looked so firm a few moments before. We had to unload it, dig out the mud and push it free.

The Yams Farm hillside is covered in a red rock. One of the majour incomes for the village is from collecting this rock, breaking it down into small pieces and selling it for construction. Several people donated their laboriously collected piles, one gentleman allowed us to come and scrape up all the gravel from his yard and collect a few loads of rocks which we could then further break down to the correct size. The villagers donated most of the rock for their school and the outstanding balance was purchased at a very low price.

In order collect the timber for the roof, Myself, Pastor Mark and Mr. Abass Kamara headed out into the local villages. Mr Abass guided us down dirt tracks to a small village in a forested area just outside Waterloo. An agreement was made to collect 70 ‘Forest Tree’ planks 2”x6”x12’. Unfortunately the village could not get the poles we needed as the trees were not the right size. All the forests surrounding Freetown had been stripped of this commonly used construction material. We needed a particular species of tree which grew long and straight and repelled wood eating insects, in order to get the right size and species we would have to go further afield. Fortunately Mr. Abass knew just the village and once again we headed out.  Winding down dirt tracks through small villages, we arrived at our destination. Most of the men were involved in the rice harvest, but after a small wait and some minor negotiations, we loaded up 10 dozen ‘fence posts’ and with a further 20 dozen ordered we headed back.


Preparation Work

Casting the schools footings

The idea was that prior to the Gateway team arriving the foundations, earthworks would be complete, all the blocks were to be cast and all the building materials were supposed to be onsite. Then during the two weeks that the crew were in the village, the walls would go up and the roof would be constructed. This would achieve two things, firstly the Village builders would be motivated for the construction through the most difficult part by the excitement of visitors. Considering this was all volunteer community work, it would be difficult to motivate the Villagers once the Gateway crew left. Secondly it would give the Gateway crew a sense of accomplishment. Rather than just digging holes in the ground they would be able to see the walls of the building go up. Unfortunately, we hit some snags, namely changes in the price of sand and a broken boat motor. The Gateway team was just in time to help with the first foundations, and cast the outstanding blocks.
While  the first part of the project did not go quite as per the program, I could only smile and look on what had been achieved and what was coming, rather than what had gone wrong.