The villagers work hard to mix a concrete batch by hand

Building junction 1 required making a lot of concrete by hand.  This is not an easy task as the rock, stone, cement, and water are heavy and need to thoroughly mixed.   Now imagine mixing this with a shovel that is only 2 ft long.  That is what the villagers did for over 50 batches of concrete me made.  Although it was tiring and hard many of them kept mixing like machines to finish the work.  I was impressed since I was exhausted after mixing a batch before it was even close to being finished.

The mixing was hard, but I loved watching the people work together.  As soon as a batch was ready someone would yell “fall in” and everyone would line up and pass buckets of concrete down the line to get the concrete to where it needed to be placed.  The line was so efficient generally we did not have enough buckets to keep up.  I enjoyed it because it was something that everyone could take part in.  I joined the men and women of the village in line and laughed and smiled as we moved the concrete in order to fix their canal.

EWB-Valpo member Brittney joins the buckt brigade