EARTHSHiP TRAiNiNG jAMAiCA
( MARCH 2008 )
On 1st March 2008 I started my trip to Jamaica to volunteer
for a week on an Earthship being built in Negril. It was
not only my first time on Jamaica, it was also my first
time across the Atlantic Ocean. When I was sitting in the
plane just killing time, I was over and over excited trying
to realize what the hell I am doing up there all by myself.
The journey didn't really have a nice start as I had to
stop over in Miami, where then my flight to Montego Bay was
cancelled. In one way I was glad that I went on the
saturday while I was supposed to start working on Monday.
So I didn't lose any time on site. But then again I was
annoyed because I was hoping to have a day to adjust myself
to the climate and the area. Wel... that all wasn't
happening, there was nothing I could do and when I finally
arrived in Negril on sunday evening I was still in a happy
mood. It started raining by the minute I got there and
wouldn't stop all night but even that couldn't bother me
anymore.
Fortunately I met Dakota at the Hotel Bar. She was an
intern too for the same week, so we talked a while and then
just went to bed, me being totally exhausted but also
overly excited about the next morning.
On monday morning I met almost everybody from the crew in
something like 5 minutes. I had seen the film "The Garbage
Warrior" and recognized some of the faces but there were
too many people including twin brothers that didn't make
the process easier.
The crew always went to to the site first. There was only
one van and we wouldn't all fit in anyway. Kirsten stayed
with us interns in the hotel and we had a little
orientation session before we went up on site too. It was
only 8.30 am but the sun was already playing baking games
with my skin.
The inner tyre wall was already up and the locals were
pounding the second layer of tires around the first one.
The timber structure already gave an idea on how the roof
was going to look like.
Our
first job was to layer plastic bottles in cement on top of
the tyre wall. That would then form the gutter around the
roof where the rainwater will be caught. It's not as easy
as it looks when you want the layers of bottles and cement
rising at the same level. So after lunch some of the guys
were giving us "another" instruction and showed us the best
way to do it. It was also a good time to talk to them and
have some banter. It is great how quick you can bond with
people you share a great passion with. The afternoon went
by really quick, the clouds came and did their job.
Around 9pm I was in bed not being able to move or read. The
TV sent me into a nice deep sleep.
Tuesday morning started with another little Orientation
while we were waiting for the Van to come back and pick us
up. Kirsten obviously enjoyed telling us one story after
another on what she'd experienced when building her own
house, building Earthships all over the world and living in
an Earthship community. It was interesting and incredibly
inspiring.
Today our first job was packing out the spaces between the
tires. That was quite a messy job but great fun too. I
slowly got used to work with cement. I had been abandoning
cement in my head but now experienced the advantages of it.
I also realized that it is ok to build with cement when you
create a building that is completely off the grid, not
wasting any resources whatsoever throughout its lifetime.
While we were working on the main building structure, the
Dome, that is going to build the roof, was started. It is
basically a structure of bent reinforcement bars, which
then get layers of mesh wired to it and once its up on the
roof, will be plastered. When the guys where ready with the
rebars, we were all called to help wiring the mesh to the
it. That meant spending the entire afternoon cutting little
pieces of wire, "stitching" them through the mesh and
rebars to make sure nothing moves. It felt like a knitting
club and I guess everybody went home with some kind of a
twisted wrist.
But
whatever jobs you have to do on site, you see something
coming out of it and that is the big treat. That keeps you
going. You have a goal.
We were all pretty excited when it came to the moment that
the Dome had to be lifted up and set onto the wall. It is
probably fair to say that for the week I spent working
there this was the most exciting and inspiring moment. 30
people holding onto the same thing giving a house a roof.
That certainly has got something special and gives a great
atmosphere to the whole team.
Once the Dome was up and the first layer of plaster was
applied on it, suddenly there was some precious shadow on
site which was very rare before.
It didn't mean that working inside was therefore much
easier though. Especially when you're trying to get rid of
some heavy rocks in order to get the floor to something you
could call a level...
As you can imagine a week on a construction site is nothing
and sometimes you would look up and realize that something
else had just grown out of somebody's hands...
Justin developed the little 'hut' for the systems... (that
included some interesting yoga postures...)
Mira & Kirsten created beautiful bottle walls while the
guys developed the roof gutter for rainwater collection...
Chris built that beautiful 3 tier skylight...
On thursday we got our hands on the plastering. But the
coment mixer could only do enough cement to serve the guys
up on the roof, plastering the Dome. So we didn't just
learn how to plaster but also how to mix the cement for it.
I've done this with mud plaster before but there you don't
have the pressure that it'll dry so quick and you can just
keep adding stuff and mixing.
But since the materials for the plaster were down at the
bottom of the hill and some of the locals were already
hauling buckets of sand and gravel up like maniacs we
finally ran out of mix and ahd to find another job after
lunch.
On a busy site like that this is not difficult. Since the
Dome was up it was on the time to prepare for the
insulation that had to go in between the outer and inner
Dome. This meant cutting 18 pieces of plastic of the exact
same shape and stapling them onto the timber structure.
With only two ladders and some interesting rocks in the way
this wasn't the easiest task at all and Health & Safety
Officers would probably already have called several
ambulances.
In the meantime Heather & Mira raised another bottle
wall for the bathroom inside.
Our host Bryan enjoyed his walks around site, was amazed by
how much things had developed every time he came up and
made his self home alread...
The internal works kept us busy until friday as well. In
between we tried to get a few tires pound as well since
that is the basic job you have to know when you want to
build an Earthship. It looks very powerful and you can
certainly get rid of all the aggressions you carry with
you. But after a week on Jamaica, there weren't really many
left, I was out of power and only managed a couple of
tires. Unlike Dakota who seemed to have much more energy
left and definitely impressed the guys.
The last impressions we took with us from site were the
first parts of the veranda going up, the roof gutter almost
finished, the retaining wall outside up....
What's left is great memories of an inspiring experience
that will certainly stick with us until we're able to
afford our own Earthship.
See
how the Earthship developed during the week after I had
gone:
the bottle walls got nice mud finishes
the solar panels were installed...
the skylight went up...
the veranda had grown around...