How are the houses framed?
• All of the walls are made with concrete (cinder) blocks. • Blocks are delivered by truck to the site. Workers form lines and pass blocks down the line to the appropriate space. • Blocks are placed and cemented together to form walls. A plastic hollow tube is filled three-fourths full with water and used as a level. • String is used to keep each level straight. • The concrete is applied using a metal pan, a trowel, and a block of wood to keep the concrete in place—one brick at a time. • When the walls are approximately five feet high, spaces between the blocks are made to hold scaffolding. • Using machetes, workers cut long poles of bamboo approximately 4 inches diameter. These are used to be the scaffold frame which later holds on which workers stand. • Walls are built 7 feet high.
