Saturday, June 29, 2013

Peace Bench Progress


We starting the project Tuesday 11th. It was an exciting day and we had a great time. On the first day we dug the foundation and continued to make bottle bricks. The bottle Bricks are made by stuffing plastic bags into bottles. We also bought the wooden poles and gravel from a local quarries. The saw and hammer were also purchased as we looked were to use them the following day.

First Day
The second day we began to prepare the foundation by placing hard cores on first and then cover them with the gravel. Once this was done we started to cut the wooden posts down to size and made a framework for the bench. The last thing we did was to get the 10 stones and arranged them on the front and back part of the framework.

Second Day
The third day we started by digging for clay from around the church property. We place piles of it on plastic tarps and began to make it into find dust. It was necessary that the group did by hand, shovels, hammer, wood, anything that worked. We also finished placing sticks across the posts so that the bottles would not fall down and could be stacked on each other.

The fourth day we continued to make the clay earth as fine and we could. As we finished we brought over sand and water to mix into it. We had three different tarps that we used for the mixing. The way mixed it was to use our bear feet and stomp on the earth and sand while adding water. The resulting mixture is a mud and clay that we used to cover the bench and give it shape. We also put this mixture into sacks that we call Earth Bags. The most exciting part of this stage of construction was that we got the school involved. We asked if the students could help us with the mixing of the earth and sand. We had a great time with them. By the end all of the students wanted to help us. It was a long day but we accomplished the most I think on that day.
 

Monday, June 3, 2013

Betty's Bay & Cape Town

Betty's Bay
Betty's Bay

Betty's Bay

Photo from Table Mountain
(Cape Town)

@ Betty's Bay


Groot Constantia 1685
Oldest Wine Farm in South African


Groot Constantia vineyard
Cape Town Stadium
(Green Point Stadium)
Used for 2010 FIFA World Cup

South African Coast line east of Cape Town

glimpse of Cape Town
Taking pictures at Camps Bay
pictures with friends


Miss Earth South Africa 2011







@ the Stormers vs Sharks rugby match


Great Fans for the Stormers
They got the "Wave" to go around like 5 or 6 time!

Stormers Win!
YAV picture with Table Mountain