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making mud at the bedouin village; nice face ryan

Quoting Lolocreatives:  Your decision to be an observer is strategically interesting, as your choice to get out of the office one day a week. I’d like to hear more about what you’re doing on those days! 

Well Lauren, if you’re curious about what I’m doing on my days away from PCATI, this is the blog post to read.

On Monday, instead of going into the office, I decided to shadow Ryan and Sarah (who are working for Rabbis for Human Rights) as they headed to a Bedouin Village in the West Bank to help build a school.

We woke up early to catch a 6:30 bus into the territory.  After about an hour ride we finally arrived “close enough” at a gas station located a half mile outside a Jewish settlement.  As we hiked back up the highway toward the village, Sarah helped me understand the history of this project…  Bedouin communities in the Sinai and the Negev desert have traditionally lived as nomadic tribes throughout the region.  However, with the establishment of internationally recognized borders, many communities have been forced to create permanent villages.  These shanty-town buildings (the homes I saw were nothing more than scrap metal and old shipping crates)  have been traditionally declared illegal by the State of Israel.  Despite these proclamations, this particular village has been around for approximately 40 years.  Recent financial consideration have prevented the children of this community from attending school for a little over a year now; the price of transportation is just to overwhelming.  To find a suitable solution, the tribe met with Valerio Marazzi, an Italian architect, who subsequently suggested Earthships.

As we walked into camp, followed by a group of curious children, the partially built school buildings sat surrounded by white rock and dirt, next to dozens of camp style shacks on the verge of collapse.  If you imagine three small structures with mud, dirt, and tire walls and aluminum rooftops, you’d be thinking of a building far more superior in stability, insulation, permanency, and architectural integrity than any other “building” in the area.  The goal was quite simple, add one part water, one part dirt, mix thoroughly, and apply to walls.  The most effective application was to throw it so that it simultaneously stuck and evenly dispersed.  We arrived fairly early, before the architect was around, and the kids entertained themselves at our expense, spraying us with water and throwing mud any which way.  When Valerio showed up, we were already drenched in sweat, dirt, and mud.  He thoroughly thanked us and gave us a little more guidance.  Tired of patching walls, I decided to complete the wrap-around bench made of rocks, dirt, and you guessed it… mud.  With a lot of help and hard work, we made a lot of progress.  About a half hour after we left, and Israeli news crew swung by to film are work and to interview a few of the Bedouin.  I may have been on TV, but I don’t know because I don’t have a television.

The great thing about this project was the ease in which these structures can be built; how amazingly cost efficient they are.  If their durability is proven, then Bedouin camps all over the country will have a significant model to produce sustainable schools and homes.  And from the news coverage it’s getting, (a) there’s little chance the Israeli government will stop their construction (they have no building permits); and (b) this is something that could really catch on fast.

 

It was hard work, but at the end of the day I just playing in mud.  It’s always nice to simultaneously fulfill a childhood dream and help some people in need.

 

Thanks for all the great comments guys… here are some links that relate to the project… one of them is a CNN news video taken before I was on the site (but two Denver students strategically placed themselves in shots).

 

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099334.html (this is a news article that got frontpage on Haaretz)

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/07/12/wedeman.mideast.recycled.school.cnn?iref=videosearch (CNN Video)

 

mixin’ the mud

a couple of the troublemakers

camel that greeted us on the way into the village

making mud at the bedouin village; nice face ryan

 

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