Beginning Buildings 2 & 3

electricity arrives to Building 1

plastering

beginning foundations of Buildings 2 & 3

finished interior of kitchen in Building 1

Roofing Building 1

After Delay Gears Turning Again

arrival of security grating

installing security grating

Alex digging the hole for pit latrine (12' deep here of 21' total)

installing courtyard drain (yet to be buried) and pouring porch slab

rear porch slab covered with banana-leaf-improv-sheet for the evening's rain

From Around Bungoma Town

CfC team and friends at "Happy Moments"

goofing with the neighbors in our yard

at one of our favorite hangouts

kids at nearby school

Bricks and more

Walling

We are plowing right ahead; as of today we have completed all foundation work and are about a third of the way there on the brick and CMU (the large concrete block) walling. The structure is beginning to take shape; you can almost imagine a home here!

digging septic

installing gate

vapor barrier

pouring slab

"hardcore" arrival

foundation walling

local "marrum" layer beneath slab

Breaking Ground

Notes from Week 1

Building 1 of 5 for the OAF Housing Project is progressing at a great pace. Our collaboration with local contractor David Milimo has fulfilled all of our expectations and then some; while proving to be a competent professional and solid individual, David, in addition to his right-hand-man Evans, has quickly become a close friend of ours here. His position amongst the builders of the area seems to be one of reverence, so our access to Bungoma's best brains and brawn in the construction field has been unfettered. This has ensured our relationship is one of trust and transparency. Dave and I are thrilled with our situation.

We broke ground on Friday, after the construction of a storage shed on site to house hardware, and by dusk on Saturday had completed most of the concrete foundation footing pours. Good planning and a very organized and reliable schedule of material deliveries, set-up by David, has allowed everything to run smoothly. We are pleased with the quality of work so far!

Site

Dave was able to e-mail a photo-stitch of the site today.  More images will be coming when they get a reliable internet connection. 

The Program

One Acre Fund is an organization that helps East African farmers grow their way out of hunger.  With hope to expand their operation from the current enrollment of 12,000 families to 33,000 families in the next two years, they are building a main headquarters campus in Bungoma, Kenya.  This campus will include a main building with administration, classrooms and support rooms, as well as housing for staff.  There will be five two bedroom houses with cooking and living amenities for in-country volunteers.

Climate:

Located directly on the equator, at an altitude of nearly 1400m, Bungoma experiences an average rainfall of 127mm per month with average temperatures falling near 22ºC.

Sun path diagram

Solar energy and surface meteorology

Variable	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X	XI	XII
Insolation, kWh/m²/day	5.94	6.37	6.21	5.70	5.60	5.21	5.10	5.45	6.16	5.82	5.40	5.66
Clearness, 0 - 1	0.60	0.62	0.59	0.56	0.58	0.55	0.54	0.55	0.60	0.57	0.54	0.58
Temperature, °C	23.06	24.03	24.44	23.70	23.08	22.07	21.63	21.69	22.59	22.92	22.27	22.27
Wind speed, m/s	4.39	4.52	4.42	4.29	4.39	4.32	4.31	4.29	4.34	4.27	4.22	4.19
Precipitation, mm	54	80	124	230	241	143	118	145	136	144	135	68
Wet days, d	9.1	11.1	14.0	20.0	20.7	15.2	15.6	16.7	16.6	17.4	16.6	10.7

This data was obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center; New et al. 2002

Other Considerations:

As forced entry is not uncommon, each house must be secure.  Also, available and local building materials are a large driver in the design.  The site has some noise issues "...chiefly chickens and church bells", so we've done our best to reduce sound transmission through the outer walls.

The Design:

We moved toward a courtyard design fairly early in the concept phase. The courtyard makes sense for a number of reasons. It will function as outdoor space that has a somewhat controlled climate. It also helps control the site noise issues by adding a large daylight emitting space to the center of the home, allowing us to reduce window sizes on the exterior walls.