Crafting Bricks; Crafting Community

The process of making bricks is fairly simple, but involves many hands and lots of hard work. Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs) are comprised of soil, sand, just a tiny amount of cement to act as a binding agent, and a bit of water to help it all set correctly. The ratios of soil, sand, cement, and water all need to be properly measured and mixed thoroughly.

Once the ingredients have been mixed into what basically looks like one big pile of dirt, large scoops are taken from the pile and delivered into the brick press. The press is locked down, and the pulling begins. Every little particle of "dirt" gets compressed by one or two people manually pulling down on a lever until the press releases and the brick is formed.

From there it has several weeks of curing to go through, and eventually it will get used for building. In the case I'm familiar with, these bricks will be used to rebuild one of the two schools in Takure, a village in Nepal in which I lived for three months while working with Conscious Impact.

During my time there, I had the opportunity to visit another school rebuild project in a different village. There, a group of volunteers were building using earth bags. The design was excellent, the work rewarding, and the village beautiful. I felt inspired by the work they were doing and even a little jealous because they lived and worked at the school site--which meant that they had very frequent interaction with the villagers--and their building method seemed so fast.

Pressing CSEBs and then building with them is decidedly not fast. Mixing the batches and pulling the individual bricks is exhausting. The bricks take a long time to cure before they can be used. Building with the bricks is a slow and arduous process all on its own. Compared to the earth bags, our project suddenly seemed really inefficient. But this initial perception eventually led to my understanding of the difference between the purposes of our project and others like the one I visited.

The process of building with CSEBs may not be very fast, but neither is the process of recovering after a disaster. There are hundreds of aid and non-profit organizations currently working in Nepal, and for many, it's effective to go in to a village to rebuild a structure and leave once it's done and have that be enough. But in a village like Takure, where all but one out of 261 homes were destroyed, it's clear that something more is needed.

We are there not only to rebuild the structures they lost, but to empower and support the community throughout the process of recovering and rebuilding. Because of that, each brick is a symbol of resilience and a willingness to grow. They each represent a commitment to supporting friends--community--as they continue to move forward.

So everyday (except Saturday, of course) at the Takure Training and Production Center, bricks get made. Conscious Impact volunteers work with a team of Nepali locals to mix batches of soil, sand, and cement and press them into bricks. A unique mishmash of international pop music plays as everyone mixes, shovels, and pulls; sweats, dances, and sings; shares laughter, exhaustion, and energy; and crafts CSEBs one by one.

The bricks are the building blocks, but the process of making them is the foundation of our relationship with the community and the basis of many of the other projects that we take on in the holistic progression of rebuilding. A school program and agricultural center were developed in collaboration with locals, and volunteers are constantly experimenting and seeking out sustainable building methods that villagers might be able to use for their homes. In January we built a large greenhouse structure for the community to house seedlings and saplings for their crops. Not too long after I came back to the US, the team started construction at the first school.

There are clearly many aspects of rebuilding a sense of home and in running an organization that is able to support the work that needs to be done. Admittedly I was often drawn towards participating in many of the other projects instead of spending all of my time at the Training Center. So my hands were not directly involved in the crafting of every single brick, but I feel that my heart was and still is. 

Just a few hours ago, the team over in Takure completed a 24 hour Brick-a-thon to finish pressing all of the bricks necessary for the construction of the first school. Watching the video updates as they worked through the night and pressed the final brick, I felt so proud of all that has been accomplished and grateful to know that I have been a part of that process.

However, it feels strange to be back in my hometown, in the house where I grew up, inside the room I once shared with my sister, sitting in the chair I inherited from my grandfather. I'm currently surrounded by the familiarity of things that have, for the most part, remained intact throughout my life without my ever having to really question whether or not that was a guarantee.

To say that this life is different from my life in Takure would be an understatement. Yet they both bring feelings of familiarity and comfort. Now I feel like I am living between two worlds: one that I have called "home" for many years but in which I have never been sure of my place, and one in which I was a stranger but was welcomed in crafting a new sense of community.

There is still so much work to be done, and the reality is that I will not be there for the majority of it. But I cannot deny that I will always feel connected to Takure. Years from now, when the bricks have been set in their places with mortar, people have rebuilt their homes, and the kids are in class in their beautiful schools, my heart and the hearts of all the other Conscious Impact volunteers will still be there serving, learning, growing, and creating something wonderful together.

I am currently back in the United States, but have plans to go back to Nepal and continue working with Conscious Impact this fall. If you would like to support Conscious Impact, donations are always accepted, and all are welcome to join the work in Takure. There are multiple options for short and long term volunteering. Check out their website, and feel free to ask me any questions through the form on the sidebar of this page!