The first bricks laid!

Thanks to Don Rodrigo´s keen eye, we were able to avoid serious long term issues and so we figured he´d earned the contract.  Besides he seems really nice and the labourers are the son, nephew and brother of Nata, who we´ve known pretty much since we arrived in Popayan. We know the family fairly well and it´s nice to support them too.

We discussed some ideas with Don Rodrigo right from the start, letting him know about our plans for rainwater harvesting, solar pannels and general low impact living, he seemed to be behind the idea 100%. He even suggested some ideas about reed filter systems for sewage and solar water pumps for getting water up to the veggie plot from the little stream in the forest. Great to meet someone with the know-how needed to put in place the ideas that we have but have no idea where to start!

The first thing was to build a hut to store the materials and to buy the bulk of the bricks, supports and cement to get the foundations started. As I mentioned before, nothing in Colombia is ever done with much urgency. We are now three weeks in to the building part (about 5 months in to the whole process) and apart from a lot of measuring, a few holes, a few supports in iron and cement and about a meter of bricks laid, we´re getting a little bit impatient to see progress!