By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
When I first bought the land, just under half an acre, in Pyin Oo Lwin in 2013, little did I imagine that it would become the headquarters of an expanded Solar Roots enterprise. My original goal was to have a simple pied-a-terre, where I could rest up before going out on another training trip to a remote village. But since my wife, Thida Win, joined me in this work, it has become obvious that we needed a center from where we could give trainings and develop our agricultural program.
When first beginning the design, I thought that a large, open workshop space would be sufficient, but soon my ambitions took flight and we eventually settled on a 24ft by 40ft building, including a basement! The upper floor contains the desired open workshop/training space, and also four, 10ft by 10ft rooms, two of which will be bedrooms for guests or interns, one will be for the guardian and one is my tool storage room. Downstairs, we have two large storage/project rooms, one of which is dedicated to my vermiculture project.
Key to the successful completion of our building, was the selection of a local mason of vast experience and dedication to precision. He is a rarity in Myanmar, where much construction is done with a “well, that’s close enough” attitude. The tools and techniques are rudimentary and improvisational, by Western standards. Our entire building was erected without the aid of a laser level, a spirit level or even a ladder! A water level was used for all height measurements and bamboo scaffolding was quickly put up wherever needed. I won’t list all the OSHA violations observed on the job site, suffice it to say that chainsaw guy was wearing flip flops and the top welder was the guy with the sunglasses!
But, we are delighted with the results. We now have a very large practical building where we can house guests and trainees, hold trainings and community meetings and store large amounts of tools and materials. We have already hosted a meeting of our Natural Grower’s group, welcomed a group of 42 agricultural students for a day visit and next month, we will have 2 or 3 interns for a week-long homestay. The Center is up and running!
Many of my friends and associates here in the renewable energy and organic farming world are also great proponents of Natural Building, that is, building with natural materials, such as clay, bamboo, wood and thatch for roofing. Although I am interested in these techniques and I believe they are very appropriate for small dwellings, I decided to use conventional materials, such as fired brick, steel I-beams, concrete and metal roofing for our center. One of my main design parameters was that the finished building should be very low maintenance, as the tropical climate and local insect population wreak havoc with organic-based materials. I have included here several photos of the construction process, as I will be posting photos of the finished center in future GlobalGiving reports.
Funding projects like this can always be a little tricky, as funders are justifiably nervous about committing resources to a bricks and mortar project in a country that may have a poor record of political stability. For this reason, I funded the entire cost of the training center from my own resources. No Solar Roots funds were spent in the building of the structure. However, now we have a headquarters for our expanded programs in Solar, Regenerative Agriculture, Biochar etc, we still need funds to stock the center with tools and cover the running costs. If you are inspired by our training center and you would like to help us use it to its full potential, please consider a further donation to Solar Roots. A small recurring monthly donation really helps us cover regular expenses and extend our trainings to more and more people.
Thank you for your generous donation and wishing you well,
Bruce
By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
By Bruce Gardiner | Project Director
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