By Douglas McMeekin | Executive Director Yachana Foundation
The mission of the Yachana Foundation is education and training. There are many ways to achieve this and one of the most successful has been the courses for men from the coastal part of Ecuador who were impacted by the earthquake a year ago. The training was in masonry. To provide the best training we needed projects for them to actually work on; directly being involved in mixing the concrete and laying the blocks. With the help from these men, funds from donors and Global Giving we were able to complete a “crazy idea” that we have been thinking about for a long time. It was to create a sundial.
But a BIG sundial! Cristobal C. is the expert on sundials in Ecuador and the histories of the ancient cultures who relied on the sun for all of their agricultural activities. Cristobal came to Yachana with his survey equipment and laid out the exact location and orientation of what we wanted to build. All of it is built out of cement and block. It proved to be a wonderful training exercise for the men since all of the dimensions had to be very exact and the construction involved all aspects from concrete floors, foundations, analysis of the soil and the wall out of block. The sundial is 4.80 meters wide (15 feet), the floor is 6 meters long (19 feet) and the wall is 3 meters high (10 feet). There is a pipe that extends horizontally for 3 meters at the top of the wall on each side that is what actually casts the shadow on the various lines to determine time or month. It has to all be mathematically exact and oriented east/west perfectly to get the shadow to be over the equinox line on the specific dates.
In the first picture was taken 20 days after the equinox, you can see the pipe extending and the shadow on the wall. In the second picture, taken on March 20th, you will see how the shadow is exactly over the vertical line we painted in the middle of the wall and floor to indicate the equinox.
It is from the funds that we have recieved via Global Giving and concerned donators that we we able to achieve this structure and share it with you. Thank you for your contributions and support.
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