A truck was dispatched to Kandale last Saturday from Kikwit. It was loaded with 300 bags of cement, roughly 7 1/2 tons, along with other materials. While the journey from Kinshasa is long and arduous, the trip down to Kandale has formidable challenges. There are small windows of time that lessen the difficulties, but the rainy season isn’t one of them. It had rained hard the previous week and the road down the Kwilu River valley was heavily eroded and complicated by slippery mud. Drivers are continually navigating new paths down, but there is no avoiding the steep muddy ravine. The team arrived at the bridge in the evening but there were several trucks still negotiating the difficult ascent on the other side with limited success. They were given approval at the bridge checkpoint to spend the night and they started out fresh in the morning.
They reached Gungu, a few miles away, after several hours of digging, backtracking, and slogging through the heavily rutted road. With the heat of the day underway, they decided to postpone the final leg to Kandale until the early morning. The road from Gungu to Kandale is primarily sand but the rain makes the sand heavy and the wheels of the passing trucks tend to burrow down into the ruts for traction and make the roads even deeper. The truck arrived on Monday the following day to a joyous crowd. The local crew had been mobilized days earlier to expect the truck on Saturday, and now that it had arrived. The crew made quick work unloading the cement.
Prior to the trucks arrival the congregation spent the day preparing the road down to the Kwilu, (a different part from Gungu), to enable the truck to drive the five miles down and collect the large rocks that had been piled up. It will require several trips to retrieve all the rocks that have been assembled. Once the rocks are unloaded in Kandale, the truck will return to Kikwit and retrieve the remaining materials needed to continue work on the roof of the first block of classes and the foundation of the second block. These materials include lumber, rebar, and corrugated tin for the roof. When the truck returns for a second time it will again be repurposed to collect more stones and clean sand that is in abundance at the river.
The chain of construction wakes up long before the architect and the engineer arrive in March. Cement, rocks and sand are the primary components in the laying the foundations for the classrooms, but cement is also a key element for making bricks. Doka has taken time off from the grinders to prepare the brickmaking machine in anticipation of making bricks for future blocks. Fresh bricks may need a few weeks to dry before they are ready. They need to be kept in the shade, turned and watered daily until cured so that they are suitable for construction. The team will start making bricks on Monday and when Frederick and Olivier arrive they will have an ample source of bricks to begin work on the second block. In addition to making the bricks, several other individuals have been busy breaking the large rocks into smaller rocks to create concrete for the support columns and roof supports. Children have been organized to scavenge for small rocks, which will be included with the other gravel.
It can’t be over-stressed that there are many working parts that come into play for these projects to successfully move forward; from the organizers in the US, to the contributions from our donors, the many interactions with the dealers of construction materials in the Congo, the truck companies, and the hundreds of individuals organized on the ground collecting and processing all the materials by hand. And with every success it becomes increasingly more efficient and effective as the next project begins. A truck is a beautiful thing. It brings a promise for the future and keeps communities connected.
