FASE Agritech Volunteering- Week 2
Week 2 and the deeper we immerse ourselves into the project the more absorbing it gets. From seeing early progress onsite, having discussions with a local contractor and seeing images shared by the Green Shoots team of bamboo screens being trialed in London – it’s exciting to think of what the Agri-Tech Centre can be.
We kicked off our second week in Samrong, meeting with Victor, an Engineer from France who has been working for a year at a local school developed and run by Enfants du Mekong (EDM). We had an interesting catch up, and took away some learnings on contractor relations, build process, site landscaping and even student services that should come in handy.
We haven’t yet explored the surrounds of Samrong as much as we’d have liked but over the weekend, Ratana (Executive Director) and his friend (Sovann from the Youth Training Centre) were kind enough to take us out to the Monks Community Forest, a beautiful, largely untouched, natural space spanning over 18,000 hectares.
There we had the privilege of meeting the venerable Bun Saluth, monk and pioneer of the Buddhist environmental movement. He taught us about some of the local flora, whilst describing how he came to safeguard the forest from illegal loggers and poachers that try to trap wild animals. Bun Saluth has been selflessly living in the forest and risking his own well-being in commitment to this cause since 2002.
Whilst in the monk forest, we were interested to explore sustainable options for sourcing timber and bamboo for the Agri-Tech Centre. A key learning was being shown the sap that can be harvested from the trunk of the ‘trach’ tree. This is known for being used to treat bamboo against wood eating insects, which maybe a suitable approach for the Centre.
In order to assist the CIDO team visualise how the future Centre would sit on its vegetated site, our next task was to set out the proposed buildings based on a considered site plan which was prepared by SAWA Architecture in consultation with the CIDO team on an earlier visit. On Monday, we shared a valuable and entertaining morning as a team completing this task followed by a discussion about the proposed building footprints and their relationship to existing site conditions.
To get a true sense of the future Centre, we undertook some preliminary clearing of vegetation to allow the marking out of buildings. First trees and plants that were to remain or be replanted, were carefully marked, and then the tractor (plus Poeuch the human-wrecking ball!) was dispatched. The cleared leaves and branches were kept to form the beginnings of the site compost. Our efforts were sweetened by the discovery of a small beehive that we were able to snack on!
Another win has been the successful second round of compression testing on the earth blocks. All credit to previous vollies Tom and Sakshi (see previous blogs for their detailed accounts of the earth block production and initial compression testing). All three block compositions passed the 2mpa and 4mpa compression test. Later this week, we plan to continue to execute Tom and Sakshi’s testing plan by doing a final wet compression test (after soaking one of each brick for 15 hours) and samples will also be sent off to a lab in Phnom Penh.
The earth blocks will be used for both solid and patterned, permeable walls. We had a bit of fun testing potential pattern options for the permeable screen walls. It is exciting to think how the earth dug from the site will become beautiful crafted walls. It’s excavation will result in a pond that will sustain the Centres functions.
Following last weeks workshop to determine the responsibilities required for the Centre’s operation, we spent time planning out how to best attribute those tasks into distinct roles. This has now enabled Position Descriptions to be pulled into final drafts for the team for once the Centre kicks into action.
As a side venture we have jumped (admittedly hesitantly at first given our lack of education experience) into teaching an English class at a local school most evenings. It is an hour of our day we have really warmed to as we get a real kick out of the students enthusiasm and seeing their progress. We think the class may have become more confident/happy with us too (although the photo doesn’t speak to that!) judged based on the increased decibels that words are spelt and songs are sung. Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes and the Hokey Pokey have been real hits.
Until next week…
Any contribution to help fund the centre is welcomed here: https://mydonate.bt.com/events/greenshoots10nov
Or if a stint in Samrong sounds appealing, find out more here: volunteer@greenshootsfoundation.org
