On my first afternoon working on the building site, I got a good notion of what my work would be here : sitting on the ground out of the future second bottle wall, next to the almost finished first bottle wall of the building, I received the wire someone gives me through the chicken wire and I give it back one bottle later so he can tie it up on his side of the wall and give it back to me. I say someone because even on that very first day I managed to have 3 different workers at the other end of the wire.

One afternoon, 2 rows of bottles, 4 workers. Hum… with 7 more walls to build up and 10 to 12 rows per wall plus the second layer of chicken wire, plus the cement: this project is going to take a looong time.

But my first day was special, the boss wasn’t there. No one on the site was able to speak even a little English and the guy I was supposed to work with was drunk and complaining all the time, so much that I had to call the boss so he could complain to him, so much that the boys from the house next door came to work with me while he was complaining.

Anyway, that was the day I tied up my first row of bottles.

Then, the boss came back and we became more efficient: Janet and Nalise said they wanted to help too, so at the best hours on the building site, we were 4 tying up bottles plus one or two putting the cement on what was already up or preparing the shape of the next wall (wood + chicken wire).

I started on the receiving end of the wall as I describe earlier, but with the arrival of the other girls, I was “upgraded” to the tie up/twist side. The side where you have to manage 4 wires at once (oulala), the side where you manage the wire and bottles supply, the side where you take care of the uprightness of the bottles, the side where you have to think and use a little more muscles.

But, still, the men workers wouldn’t let us hammer the nails alone, the ones that attach the first end of the wire to the wood shape: each time we were about to end up a row of bottle, they would prepare the 2 nails and wires for the beginning of the next line.

Until one day we finished quickly enough to try and do it ourselves and do it well enough. Now they don’t need to interrupt their other tasks for us anymore. Little victory, big pride!

Day after day, each one of us learns how to do more, how to be more useful to the building site. Day after day, we see the site going from one small wall to 5 walls almost full of bottles.

Why almost?

Because we were short on recycled bottles. We had become too efficient : 8 rows in one day.

So I started helping to do other tasks like preparing the chicken wire (2 weeks later, I can steel feel the chicken wire hurting my fingers).

And then we stopped to look at the guys cementing the inside off the walls we had already finished. It’s a mixture of pride, nostalgia and sadness.

Proud to see it becoming a true finished wall. A wall that looks like any other.

Nostalgic of the fun we had doing this row, the reflection we had finishing this wall and… oh do you remember, here is when we were working in staggered rows, and there when I was drinking my coconut!

Sadness to think nobody will see the colorful inside of those walls, we will be the only one to have seen it. Well, we the workers, plus the dozens of people who came by while we were working to see and even touch it and say “but why don’t you just use bricks?”.

I must say that one of my biggest regrets is not being able to stay here until it’s finished. But I know I did my best while I was there.