The Concrete Boat

By way of introduction, one of the things that we want to do as we church plant amongst the Agta is find ways to improve their standard of living. Currently, many of them spend the entirety of each day in the pursuit of food and water for that day. Because of this, it is difficult for them to take time to attend a Bible study, not to mention the possibility of being trained to go tell others the Good News at some point in the future. So obviously, some livelihood training projects are a necessity as we work with the Agta if we are going to truly equip them to plant churches.

Steve had heard that it was possible to make boats out of concrete - a special mix of concrete and very fine sand called ferro cement. After doing some research (much of it in Tim See's tech tips book - thanks, Tim!), Steve decided to give it a try as a livelihood project in the village of Ipil (located on a small lake). It was cool that his dad was here to help with it.

I am going to try to give you a running account of the process as they did. However, since I was not there for much of it and am not as familiar with the inner workings, don't try to do this yourself off what I say here please! :) (Steve would be glad to walk you through it if you have a need for something like this.)

Before they showed up the 1st day, Steve hired a guy to get the sand. To do this, he had to take his boat out into the lake and dive down to the bottom, bringing up buckets of it at a time. Like I said before, the sand for the cement had to extremely fine. So then whatever he brought up had to be sifted down to the only the finest particles. Here they are sifting it with window screen.

It was very important that the sand be extremely clean so they spent a lot of time cleaning it. You may be wondering who these guys are who are helping. They are not being paid - they were just so excited about the idea that they asked to help so they could learn how. There was usually a dozen guys helping at any given time. Their enthusiasm was amazing. This project has the potential to change their lives drastically. The supply of trees large enough to make wooden boats has dwindled to make them no longer affordable. If they had a boat, their opportunities for work (either fishing in the lake or working on the other side in town) would be endless. So they are pretty excited. After they sifted it and cleaned it, they had to remove the excess water. They did this by piling it up and letting the water run off down the slope.
After they prepared the sand, they began to prepare the other boat they would use as a form for the new one. The chieftain's son volunteered his 30 foot boat to be used as a form. First they covered it with plastic then chicken wire.
Then they started spreading the concrete on. This pic is great because you can see them mixing the concrete off to the left, spreading it on, and you can also see the material they will put over the top to keep the concrete damp so it can cure properly. This gives you a closer-up shot of the layers and the spreading process. It started raining when they were ready to do the 2nd coat of concrete. They wanted to keep the concrete damp, but it couldn't be drenched so they rigged these tarps to keep it dry enough to keep working.
At this point, Steve and his dad took off for the week. After a few days to allow it to harden slightly, the guys in the village submerged the boat to allow it to cure underwater. A few days later, it was time to retrieve the form - the other boat (he understandably was a little anxious to get his boat back!)
They located it underwater and worked to bring it to the surface and bail it out.
Then they worked to separate the 2 boats (if they couldn't, this guy now had a concrete-reinforced wooden boat!) Once they were able to get a crack between the 2, they were able to pour water in between to separate them. Finally the concrete boat separated and sank right to the bottom - which is exactly what you would expect of concrete of course. To be honest, we all spent some anxious moments wondering if this idea would really fly - or in this case float - or not. Steve warned them repeatedly that he had never tried this before, only read about it, so he wasn't sure how it would work. However, with how excited they all were and how much work they had put in, we couldn't bear the thought of it not working.
After they separated the 2 boats, the men raised the concrete one up again and began bailing it out (for no reason other than to see if it floats). Check out their excitement - particularly the 3 guys to the left of Steve - when they saw it floating.

Here are the proud men and their new concrete boat!
Just a little excited...
It is not quite finished (still needs to cure underwater a few more weeks, the sides need to be finished & reinforced, and it lists slightly to 1 side so that needs to be fixed with some more concrete), but the bulk of the work is done now. I am hoping to get a pic of John and Sandi IN the boat before they leave, and I will add that when I get it.


Ok, all you skeptics out there - do you believe us now that we made a boat out of concrete? :)