Paul Roberge documents the long journey, supported by so many SD nationals and donors, to buy, transport and put into operation a brick-making machine for SD Congo that will help sustain the organisation and provide low-cost, high quality building materials for SD schools, clinics and hospitals in a country in desperate need of good infrastructure.
We began with the journey to give our brothers and sisters the tools that can make a difference in their work. Call it ‘building capacity’.
Firstly, I would like to thank Hamida and all the members that are helping this vision move forward. This includes SDs Canada, Britain, France, Norway, Netherlands and all the people that have supported the building up of SD Congo. Our Subud brothers and sisters of the DRC face challenges every day. A small thing, such as getting a brick machine through customs, can produce challenges and obstacles that they have to face on a daily basis. It has taken many attempts to get the machine out of customs. Sometimes half a day, sometimes a whole day, is needed to physically go down to the customs office and to the different government authorities. This ritual has been ongoing for at least 6 months. The cost to mobilize the people, pay for gas, and all communication (phone, email) far outweigh the cost of the machine. On top of this, the authorities do not agree so easily with our requests.
After more or less a year of working on this, the window of opportunity has opened up and we have been able to raise another 6000 USD to pay to get the machine out of customs. Important to note that SD Congo is an NGO and should be exempt from all taxes and duties. Finally, the machine is ready to come out. This is a small miracle. The machine and all its parts are transported to the Subud house in Kinshasa. We assemble it and give it a trial run. This phase has to be done in order to be sure that all the parts are fully functional before we move the whole installation to Kingantoko.
Here in the DRC, resources and skilled labor are not readily available. It is now Monday. Papy Kabondo and I are on our way to Kingantoko to find the right location for the installation of the container that will house the brick-making machine, so we can prepare and level the land to make it ready to receive the equipment.
A well-deserved break
Papy knows a lot of people in this area and is able to get some workers with equipment to do the prep work. Keep in mind, it has taken us 6 hours to get to the site and 3 hours to make the base and level the ground to accommodate the new installation. Everything is done manually, from the transportation of the stone, to the excavation and leveling of the ground, getting water etc… Meanwhile, back at the Subud house, we assess the work that is needed and ask for prices to make sure that we can get the money to complete the assembly. It took 2 days to get all the electrical supplies and welding equipment onto the site and to make sure the money is given to the tradespeople so they can buy the materials. We are now ready to start the work.
When I get to the Subud house everybody is sitting down waiting for the power to be hooked up so they can start the welding. But there is no power in the whole neighbourhood! So for 2 days we wait for the electrical power to come back. We familiarize ourselves with all the parts and cut all the steel by hand. The steel is more than 6mm thick so it takes the whole day to cut these pieces.
Wow! It is now Thursday, and they are able to start the generator and make the connection from the main distribution panel to the brick machine and the pan mixer. For some reason the brick machine was not working and we had to leave to go to Kwilu Ngongo for our site meeting….We got back to Kinshasa at 11 pm on Friday night. On Saturday morning I go to the Subud house to find out what was happening. To my amazement, the motor for the pan mixer is installed but the pulley has broken, even though it was working before. We try to get the brick hydraulic pump to work. The pump turns, but we are not able to get enough compression. We try to reverse the motor to turn the other way, but it still does not work. After 1.5 hours of going back and forth we try to find someone that is familiar with hydraulic pumps and gear systems. Two hours later the hydraulic pump is finally working. At 4 pm I have to get ready to leave but we go through all the steps of mixing everything together and viola – the first of the hundreds of thousands of bricks that SD Congo will use to make better lives for the people of the DRC. We should all feel very proud of ourselves and the SD Congo team!
Paul Roberge, Construction Supervisor for SDIA and SD Canada