Ramming Earth

This D-Lab project of bringing stable rammed earth structures made without cement to Sierra Leone is starting to come together. So far, Ben (another person in my group) and I have managed to read through a few books and talked to a couple of professors. And.. the project is taking shape. I really feel like I'm putting my education to use. I guess that's part of D-Lab's purpose. Not only are they aiming to empower poor people in developing countries, but also to show MIT students that the stuff we're learning is actually useful. We're using all the principles of design and construction and it's really cool to actually understand these technical books. I understand what people mean when they talk about clays and sands, types of foundations, and other design elements. It's just all coming together. Next up, Lucy's going to try to produce some actual calculations. haha! We'll see how that works out.

Also, for this trip, we have to learn a new language. It's called Krio. It's a language that evolved from English and other West African languages. And since I'm taking linguistics, I'm slowly able to understand linguistic texts that talk about the language. It's really cool. I can't believe my classes are actually useful. Amazing...