Page 2 | August 2003 | Vol 30  No 8 | Index

Building Adobe Chapels
By Fr. Timothy Conlan, O.P.
Ravinal, Guatemala

CONTINUED
In one community they were celebrating their Masses and weekly biblical reflection in the classrooms of the school, which was okay because the people are in charge of the school.

In the other community there was a little adobe building where they lit candles, put the holy cross and where the priest stood to celebrate Mass while the people gathered in front under tarps.  These were the two places where I decided to build chapels.

But I did not want to build with cement block (which is a symbol of the large institutions that have engineers and people who get big salaries), but rather build in adobe and let the people put in their effort so that in the end each one could say he or she built the chapel.

However, I did get a local engineer to donate his time to give us a design for a chapel that used a cement foundation with iron rods.  The idea was to make a chapel that has all the coolness of adobe, but the strength of cement and iron, so that it would be safe during earthquakes.  Also I wanted to save the larger trees, so I asked for a roof of metal beams.  So it will be an all-adobe chapel but with a strong structure.

The engineer was an expert in adobe, so we tested the adobe to be sure it was of a very good quality.  The people said they knew what was good adobe, but since I knew nothing about adobe and the young technical people that I hired knew very little, we took a while to learn and test the adobe.  Our 15-inch square adobes, which are 3.5 inches thick, supported the weight of 900 lbs., which is quite good. 

I hired a bricklayer who earns his living making adobes.  We began to organize production, but not everyone in the communities was convinced about the need to build in adobe. Some were accustomed to the government and other groups building in cement block, and they didn’t like the idea of a lot more work.  But they understood that it was the only way to get a chapel, because they had tried other means to raise or get money and were unsuccessful.  Various groups are keen to give aid for all kinds of causes, but not necessarily so when the Church wants to build chapels. It was amazing to see how much work was involved in making adobes.  Not all earth is really good for adobes, so in one community they had to carry the earth down about 100 yards in 100- to 150-lb. sacks on their backs.  It was a huge undertaking to make 4000 large adobes (that weigh over 35 lbs. each) and 4000 small bricks.  But they got organized.   In one community only ten men were working for four months solid: one month on adobes and three months to dig and pour foundations and erect walls.

In the other community the women played a big part to dig and carry sand and adobes.  There, over 55 people were on lists to work one or two days a week.

The women here mostly go barefoot or wear little plastic shoes that are paper-thin.  The women are very shy and giggle amongst themselves, but they carry over 30 lbs. of sand in plastic bowls on their heads for over one half mile.  I estimate that they brought over 25 pickups of sand, along with the help of the men who carry 100-lb. sacks on mules.

It is in these villages that we are helping the young people to study in a high school that uses videotapes and is part of a government program.  The Latin American Community Assistance Foundation has offered scholarships to the 78 high school students in these communities, if they maintain a B grade average.  We are giving those who succeed $12.00 U.S. a month for the 20 days of study so it is a little more than 50 cents a day, but that represents the wage of a peasant for five days.  It is a big help to the families here and the results are that few drop out and they are advancing in their studies much more rapidly with this incentive. We hope to produce some teachers, and maybe even a doctor, lawyer, priest, sister, or just better educated parents to help their people.  These people could not afford to send their children to study in the town (where there are many bad influences).   It is a much better environment and education here in the villages.

So there is a huge need here for reforestation and more education about ecology and about technical aspects of farming organically; but the church cannot do all that.  Our job is to give a vision of the world that includes concern for the poor and for the unity of all humankind, so that there are no more persecutions of the indigenous and everyone can respect the rights of others as well as the need to preserve the natural world for future generations as a gift from God.

Peace in the Lord,
Fr. Tim Conlan O.P.

Prayer: Triduum of Saint Martin de Porres

How can you help?
Find out how to support the Western Dominican Missions.