Hopefully you have been able to follow our progress over the past year and if not, take a few minutes to look through the pictures and re-live the process. I would like to say a special thank you to those who have given financially. Yabus has already changed as EVERY day people bring their produce to market, children go to school, and the clinic sees patients from both sides of the river because of this bridge. Thank you.
-Eli Fader

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

THE ROCK

We have been struggling with the removal of a large rock, perhaps boulder might be a better description, actually. It is granite so our hammers and picks are basically useless. One older man on our crew said that he had heard of a way to break up this stone. Here is the recipe: Pour diesel on the stone, pile sticks and logs on the stone, light a large bon-fire on the stone, clean the stone off and sprinkle salt on the stone. Then, he says, the rock will break when we hit it with the hammer. Enjoy the pictures of our adventure.

Our rock:

Pouring Diesel on the rock:

Collecting wood to burn:

Piling wood on the rock:

Setting fire to our rock:

The results: A thin layer (about 3/4 inch thick) cracked off the top of the entire rock. However, we need to remove 2 meters so we are still looking for ideas.

3 comments:

Mark and Hannah said...

use explosives

Diana said...

Wow, I'll be praying for a solution. I love the pictures of your process!

Unknown said...

The way to break the rock is to drill a series of small holes 1 -1/2inch diameter in the rock in a line. pound a piece of dry wood into the rock and add water the expansion of the wood will crack the rock.