Mud is Luxurious!

The Mud Bathroom is almost up and ready for use! Here´s a little pictorial of our interns, some returning interns, friends, and us putting up the adobe walls, roofing, and plastering:

Installing the water pipes for the wood-fired hot water heater.

Mud facials anyone?

You might recognize these returning mate addicts...

The wild women interns!

The roof goes on. The roofing is of the same recycled material that we used for the mud cottage-- tetra pak and plastic bottles. Excellent insulation and lovely to look at too.
On to plastering...
More pictures to come... the finishing touches are in the works!

In between building, we find time to make good things-- like soap!


Here we are prepping the paint for the inside of the other bathroom (the community shower house). The painting is the first picture on this blog entry. We mixed up lime putty with iron oxide and linseed oil, then frescoed on some color.
The garden is sprouting up too, and we are working on replanting. We've been waiting out the rain for the last couple of days to add some more seeds.

Bonus photo: There was a costume double-birthday party not too long ago. Needless to say, we got creative and colorful...

Tiny Flowers and Muddy Feet

Ah, sweet fall is here, and the tiny flowers around us are poking out in sighing relief from the summer heat.

Still in the Internship, and the adobe bathroom is coming along in between fall rain showers. Makes for good mud stomping!

Coming up...Perfect corners!
Annie, the baker and brick-layer extraordinaire!
The tub space is prepared and leveled-- the most detailed work of the whole building.

A butterfly testing out the new window. (Photos to come in next entry...)

The garden.... well, we got the earth super boosted with compost and love, planted loads of seeds, watered with river water every evening, then wouldn't you know it-- the storm clouds burst and rained forth liters and buckets and barrels and more! Many of our freshly planted seeds washed away, and some little few survived. And so we continue to be a center for learning and experimentation in an unforgiving and unpredictable climate. So, we will plant again...

This is the okra, still going strong. Some other survivors are the radishes, turnips, cilantro, garlic, elephant garlic, and chard. Not too bad, just a starting point to start again!

And of course, the kicthen is the center of life at Mama Roja. The bread and baking delights just keep getting better and better!

Our sweet butterfly friends, still kissing our sweaty foreheads and floating through the kitchen.