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In the village of Tintinto, the Gambia, Africa, an eco-buildingproject is taking place.
An A-list team of builders and friends entered an exciting adventure. Bonnie Vooijs (owner,designer) and her friends in the Gambia are in on the project of building a house in ecostyle made out of car tires. Gambia's very own videoproducer Isaac Turay will capture the process on video.These clips, when ready, will be added to the website.
The actual build started in August 2011, after weeks of preparing, thinking and debating technical (im-)possibilities and designs. We are starting with an 8 x10 m U-shaped building. In the next few years we'll work on some more. We hope you enjoy our stories which will be updated frequently! 
In the village of Tintinto, the Gambia, Africa, an eco-buildingproject is taking place.
An A-list team of builders and friends entered an exciting adventure. Bonnie Vooijs (owner,designer) and her friends in the Gambia are in on the project of building a house in ecostyle made out of car tires. Gambia's very own videoproducer Isaac Turay will capture the process on video.These clips, when ready, will be added to the website.
The actual build started in August 2011, after weeks of preparing, thinking and debating technical (im-)possibilities and designs. We are starting with an 8 x10 m U-shaped building. In the next few years we'll work on some more. We hope you enjoy our stories which will be updated frequently!
the way to the top
The next batch of grass bundles will be transported again from the other side of the river up to Tintinto. Hopefully we can capture it on video this time to show some of Gambia's beautiful scenery.I'll keep you posted..
More
We need more grass. As it shows here, 400 bundles were not enough to cover it all the way to the top.
Thanks to my friend Ingrid, who just left for the Gambia, we can continue building fast. Ingrid, heb een heel fijne vakantie en dankjewel! 
Veranda
The roof will cover the house and the veranda. First, those nasty roots have to be removed again, then, it will be concreted, so this will be a nice, shady place to relax.
Earth Day
Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. I had to Google it, I'm ashamed to say: It's a day to hold still for just a while and think about your consumer behaviour and how it effects the planet. Luckily it's a Sunday and the shops are closed in Nederland, so little chance of uncarefully-thought-through purchases.I guess I'm doing pretty well: I recycle paper and glass at home, sometimes buy eco-friendly fashion , bought an A label car this year that produces little Co2, I'm building a house out of used car tires in the Gambia and , here in NL, I'm working more and more at home. Although I love to drive, I ride my bike and walk more often than I used to. And Groningen, my home town, is a real bike-friendly city. I eat little meat and I love organic food, but that's easy, because it just tastes a lot better. Pfeww.. I guess I'm in the clear.Then, I probably destroy all those little positive effects on the planet by flying back and forth to the Gambia on a regular basis.
week of April 20th: covering the roof
And here it goes; up the roof! And everybody's helping out...Thanks to Isaac for taking the pictures, there are so many and they're all great. Hard to choose which ones to post on the blog! I guess I'll better make another photo album. Soon.
The grass is here
Here a couple of the 400 bundles of grass for the roof. Beautiful golden grass transported all the way from the north bank of the river the Gambia
Outside space
Service stations are often just outside, in the shade, under a tree.Like this one. That's where we found most of our tires. While we collected them ,we were creating a lot of extra car repair space at the same time! And you see: even numberplates are painted on cars. No problem.
Transport in the Gambia
No Yellow Pages, no unlimited access to the internet on your smart phone, so how to find transport for building materials in the Gambia? Here, you've got to know people. Or simply just drive next to a truck and ask it to get to the side of the road, because you want to ask them something. And they will.Stored the name and number under " Alhagie Sandguy" in my phone, and the following week these men transported sand to the land. Many people just paint their phone numbers on their trucks and businesses. In case the people are not there, just call them. Who needs the internet anyway?
Finished
Last picture, today, March 28th: the basic well is finished. Next stage: the roofgrass is on its way!
View from the top
On top of the power problem, there's a computer virus going around in the Gambia: something that makes shortcuts out of folders, so you can't open them, although everything is still inside. I lost all my Star Trek series on a hard disc that way once.. It's just cruel! My contact in the Gambia has tried to send pictures and movie clips for two hours yesterday and nothing came through beacuse of this nasty infection. Hope to post something new soon.In the meantime: I bet this one is not aware of anything like these petty people problems: it just sits there and overlooks everything calmly. Like I wish I could right now....
Diggin' Tintinto
Waiting for some new pictures that will show what the well looks like now it's finished. The problem seems to be the "light": power going on and off in the country, so no sending pictures via computers... To kill some time I've made a little clip out of the files I already have: recent pictures and some movie clips. Want to have a look? Click on "Diggin' Tintinto" in the menu (and let me know what you think?) 
New pics
March 7th '12: Things in the Gambia go s l o w l y. , but the concreting of the well will be finished soon, now. I've uploaded a little movie clip and will upload more building pics. Have a look at the video page; it explains why things take longer, sometimes much longer...
Rare species: the "well bird"
A bird flew into the well and died. The workers had to clear the well from any danger of contamination of the water. Buckets and buckets of water have been poured over the land until the water was clear again.. The plants and trees don't complain, I guess...Poor bird.
Mama Africa
This is my friend Adama, or "Mama Africa". She owns a cigarette shop on the Senegambia strip and, amongst many other things, supports the handicapped in the Gambia. Her shop, to me, is the heart of Senegambia and it's amazing how many people know her and how many people she knows. I've never seen her unfriendly or in a bad mood, she's a warm and caring personality and great fun to be around. When she heard about the rubber house, she was determined to come, visit and bless the place. My objections; the fact that is not finished yet, and that there's only a sand road to the house, didn't stop her. Wheelchair and sandy road or not, Adama will get to where she wants to be. My land and house are blessed by The Mama Africa, and that can only mean good things for the future. More pictures in the album.
And hop...
Look what I caught! No worries, only on camera... When looking at this, it's not hard to see where the African fabric designers get their inspiration from. I swear I've seen someone walk around in the Gambian streets in the same pants as this guy does in my garden... (click on the picture to enlarge) More pictures added to the album today.
Tunnelview
Febr, 20th '11: Drying in the sun again some roundshaped objects with a hole in the middle, but this time they are "tunnels" to be placed inside of the well, so it will be concreted. These tunnels are also handmade from a mold. We'll need app. 25-30 of them. They look so good, I thought to have some more made and leave them on the land, to make little ponds in them and see what habitats would grow naturally. Until I realized mosquitos like to place their eggs in still water and the Gambia has some severe types of malaria...Not a good idea 
Powered by
Since there's nothing here yet, apart from water from the well, I am going to need solar power for electricity or "light" as they call power here. The workers who are digging and cementing the well and installing the pump, were far ahead of me. Their little solar panel (on the left) charges their phones while they are working. Btw: I am actually in this picture myself. Also powered by the sun!
Trees
My neighbour Musa, a beekeeper, knows a lot about nature. Walking throuh the garden, he shows me what grows here and what its nutritional and medicinal values are. This tree is a Dembo Tree. "If you cut the bark and cook it in some water, it is a cure for diarrhea", he says. I am also very fortunate to have a Santang Tree. It was there all along! Its sap gives "churail", the best natural incense, to my opinion. It smells wonderfull and is used for special times, mainly in bedrooms.... Anybody know how to spell "churail", btw? Google says this spelling means "female ghost, spirit, jinn", a very scary one with red eyes...I wonder if it has anything to do with it?
Celebrity in the house
The house isn't finished yet, and already a national celebrity visited it! Meet Omar Mendy. Omar's band "Omar Mendy and the Yaagon Band" has a few clips on Youtube and his music videos are often shown at GRTS: Gambian tv . One I like in particular, is "Sunyaroke". The clip makes me happy instantly and the dancing is just amazing! Here it is on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnnZaEkRZdM&feature=related I'm very happy that Omar is my friend. He's a nice, wise, creative man and a warm personality. He gave me some valuable ideas on the design of the rest of the building.
Jan. 24th 2012: The video is ready!
We proudly present: "Bonnie's Rubber House" THE VIDEO!: take a look at the videopage (in the submenu), or click on this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESyfDbcbG8w&feature=youtu.be
Exciting: when does he hit water? Our estimation was that it would take 2 days of digging, then it became 3 days, 4 days.... and then yesterday: water! over 15 m deep!
Well, well
Jan. 12th 2012
Here, we're determining where the well 's going to be. It's amazing how Gambian's dig a well: hard work and all by hand.
Dec. 16th 2011
The house will have two double doors, one in the front, in the middle. The other one at the side, carefully designed to be placed there so at night it will be easy for the cooling breeze to find its way from the ocean straight to my bedroom.
Dec. 3rd 2011
The house will have two double doors, one in the front, in the middle, the other one at the side, carefully designed to be placed there, so at night, it will be easy for the cooling breeze to find its way from the ocean to my bedroom.
The window and door openings were made. The walls are going to be plastered, so the tires, bottles and cans will be hidden. Next step: I'm flying back to the Gambia soon to decide some things for the next stage of the build.
Heavy!
Last row is being put up to the ring beam.
A Pigmee Kingfisher up in a tree. There was a couple around in the raining season, plunging into buckets filled with water,like kingfishers do, then flying back to their same favourite spots on the branch . Yes, just like the turquoise ones, but aren't these much more colourful ? To be honest, I was never very interested in birds, until I visited the Gambia (and took my real cool camera with me). The colours, variety and sounds are amazing.
New pictures!
November 10th '11 There are some more pictures in the album...tires going up to the roof, now we're 7 rows high. We had a little adversity: the roof peak had to be made higher to get the right angle to lay the grass that will eventually cover it (see below).
Picasso
The highest point from the centre of the floor up to the top peak of the roof measures 5.46 m.
Hmm.. might leave the plastic on, it's a nice colour blue. And it almost looks like a piece of art this way, doesn't it?
In the meantime...
The avocado tree is growing and still holding up pretty good between all those tires. I'm waiting for new pictures...Well, I hardly can...
Oct. 30th 2011
Although the builders are a bunch of strong men, the tires are too heavy to lift up by people. So the next rows, all the way up to the roof, have to be put up with some help. Meet Alieu, the Ironworker from Tujereng. He already did some more work on the building and now he makes us a tire pulley .
Oct. 22th 2011
Below you can see that the walls are made out of used car tires and bottles. Building with garbage is possible! And what does "garbage" mean, anyway? In the Gambia, people are used to recycle and sell their used bottles.5 Dalasi a piece. It's normal here to buy palm oil and delicious homemade drinks and fruit juices like Baobab juice, Wonjo and Mango juice in bottles that have had other purposes before.
Finally! The stacking of the tires. It's starting to look like a wall now...
Some tires need to be cut to fit around the concrete posts, so the walls can be filled up later on with tires, mix and bottles. That cutting is a hard job and it 's all done by hand. Again, I'm very proud and lucky to have this team of builders. These guys know their jobs.
Return to Sender
Progress of the building: I hear the stacking of the tire walls has started! Pictures will follow soon.... In the meantime I got so bored that I actually voluntarily did my administration and found something neat between the paperwork:
"Return to Sender" is a brand, sold by the HEMA in the Netherlands. It was founded by Katja Schuurman and promotes fair trade and produces sustainable products. Exactly my kind of thing. Today I sent in the leaflet that was attached to this little notebook that I got on my birthday. "Return to Sender" asks their costumers what they do with their products, in order to complete the good story that RtS has started.I hope they will tell our story on their website! I told them that this notebook travels back and forth with me to the Gambia and contains sketches and calculations of the tire house building project.Here a picture of a first sketch I made of the inside of the building.
Saturday Oct. 8th
Wow. Means "Yes" in Wollof. And "Wow" in Dutch and English. With every new batch of pictures it gets better and better. Greg found some beautiful rugged posts for the roof to land on. The frame is ready.More pictures added to the album today.
Drawing in the rain..just drawing in the rain..
Since the building is not as fast as it was before, because of circumstances caused by the wheather conditions I started doodling the house as it might look like when it's finished....
Mon. Sept. 26th:
And all that beautiful red wood is up! Like spokes on a cartwheel... The next thing: the roof will be covered by plastic, so the building of the walls can start. It's still the raining season and this gives me some more time to find the best grass to cover the house and the porch with.
Sept. 13th 2011
It is still the raining season in the Gambia and big rainstorms are affecting the country. Most of the time, the (non-solar) power is down and some more heavy storms are predicted even today.
Generally, finding dry, seasoned wood is a problem. Even in the raining season, Greg knows where to find it, though. Apart from this beautiful and strong red wood, he also found some rugged wooden poles today to sustain the grass roof. More pictures in the album. A request was that I make a separate album with the buidling pictures. This album will follow soon!
Sept. 8th 2011
The roof frame is coming up! And more tires were packed today. Very soon now, the walls will be stacked....
Tuesday Sept. 6th
Fresh pictures: the ringbeam's ready! And today,the guys have cleared the land again. After heavy rains, everything grew so quickly, weeds had to be removed again. In the album more pictures of the house and some trees: they planted avocado, orange,lime, banana, grapefruit trees today. I can already see myself have a tropical fruitdrink from my garden, sitting on the porch..mmmm
Generator
In order to use some powertools we need a generator. The plot of land is not connected to the grid, exactly what I wanted. Some things don't charge on solar power, though...
August 29th: Ringbeam
Concrete pillars and a ringbeam frame: some more pics in the album on how everything is made. After this, the walls will be stacked and a roof frame will come up. The house is going to have a porch all around the round side, covered by the roof. Here you see the dirt-pounded tires dry in the sun. What a beautiful day!
August 25th: pillars up
The concrete pillars are coming up: the concrete is drying today. We've had a little delay because of the heavy rains. In the middle of the raining season, the rains can last for a few days ! After the pillars, a ringbeam will be made. New pictures are added to the album, made by Isaac Turay Aug. 24th 2011
skills in the Gambia
Have you seen "Spuiten en Slikken" on Dutch TV this week? This episode was about the Gambia and the Gambian so-called "bumsters"; unemployed guys who are after older white women on the beaches in the Gambia. There one of the solutions presented, was setting up skillcentres. Well here's one! We proudly present just uploaded on Youtube, a video clip of the Marcus Garvey Peoples Foundation, founded by our friend Gregory George. Many of the craftsmen on our team of builders are members and, in their own time, volunteers on the MGPF. A great organisation in which we believe. It combines environmental awareness, employment and charity and is a regular win-win-win-win-scenario. Go have a look on our videopage or on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v71HncOe8xg
On this picture, MGPF's founder Gregory George is being interviewed by Louis Mendy,reporter at Gambian Television GRTS at the opening in Tujereng on July 30th 2011
Update Aug 18th
The compost toilet and the bathroom in the making. Foreman Darbo is connecting the pieces. Some more pictures are added to the album today.
Pounding
The soil is pounded into the tires so they can be used as bricks when ready.
Evergreen Tintinto
Staying in one of the roundhouses was certainly not a punishment. Friends and neighbours Greg and Maria offered me a stay with them in one of their roundhouses, just around the corner of the buildingsite. Great service and food, at the soon to be opened Evergreen Tintinto Ecolodge: http://evergreen-lodgesgambia.com/
The A list
Surprised at first, and now just as excited as we are, our team of builders is working hard to make the project come true. Conditions: Raining season in the Gambia and we now are in the month of Ramadan. Respect! Their names (no kidding): Lamin, Lamin, Lamin, Lamin, Lamin and, kneeling; Darbo. In the Gambia the first-born son usually is named Lamin. Incoming message: Darbo's first name is also Lamin 
25 more!
Bonnie driving back from Fajara to Tintinto with again 25 tires on top. The Landrover can carry up to a maximum of 20 more inside.
Isaac Turay filming Gregory George
First row now ready to build
Estimation: for the rubberhouse we'll need 600 tires. Here we're still collecting....All of the Gambia's little and bigger garages are actually surprised at first, but then happy, when we ask them for their tires. In this country tire-burning luckily, doesn't happen very much anymore. But where do they go after being used, some to the wire? We've heard that these small businesses have to export their used tires. So what's better than using them again, but this time on an eco-friendly, tropical building project?
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