Clean Up Time in Jamaica

It's Cleanup Time. Please help if you can. The village of Nine Mile in Jamaica adopted Uncle Mud about ten years ago. We have been back several times, sharing the Natural Building techniques that all of our ancestors used to build healthy, beautiful homes without importing a lot of expensive materials. Our hosts helped us identify needs and teach local crews techniques that use local resources,  like cheap windows made from bottles and cement, composting toilets, cob mortared local stone walls, and clean, efficient wood fired rocket stoves. We even hosted the village's first pizza party with forty pounds of Amish cheese I brought in my luggage and a clay oven we built with the kids in the shape of the Lion of Judah lion.
This time things are more serious. A lot of infrastructure and houses were wrecked by the big hurricane. There's a heavy demand all over the island for the imported materials and very little money in the village to buy them. There are a lot of washed out rocks, piles of bottles, downed trees and mud. Lots and lots of mud.
Our hosts have called us back down to help with the rebuild. I'm headed there the beginning of February bringing tools and food. So far its just me and whatever resources I can wrangle between now and then and a patient wife holding down the fort while I run off to see what I can do. A load of electric chainsaws and batteries, angle grinders and PPE for cutting bottles are already on the way.   If you can help with that or my plane ticket or other expenses please donate by Venmo @unclemud or cashapp $unclemud or paypal info@unclemud.com
Prayers are always welcome for good weather, safety, and to help my Mom not worry too much. If you want to come with we'd love to have you. Drop me a line at info@unclemud.com
Thank you as always for everything you do to make the world better.
--Mud

May the Lion of Judah protect you in your travels, Chris. We will send support and prayers for all the people.

Chris, I'm not sure if a group of folks in TN might be helpful to your kind efforts. The good guys at Habitat for Humanity have been sending teams to Jamaica for a decade or more, you might call the brilliant contractor Bill Mauzy , who has worked there a lot.  He lives in Sewanee but I believe his volunteer efforts are through this office in nearby Chattanooga.
Godspeed sir.

Habitat, 1201 E. Main St.
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37408

(423) 756-0507
office@habichatt.org

Thank you. I will reach out to the folks in Tennessee

Hugs to you and all your Jamaican friends from me. I can't imagine the mess.

I am curious - do you have any idea how buildings you helped build stood up to the storm? How did bottle windows fair compared to regular glass windows?

I do understand that some parts of Jamaica got hit harder than others, because of the storm direction.  

Jay,
Most of the regular glass windows have some sort of shutters on them or plywood covers that get put up when the storm is coming, but the hurricane went right over this area so a lot of houses--even the concrete ones--were stripped of roofs and windows. The nearest big town Browntown was pretty much a sea of mud and the banana "trees" and orchards and crops in the farms were washed away. The bottle windows and the half finished bottle bath house came through unscathed. Nine inches of bottle brick (two bottom halves of bottles taped together) in a matrix of about local crushed limestone and portland cement is pretty durable. I imagine we could make it even better by wrapping some cast off wire up through the matrix as we laid the bottles. The cob oven will need another layer of plaster but it came through pretty well. Unfortunately our previous start on a cob building had been put on pause by covid and other local crisises so we'll pretty much be starting over, only further from the fire ant mound.