Gansu shelters
During Sam and Ali’s reccy trip up in Gansu (Yuhe and Fengxian) we ordered 60 tarpaulins from our shanghai supplier who guaranteed us a 3 day delivery. As Caroline, Christine (translator) and Luke arrived in Longnan shi they had a call regretting to inform them that this was not to be the case but actually 10 days – oh!? - and that they had only 24 bags in stock. How could that happen after five weeks of weekly contact with the factory? The next day was planned that the team head up to Yuhe at 0800h to discuss other shelter designs and how best to cut the tarp. So, that night was a mad rush to source: 1. a transport company to deliver the 24 bags of tarp in 3 days at the factory’s expense and 2. another factory who has stock for the remaining 36 bags. Having already tried to source another tarpaulin factory more locally to save transport costs with no success they knew it was not going to be easy, but this time they HAD to find one. That night no joy. The following morning however they got a phone call from Mr Bai (our Longnan shi contact) informing them that due to the rain they would not be able to head up to Yuhe until it stopped as the “mountain was slipping”! So, madly they copy and pasted contact details from alibaba.com in to a word document (a list of about 20 potential suppliers) to print and call on the way up. Mr Bai called again, “we can leave now”. Control P. They headed back to the hotel to load the 4×4 with their bags and the compiled list of suppliers. Christine was handed the mobile and started to work though the list.
About 2 hours in they hit jackpot. A supplier that could make the 36 bags of 30×12m2 triple laminate 14×16/inch weave in one day, and deliver in 4 days from Yiwu, in Zhe Jiang province to Longnan shi.
Discussions with the villagers and the government department started the morning the next day after a rebuilding ceremony of which the team were asked to be present.
There were mixed views as to the time people expected to be living in temporary shelters. The government was expecting villagers to move back into permanent housing within 3 months. Villagers however (more realistically) were expecting to live in their self-build temporary structures for a year. A controversy that could only be solved with two different shelter solutions.
Unlike the wide flat plains of Zundao with the foothills behind, Yuhe, deep in the mountains had very little flat land to build on. Individual small housing was more practical. They had timber, however they wanted to conserve the amount used in the temporary shelter as it was being reused in the construction of their permanent home. The 3 month solution was a simple A frame with low rubble walls: this conserves the amount of timber used. The 60 bags of tarp would cover 600 shelters according to this design. The year-long solution was similar to that of Zundao however using the tarp for the side walls as well as the roof. The 60 bags of tarp would cover 300 shelters according to this design. A cutting sheet for the tarp was made for both designs so that none of it would be wasted.
During their stay up in Yuhe problems accumulated with getting the tarp., which delayed the material by 4 more days.
Unfortunately the team could not stay until the materials arrived. Big minus. To date we have confirmation that the material has arrived in Yuhe.
Visa permitting Luke, will be heading back to the areas where the I BOUGHT A SHELTER team has worked. Feedback a month or two on, after the implementation of our shelters and materials, will be interesting. Photos will be posted later on this blog.