Building an Oven

During our time in Uganda, my father and I built a brick oven. It started out as a dilapidated foundation of a barbeque.
Then . . .

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We spent an afternoon demolishing the top half...







And another afternoon mixing and pouring the concrete base.

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A couple of days later we had finished laying the foundation. The floor is all firebrick, because that is the only part of the oven that will be in direct contact with the flame, and the walls are made of the local bricks, which can crack under intense heat, but if they do, so what? the oven won't collapse, nothing's going to happen.

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Then came the exiting part! 
Dad made a jig for the arches, so we can make them all uniform, and not guess around. We set all the bricks in place, made sure the keystone was level, and put stones in the cracks in case the mortar wasn't strong enough. Then we slopped the mortar on. When we were done, the arch was beautiful. I felt so proud, and felt really accomplished.

We had our friend Albert come over to show us the correct mud for insulation. We mixed dirt and water, scooped it up and threw it at the oven. By the end it was covered, four inches deep. I had so much fun and was absolutely filthy... And by that night we were cooking.

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But, the mud would wash away in the rainy season, so we bricked up the outside.







I feel really proud and I loved spending my time in Uganda with my dad.

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