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From August 1st,all month long : come and join us to build the Ambazada !

Sunday 13 August 2017

All the versions of this article: [English] [français]

From August 1st, Monday to Friday, come and join us to build the Ambazada !

- We will meet every morning at 9am and have lunch together. If you arrive after 10am, please let us know before hand or bring something to eat. If you come from afar, don’t worry, we are just next to the self-organised camp, you will be able to pitch your tent or park your van. Please do have some money for the kitchen (meals will be on donation).

- Every Monday morning (at 9.30am) and Thursday afternoon (4pm), we are having a meeting to recap on where we are at. These meetings are open to all. There will be various work stations : barn structure, cob, building walls with straw bales, etc. All of them will need a contact person to welcome the newbies and share newly acquired skills.

- We are building the Ambazada with what we have at hand : wood, straw, hemp and earth from the zone. And salvaged stuff. There will be days to go and fetch stuff throughout the month (so cars, vans and good will be necessary) but you can also bring with you all the nails, screws and tools that got forgotten in your grandma’s attic ! We need wood tools, spades, wheel barrows, buckets, crowbars, nails, screws, bolts, etc, and plumbing and electricity equipment (in other words, anything that can be used to build a house is welcome!)

See you soon !

- For more info you can write to : ambazada.nddl@riseup.net

- about the ambiance : Welcome to this building site !

You are welcome to take part if you feel like it, even if you have no skill, even if you have never done anything like this, even if you are clumsy. We are all doing what we can and are learning as we go along.

If you have skills that others don’t have, teach them rather than wanting to do do for them. We all have things to learn from each other.

Here it is possible to talk about physics with both feet in cob or debate about breastfeeding whilst triangulating a truss.

We are particularly attentive to ordinary sexism, that is unfortunately very common on building sites, even in the zad. We all have learnt lots of codes throughout our lives, because we have grown up in a sexist and patriarchal society. We now need to deconstruct them. We thus need to be aware of some attitudes that could go unnoticed but are in fact hurtful and exhausting for those who have to put up with them.

These include all the acts and attitudes that start from the premise that a woman can’t, that she doesn’t know how to use this or that tool, that she can only be there to do what a man has asked her to do. Or to grab a tool from her hand without her consent, or explain things in depth when she hasn’t asked for help. It also includes all remarks on her appearance or jokes that are only funny to those who tell them… and many many others. We are not going to list here all the sexist words or acts that probably will happen on this site. But we are asking you to be attentive, to talk about it, and to accept to challenge yourself.

What defines ordinary sexism is that it is insidious and happens on a daily basis. It goes through all sorts of unnoticed gestures, easy to deny. It is never easy to make a comment, or to be the recepient of it. We invite you to be in solidarity, to support our female friends when they dare defend themselves, and to be ready to explain to those who need it why a situation is sexist.

Here we want to create an atmostphere in which it is fun to be together every day, whatever our gender or skills.

We will be OK to ask those who create shitty dynamics, and who refuse to reflect upon their own behaviour, either because we want them to leave or because female friends feel they have to leave because of them.