ABBEY BANNER - St. John's Abbey

Can you construct a building out
of trash-filled bottles? Michael
Anderson and Liam Sperl, last
year’s Benedictine Volunteers at the
Abbey of Jesus Christ Crucified in
Esquipulas, Guatemala, decided to try
it. They learned that a nearby orphanage
called “City of Joy” needed a
library and decided to kill the proverbial
two birds with one . . . bottle,
namely, clean up area trash and build
the needed structure.
With the help of Andrea Francia, an
Italian engineer who has spent the past
seventeen years on the construction
of similar orphanage projects, and the
advice of members of the Congregation
of Martha and Mary who sponsor
the City of Joy, these two SJU 2007
graduates went to work.
Michael and Liam visited local
schools and talked to classes about
BENEDICTINE VOLUNTEERS
Benedictine Volunteers
build a library out of
trash and bottles
by Daniel Durken, OSB
Brian Adamek, 2006 SJU
management and economics
graduate, volunteered for two
months of service at the Benedictine
Monastery of the Resurrection in
Coban, Guatemala. This foundation
of Blue Cloud Abbey, Marvin, South
Dakota, is situated in the highlands
approximately 120 miles northeast
of Guatemala City. The community
numbers thirteen monks, ten of whom
are Guatemalans.
“We are amazed at how much trash
can be forced into a bottle.”
A new Benedictine Volunteer, Brian Adamek
Daniel Durken, OSB
the importance of recycling trash and
litter, how the students could help and
how their efforts would pay off. Using
bamboo sticks to force trash into
20-ounce plastic bottles, the students
received 25 centavos (about three US
cents) for each bottle they filled. The
bottles become as tough as rocks.
To pay for the needed bottles and the
construction of the building, Michael
and Liam raised over $14,000 from
their families and friends, with a good
portion of that amount raised by Sister
Stefanie Weisgram, OSB, a CSB/
SJU librarian, along with a $300 grant
from Saint John’s.
Over 4000 bottles were used,
amounting to over 2000 pounds of primarily
recycled plastic material. The
basic construction strategy used the
bottles as insulation within an encase-
ment of cement. The structure was
made of wood with studs every square
meter and chicken wire on both sides
of the frame. The filled bottles were
secured within the two sides of the
chicken wire and cemented over. To
insure that the cement stayed in place,
the gaps not filled by the bottles were
filled with loose assortments of trash.
This year’s Volunteers, Theo
Eggermont and Phil Hanson, have
purchased a thousand dollars worth
of books for the library and added
an outdoor shelter to the building.
They plan to build a playground out
of wood and recycled tires as well as
a pure water project for which they
are currently looking for funds. For
information about this project, please
contact Theo at taeggermont@gmail.
com. +
Brian arrived at the monastery on
February 2 and returned home April
1. His work was different each day.
He quickly established himself as
the top dish dryer in the community
and worked in the carpenter shop and
laundry. He helped install a Wii
Nintendo system and projector in
a community room used by all and
installed computers in classrooms of
a nearby school. He also helped
students with their English classes. +
Abbey Banner Spring 2009 page 19