Bondeko crafts a community of builders

Bondeko is also a a band. Crew members Yill Brekofca of Albania on accordion, Orson Hochler of France on guitar, Namory Keita of Guinea Conakry on djembe (a West African-style drum) and, the next generation, 15-year-old Leo Hochler of the United States on djembe. Photo by She’s a Teacher Photography

BY AMY PARADYSZ

ORSON HORCHLER, perhaps better known by his street artist name, Pigeon, brings an artist’s design sensibilities and a social changemaker’s vision to leading his intercultural carpentry and construction crew, Bondeko. As the team install dormers, lay tile and build cabinets, they are also intentionally building an international brotherhood — or, in the Bantu language of Lingala — bondeko.

Horchler was born in the United States, grew up in urban France and came to Maine as a young adult to get to know his father. In the small Down East city of Ellsworth, Horchler was looked upon with suspicion for having an accent that sounded Middle Eastern. He felt like an outsider — like an immigrant — in the country where he had been born.

The Mainer Project by Orson Hochlet (also known as Pigeon) made another appearance in summer 2020 with this installation at a bus stop shelter on Boynton Street in Portland. Photo by Orson Horchler.

Years later, he found a vibrant community in Portland among other immigrants from French-speaking parts of the world, such as the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Senegal and the Ivory Coast.

“I was hearing a lot of stories from people about how they didn’t feel like they belonged here,” Horchler said.

In response, he sketched — black chalk outlining larger- than-life faces of diversity on streets of Maine cities and towns, asking the question: What’s a “real Mainer”?

“When I was doing the artwork, I was questioning and exploring,” he said.

Reaction to this street art was mixed, sometimes with police not charging him with a crime on the condition that the chalk be immediately washed. But then a mural on State Street in Portland stayed up for months, and Horchler was invited to collaborate with Maine Historical Society in Portland and the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine in Augusta to create installations in places as rural as Berwick and Farmington. Having been in the United States since the 1990s, Horchler found himself in the role of cultural broker, starting conversations between more established and newer Mainers.

Bondeko Founder Orson Hochler. Photo by Kelly Ilseman.

Meanwhile, he has been a carpenter for the past 15 years and, in 2011, founded Blue Jay Carpentry and Design. As his client list grew, he hired another contractor. And another. And another. Each time, he hired an immigrant.

“Once I started to work with contractors from other countries, I started really de ning what we are doing as a company,” Horchler said. “I started implementing some basic rules. For example, only one person from each country. I wanted to do something very intentional about creating a workspace where nobody dominates anyone else with their culture.”

In recognition of the crew’s unique company culture of brotherhood, Horchler rebranded the business as Bondeko. Four years in, this eclectic band of brothers has found a niche in renovations with custom cabinets and reclaimed wood accents.

There’s Albanian cabinet maker Ylli Brekofca, concrete specialist Jeremiah Burns of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, landscaper Namory Keita of Guinea Conakry, and, in the summers, 15-year-old carpentry apprentice Leo Horchler. Other temporary workers include Edgar Montenero from Honduras, Jarin Tchicaya from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and (the only female crew member) Odrada Karsungo from Angola.

“When you give responsibility to us, we take it,” said Keita. “It’s a great experience for me that I never expected. I’m a musician from Guinea, West Africa, and I went to school to be a doctor. I ended up being a carpenter — that’s a skill that Orson gave me.”

Under the broad umbrella of “renovations,” Bondeko has been known to take a project all the way from demolition to curtains.

A kitchen renovation in Portland with tilework and custom white oak countertops and shelves. Photo by Orson Horchler

Last year, Katy and Amanda Hollander of Westbrook were looking for a renovation contractor when they saw a story about Bondeko.

“Orson had posted something that one of the only times that one of his crew members arrived before he did, someone had called the police and said that he looked suspicious,” said Amanda Hollander. “My wife reached out to Orson, and he came to meet us right away. We could tell he was doing good work for his clients, his crew and his community.”

The Hollanders hired Bondeko to convert their unfinished attic into two bedrooms and a bathroom, nearly doubling the living space in their 1950s-era Sears kit home.

“The quality has been beyond our expectations, and Orson has a great eye for design,” Amanda Hollander said. “We love having people from different countries around our kiddo, and he loves to feel like part of the crew. Our son, Henry, started wearing toolbelts around the house.”

Then—mid-renovation— COVID-19 hit.

“Orson gave his last clean N-95 mask to my wife because he knew she was a healthcare worker,” Amanda Hollander said. “That is the kind of person he is.”

Indoor projects came to a pause for a few weeks, while Henry’s school closed and Amanda telecommuted. When the neighborhood playground closed, too, the Hollanders hired Bondeko crew to build a swing set sturdy enough for their family of three. It was a Bondeko first — one that brought out the carpenters’ playful side in those bleak early days of the pandemic.

Bondeko crew members Orson Hochler and Namory Keita join 5-year-old Henry Hollander of Portland on the swingset they built in his backyard. Photo by Amy Paradysz.

Once the swing set was done, renovations resumed indoors with a black plastic barrier separating the downstairs living space from the upstairs construction zone. The crew put glow- in-the-dark star stickers on the plastic facing Henry’s room — and he liked it so much his new upstairs bedroom replicates that night sky feeling with stars on a dark blue ceiling.

A challenge with renovations in Maine is working around chimneys. In the Hollanders’ new bathroom, Horchler juxtaposed that exposed brick with blue walls and a trio of reclaimed wood accent pieces —around the window, under the tub and framing a mirror.

“When we do a dormer, we reuse the roof planks to create custom cabinets or accent pieces,” Horchler said. “It’s a way for us to include what we’re throwing out of the house in the new space. It’s all problem-solving and doing the most with the least. When we’re coming in, we bring all these new materials and it’s really nice to balance that with something that has warmth, is worn and has history.”

Reclaimed wood also dresses the support beams at the roof line. “It looks stunning,” Amanda Hollander said.

Faced with less than ideal space for creating hers-and-hers closets, Horchler was inspired by the Hollanders’ talk about how much fun they had as girls crawling into small spaces in old farmhouses. In response, he built them each a playful little closet cabinet within a closet.

“Once we saw the work he could do, we added on a bunch of stuff,” Amanda Hollander said. “It’s the best money we’ve ever spent.”

The Hollanders enjoy hearing music from different cultures coming from their soon-to-be finished second floor — and knowing that their investment in their home is also an investment in the lives of new Mainers.

“A lot of people in Maine see immigrants all the time but have no connection to them and have no idea where to begin,” Horchler said. “When we come into people’s homes, strong bonds get created because we’re in people’s spaces. Every time I hand out paychecks, before the end of the following day, that money goes to four continents — to Guinea, to Eastern Europe, to the Congo, to the Caribbean. Everyone on my crew comes from cultures where they take care of their family back home. Hiring us locally is a direct way of making a global impact.” GHM

This article appeared in the Fall 2020 edition of Green & Healthy Maine HOMES. Subscribe today!

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