Friday: Last Day for Work

Sorry it has taken me so long to get photos from Friday posted . . . We had no internet on Friday night and it has been busy since then . . . with some luck, this will work tonight (as it did not last night!)

The scaffolding is no wider at the end of the week, but it still works okay to meet the needs.

Using a water hose as a plumb line . . . positioned in 2 places and confirmed at both ends works well!

Barb teaching the ladies how to make "scrunchies" to use in the kitchen . . .

above: steel channels drying AFTER the images below of Pastor Celso inspecting a cleaning job (One has to have all of the oil off of the channels before painting so the paint will stick -- then one has to paint quickly so the channels do not rust!)

Children playing while the ladies were cooking . . . what started out with the two smallest children ended up a good-sized "train" in the limited space picking up a few other children along the way around the room.

Exchanging gifts between the churches. Each was handmade by a member of the respective churches.

Look hard . . . it's a clear day and a volcano can be seen in the background (center of the picture).

Margaret taking a rest break with Leopold -- the oldest helper on the job site at 94! Leopold came several days to observe and help.

The wonderful crew who cooked some awesome food and made sure that we were not only well-fed but also that we did not ever get hungry.

Thursday at work

Augusto and his entire family joined us for a few minutes today -- he had to leave to go to his job as a chaplain at the university. He brought some sugar cane in block form for all of us to try . . . it is kind of like brown sugar, only different. Augusto's daughter, Deborah, stayed and worked with us today. It was good to have another worker as well as translator.


I suspect you can guess that we did much of the same today at work, and you would be guessing correctly. Today, we swept the morning rain off the roofs (both 2nd and 3rd), mixed both mortar and cement, moved and placed concrete blocks, cleaned boards, built forms and poured more of the bond beam (today we did the bond beam for the pitched roof at the end of the church.
Looking up from the second floor to the third prior to sweeping all of the water off or the steel channels arriving.





The new tasks today included removing the forms from the bond beam poured yesterday afternoon and then unloading 48 +/- steel c-channels and getting them up to the 2nd floor (lifting them -- they are too long to go up the stairs!) We also unloaded and moved tin sheets for the roof up as well . . . Once we got the c-channels up on the roof, we began cleaning the oil off of them and then painting them. They had to pass inspection from Pastor Celso before we could paint them -- several of us failed in our initial efforts. Thanks to Lu for giving us a clue about just wiping them down in one direction rather than rubbing them: wipe the oil off versus smear it around. We cut up several old shirts to use for rags to use with the cleaning fluid, saving a white one for the "white glove" test.





The after-lunch break before the crew was sent downstairs to tackle the steel channels . . . oh yes, we were working -- if you consider watching the bond beam dry as work!

Late in the afternoon as rain clouds were all around us, we were blessed with a double rainbow.

Wednesday afternoon at the market

This afternoon, we went to the market . . . we spent an hour walking around the handicraft area of the market looking for some souvenirs and/or gifts to share with folks back home. They suggested we leave out jewelry and passport at the hotel, place money in several pockets, and not take cameras, etc. just so the potential thieves did not have easy targets. We traveled as a group and did not have any problems . . . i think everyone walked away with at least one purchase in hand :) There was so much stuff there; most of the vendors wanted to bargain -- but some did not seem to want to come down too much.

Afterwards, we went to the main Cathedral of the City and then went to a small park which had a map of Guatemala in relief making it easier to understand the topography of the country with its 23 volcanoes and flat plains.

We then returned back to the hotel for a "Mexican" supper of nachos -- they were more like a taco salad with only a few chips on the bottom, but they were very good with lettuce, beans, fresh mushrooms, zucchini, salsa, cheese sauce (white cheese -- not yellow like ours), and ???

It took a while to get connected tonight . . . but success was finally possible.
Tomorrow should be a full day at the job site.
Good night.

Wednesday - Worksite

Today, we worked a "half" day -- we left the church around 2 p.m. so that we could go to the market in Guatemala City for a little while. We managed to make some progress though before we left. The work was somewhat repetitive of the last two days in that we first had to sweep the rain water off of the roof (sweeping it to the roof drain on the roof), cut rebar and assembled rebar structures for columns and th bond beam. We mixed a little mortar but no cement today. A team of 4 busted up the leftover concrete from yesterday that had hardened overnight so that it could be recycled. We also made the form for the bond beam on the long wall. On the second floor, we also swept much of the rain water off of the roof -- but here we did not have a horizontal roof drain to sweep the water to; instead we had an open drain that we created a "funnel" of sorts to help us get the water off of the roof. Here are a few pictures:

Margaret recycling the unused (and hardened) cement from yesterday

Lu carrying someone needed tools to work . . .

Kim, Dale, and Krystal cleaning 2nd floor roof
Linda Kaye sweeping rain water from work site with short broom towards roof drain


Kellye and Linda Kaye cleaning 2nd floor; make-shift funnel at downspout / drain


tools to bend rebar (and small c-shape that has been bend on jig)
putting rebar assembly in place prior to setting forms for bond beam
Jodi anchoring rebar bond beam assembly to column assembly
Cleaning boards so we can make forms: Dale, Kim, and Melissa
and Patty
Melissa and Barbara working to prepare for bond beam


section of form for bond beam in place . . . took some ingenuity in more than one place to install


Pat cutting block for pitched roof at one end of building

Toni and pal . . . he enjoyed looking at her pictures . . . (She works too -- but she had bonded with this little fellow and today he had no other playmates his size on site . . . so Toni gave him some personal attention and he enjoyed it,)

Grilling steaks . . . grill is an old tire rim

Macaroni salad being prepared
sitting down to lunch



person selling fresh goat milk . . . He had a herd of goats that he walks through the neighborhood and then milks for whoever wants to purchase fresh milk.


Barbara and Celso singing Christmas songs in Spanish