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

Tuesday work progress

Our filled van on the way to work . . . three across (using the fold down seat) and four rows of folks, then one more in the front with the driver and Gabriel (our very helpful translator).

Today, we did not seem to get quite as much accomplished, but we still made good progress. We did not have to unload 3 trucks of sand and concrete blocks -- so maybe that was much of the difference! We also did not sift sand today -- we sifted much of it yesterday and still had some left by day's end.

When we arrived, we had to sweep the water from the rain out of the way and towards the roof drain. (It rained much of last night which was a wonderful sound to wake to when one turned over!)
We continued many of the same tasks as yesterday: cutting rebar, bending ties in two different shapes (C's and rectangles), assembling rebar structures for the columns (corners use 4 pieces and rectangles whereas mid-wall columns use 2 pieces of rebar and C shapes), mixing both mortar and cement on the concrete slab which serves as the roof of the second floor and will be the floor of the area we are working on, and laying concrete blocks on the walls. Today, we did not have quite as much local help, at least in the afternoon, but again, we still made progress.

Yesterday, teams of two generally worked to assemble the rebar structures; several times today, there were multiple people working together as they were more in a hurry to have a completed assembly which could be put in place.



We made progress on the wall as we added several more courses on the long and end walls.

Lu pouring water on the block before the next course is added.
Setting the important corner block (making sure it's level and plumb).
Success laying block as the clouds were rolling in.

Kim spent all morning chiseling out an area of previously constructed wall so that we can insert a column to help carry the roof; Pat and Kim worked on chiseling away part of the stair case so that we can make connections there as well. No easy way to do either -- just working slowly chipping away bit by bit.
Timing ended our day a little early as the rain came and we had just finished a course of block as well as the bulk of the mortar we had mixed.
Pat working away at chopping away on the existing stair tower so that we can make some connections with new rebar and concrete.

We all had time to take a break today at some point in the day . . . no breakroom anywhere around, but plenty of spots to rest for a few minutes before proceeding with the next task. The morning was quite warm / hot; the afternoon was much better as the clouds with the rain formed.

concrete blocks standing on end work for seats . . .


the top of the stair was okay to lie flat for a few minutes but only if the person(s) at the corner is not making too much noise with the chisels and hammers.

Even the pile of rocks is okay for a few minutes . . .

Like yesterday, the ladies of the church fed us very well. For morning snack, we had fresh fruit. For lunch, we had beets with onions, rellenos, and rice. For afternoon snack, we had tostados and plantains / beans. (The rellenos were the best I have ever eaten!)

Tonita (the cook in charge of the other ladies helping) with some beets and onions . . . She and the other ladies have shared many smiles and lots of good food with us so far.

the clouds rolling in with the afternoon rain showers

We only had two young children on site today . . . they had a good time playing with each other and a rolling chair. The little girl went to the dentist this afternoon, and the dentist removed her first tooth (yesterday, she cried and cried but she would not let anyone help her pull it; no, they do not have a tooth fairy here . . .)
Our neighbors behind the church . . . keep in mind that what you are looking at is one floor off the ground . . . not sure how they keep the chickens out of the house :)