The older two girls left for school at 8:30 and came home from school at Cali’s bedtime. They had play practice after school. They burst into the home scene full of energy, happy, singing, talking a mile a minute. They both love being in musicals. Nothing beats seeing your kids exploding with happiness.
Today I went to a house building site in town. A volunteer group is building a second floor for a family of five who are currently living in one small room. I’ve learned that when there is a building project like this there is a foreman. Being a foreman doesn’t mean you have anyone working for or with you, it simply means it’s your project. I was told these guys usually work alone so they don’t have to split the profit. I asked if it takes forever for them to build a house if they are doing it all alone and the answer was yes. So there was the foreman, a guy who must have been over 50 just working at a steady, but not too speedy of a pace. There were two other retired men helping and yo.
These houses are constructed out of cinderblocks, cement, lots of rebar and wire. I got there about 9:30, went home to get Cali for lunch, stayed until 3:30. Here is what I contributed: I held a wire while one of the retired guys cut 20 pieces. I then tried to bend the wire using these nail guides hammered into a board and some tool that kept slipping. Eventually the foreman wondered where the heck his 20 clamp things were, I was on number 2. One of the retired guys covered my butt and made them for me quickly. He’d made hundreds of them so that made me feel a little less incompetent. In the afternoon I helped mix some cement. I did consume the treats the home owner offered us, which was soda and little bread buns with jam.
Like most volunteer projects, I learned more than I actually contributed. I now know how the houses here are built, which was interesting. Every five rows of blocks are reinforced with rebar so that in case of, or I should say during earthquakes, the house walls don’t collapse on the inhabitants. Important. Everything is incredibly labor intensive. This begins with getting the building materials to the site. Many of the houses aren’t on streets, they are on tiny footpaths or callejons. The only way to get building materials in is by wheelbarrow. The volunteers spent days wheeling a few thousand cinderblocks from the road (which was at least a kilometre away), five at a time. Then they had to bring in the sand, the gravel, the cement, the wire, via wheelbarrow. Then everything is carried up to the second story, cement blocks, buckets of sand, bags of cement. Cement blocks are cut to size by machete. The blocks are lined up with string guides, then wooden forms are used if any cement needs to be formed. No machines are used. One of the jobs the foreman asked us to do was to wire two poles of rebar together with clamps we (Fred) had bent. Sounds easy, right? NOT easy! The retired guys kept joking about how they had these advanced degrees yet they couldn’t do this simple task without getting totally frustrated. I told them it was because none of us ever took Rebar 101 in college. They thought that was funny.
I went home to get Cali and we went back to the building site in the afternoon. I was hoping to make it back in time to help pour the concrete into the walls that we helped to prepare in the morning, but missed it. Ah well. They were working at putting up another wall, which we couldn’t do much to help. The foreman works at his steady pace, occassionally asking for some assistance.
I showed Cali how houses are built here, but she was more interested in how the bag of snacks is built, that I’d brought for her.
She played briefly with the little boy who was her age who lived in the house, but by then she was move interested in her apple sauce than in playing catch with him. I kept saying to her, “That little boy is trying to play with you,” to which she would reply, “That’s nice but I’m eating.”
After that we walked over to PanaSuper and I got her some fritos and I got a diet coke. Always a treat for me. I think I’ve had two since I’ve been here. Nothing like a taste from home. There is an older gentleman who always sits in front of PanaSuper. I think some gringos may give him money. He tried to talk to me but I couldn’t understand a single thing he said because he was mumbling a lot. I can usually understand a fair bit of what people say to me, but with this guy I kept responding that I’m sorry, I don’t understand.
Both Kier and I have caught Cali’s cold. Kier is fighting it pretty well, but I’m totally congested. Tomorrow I need to find out if they have drugs for colds down here. Assuming they do.
Kier downloaded her favorite shows. Last time we were here we were limited to watching old episode of Friends on tv. Now Kier downloads all of her favorite shows, almost immediately after they happen, so she doesn’t have to wait until we get home to catch up on those. Makes her very happy. Tonight she was watching Bones. In many ways technology makes it much easier for teens to have cross-cultural experiences like these because they can still keep in touch with friends, watch their shows. They don’t feel as cut off from the world, which is important.
Madi has recovered from my sister’s cat dying. She was still sad this morning, but when she came home from play practice she didn’t mention it. She’s very sensitve that way.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. There were no earthquakes today so we had school in our classroom. That was good for me because my nose was sunburned from yesterday. I suppose the lesson from that is that I should put suncreen on in case we have an earthquake. I did go to school today, but the most important thing I did was make a birthday plan for when I turn 8 in April. I did a page on the pinata I want, decorations. There is a page for the kind of food I want and the presents I want. I made it into a book for my mom and put boxes next to everything. I also made a list of the balloons I want, the colors that I hope we can get. I made a long list of the colors, just in case they don’t have a lot of the colors. I know what kind of cake I want, the color of everything, the plates, the napkins, everything is covered. Mom says she doesn’t know what we can get here but that I can come shopping with her. I don’t understand why people can’t give you a present and also include money in their card. What’s wrong with both of those at the same time? I can’t wait for my birthday. P.S. I love you all very much.