Hard Work, Sore Muscles, Big Result

This morning we were greeted with cool overcast skies as we headed breakfast. Monday was a national holiday in Guyana, and the cook was given permission to come in a little late today. So, we had a slightly later breakfast and we got on the bus and headed to the job site. Therefore buildings on the job site two of them are just about completed. These buildings are large classroom space for the new school that will open soon. The other two buildings are a restroom facility and an office. Our team is working on a restroom facility. These two smaller buildings are steel framed with masonry block exteriors. Our job is to lay the block for the restroom building.

At the start of the day

The first block is always the hardest

I estimated that the combined block laying experience of our group was somewhere around 15 minutes! And I will have to admit that my first thought was that maybe we would you get a single row of block laid on this day. That certainly ended up being a major underestimation. The Marinol's team was well prepared and ready for us, and soon each team member slipped into a role that work for them some Lang block, some cleaning up block, some sawing block, and some filling in the joints between the block. As you can see the pictures, we were able to play for Rosa block around the perimeter of the building, grout all the vertical cells with steel in them, and grout the bond beam on the fourth row. I think most of those who worked on this project today would agree that going from the job that each of us does every day to a very physical job like lame block is not the smartest approach to a career change. Everybody seems dead tired tonight. But, I will have to say everyone did absolutely amazing job.

I called this group the chain gang . they were hammering
the cells open at the bottom of the blocks.

Part of the fun of working on this job has been to see how much communication can be accomplished with two groups that speak different languages. In a very short amount of time, we seem to be able to convey everything that was important on the job to our Spanish-speaking construction workers who are charged with keeping us from making a total mess of the project.

And this appeared to be the chain gang boss . .

Many of us need to stay at the construction project have get the last few items finished before the day was over. So, we did not have a chance to go to the vacation Bible school program tonight. However, those who did, so it was very successful even though the numbers of kids was relatively small, I think 17. Tomorrow they are supposed to be a significant increase in the number of kids and our team is ready for it.

Grouting cells with a nifty grout pouring device

Kaleb works a block into the corner

All in all, the kids a great job today. They worked hard, stayed happy, learned lots of new things, and I hope that tonight as most of them are already in bed seriously considering sleep, they will be proud of the work they did, and know that all of us who work beside them today hold them in high esteem.

We will see how we do tomorrow!