El Jicaro Build - Week One

I've been a bit delayed in posting details regarding the second build location as I've not been working at that location.  Colin and the other half of our group has been working there. This site was much further along having the foundation and many of the walls already completed to a fair degree. The family that we're working for at this location is Alex and his wife Anna and their 3 daughters Samantha,Brittany and Emily. In the first week the team at this locations worked on the following:

El Cristobal Build Site

Colin working on Wall

Audrey, Norm and Kristina building rebar

Bathroom Foundation 

Day 1- Some team members spent time cutting re-bar and tying it together with wire in preparation for laying it in place to give support to the cement block already in place. Others chiseled holes in cement block, laid the foundation and dug groundwork for the rest of the house! Labourous working extreme heat but the masons were friendly and everyone was eager to help and with language issues a bit of a problem everyone including our homeowner Alex was willing to provide on site, immersion Spanish lessons! The area around this build site is already developed and neighbors dropped by interested in the gringos working on the house. Even a local politician came by setting taking the opportunity to make a speech attempting to take political credit for the HFH build. His presence, and the group that gathered, caused quite a commotion in the area. By the end of the day team members felt they had accomplished a fair bit and the house was moving forward, both in the courses of block and re-bar going up and the foundation being dug for a add-on bathroom and laundry area. As expected the heat this day was in the 40's and a good indication of what could be expected daily.

Kristina chipping holes in block

Cement Mixing (one batch at a time)

Day 3 - Work today consists of prepping items for the masons such as chipping holes in the blocks, tying rebar, digging trenches, and mixing concrete. As we get to know our home owner Alex, we have been learning more Spanish as he is learning more English. Alex has an extensive vocabulary of food items that he learned from television, fettuccini, American cheese, tomato sauce, and other tasty items were discussed throughout the morning. Once we exhausted the food topic, we went to clothing and other common items, all of us learning new words and laughing at our common struggles in pronunciation. Our other team from San Cristobal joins us for lunch along the nearby Matagua river, today we are exceptionally grateful for the shade as the temperature has risen to more than 52C or 125F by 11 AM. We were unable to assess the temperature any further as Norm's digital thermometer blanked out from the heat. As we replenish ourselves, we share cheerful stories from the morning, the hard work that has been accomplished and our plans for the afternoon. After lunch it's back to work, it is hard to work in such heat yet the masons and Alex continue their fervent pace, hardly noticing the heat that zaps Gringo energy. By the end of this day the group has again felt a sense of accomplishment was this small house heads toward completion.