First Post!!!

Hey Team,

Finally got to the internet and am able to tell you about our days!

August 24th

We arrived in Managua at 9:30 am. We were really hoping that we could make it through customs with all of our Simpson Strong Tie stuff but we made it just fine and everything got through. We then met with our NGO and went to a nice air conditioned hotel to take a nap and have a meeting. Chris went on a trip to purchase some of our supplies and our safety equipment. No we are not using Jeremy's design for the hard hat even though I loved it.

August 25th

Today was our first day of work. We went through and cleaned out all of the cells and brought down some of the blocks. We cut some of the blocks so that we could place horizontal rebar in there. Today was a pretty short day of work because it was more preparing than actual work. Later that night the team had a meeting and afterwards we went to Chimineas (a local bar) for a drink and Faker almost got kicked out for wearing a tank top, he looked like a dirty gringo. Megan loaned him a rain jacket to cover up which we wore low on his shoulders for a sexy look.

August 26th

Today was a very productive day. We were successful in drilling all of the block than was needed and epoxying most of the rebar. We needed to epoxy some rebar to create a large enough lap so that the new masonry could better bond to the old masonry. We also laid our first line of block today. We took a tour of Barrio Camilo Ortega on our break. The community is located on a steep steep hill with mostly lean to housing. It was sad to see but motivated everyone to work hard. Tomorrow it will be more of the same, laying masonry and epoxying rebar. But so far we are on schedule!