August 29th
Today is the year anniversary of our first implementation trip. It started out raining in Managua, but not in Camilo. We began grouting the walls. We rented a diesel mixer for the grout which after several tries to start, the battery died. Fernando, our NGO logistics man, went to go buy another battery for the mixer and we were delayed grouting for about 2 hours. During that time we cut block, laid out the framing for the windows in the masonry walls, and made a little bridge onto the slab because the rain washed away much of the dirt. Finally, Fernando came back with the battery and we were able to grout about 3 walls before lunch. The grout mix was pretty good 3 parts sand, 2 parts gravel, 1 part cement, and 1.5 parts water. And the mixer definitely helped with consistency. Everyone went through with rebar and the drill (as a makeshift vibrator) and tamped the grout down.
About an hour after lunch it began to rain, nay pour. We had to use the remaining cement so that it didn’t harden to the slab from the rain. Fran almost got in a fight with a drunk guy(just a random drunk guy not the “drunk guy” who doesn’t live in Camilo anymore) that wandered onto the site (Fran totally could have taken him) but he walked away peacefully. Finally we ran out of cement and the rain forced us to end an hour early today. In the end we grouted 6 of the 8 sections of wall that we needed to today so the rain didn’t place us too far behind.
Tonight we go to Chimineas for some Tonyas and dominos. Tomorrow…another work day.
August 30th
Today was a day of challenges. First the mixer wouldn’t start for a few hours, then Chris freaked out about the condition of the grout (classic Chris), then the mixer finally got started but died in the middle of adding water to the grout. Most of the time we sat around and argued about nothing. Jeremy F wanted to take the mixer back to the company and threaten that it was a bad mixer and we wouldn’t do business with them anymore. Fern called the company and told them this and they said “okay, take it back then.” I’m not sure this was the response Faker wanted to hear, so he bitched about it again several times. At our pro-stats meeting at lunch we all felt pretty gloomy about the fact that today put us behind schedule.
Finally, Lester came to our rescue once again! He brought down a good battery for the mixer and the gringos volunteered to take over the grouting operation so that Fran and his men could begin laying the second course of block. Erica and Bismark (SilverFox) ran the mixer while Chris, the Jeremies, Alyssa and Devin grouted the remaining walls. Scott and Megan helped with the masonry laying. We almost completely finished the grouting when we realized it was after 5 o’clock (we normally leave at 4) and we haven’t started cleaning up yet. All in all, the long push in the afternoon nearly made up our lost time.
Tonight we went to Valentis, the air conditioned pizza place for some tasty pizza and discussed our plans for the weekend. Maliha told us funny tales about her early English language mishaps that had me crying and pounding the table. Hopefully tomorrow will be as successful as this afternoon.
BTW Devin is winning the gecko game with 6 and Maliha and Chris got their first geckos today.
August 31st
Today was our hottest day yet. The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky, and it was definitely in the 90s. We had a great day though, the walls are so high now that we need to rent scaffolding in order to finish them. The mixer also ran all day, another first and one of the reasons we were so successful. We had to stay extra today until about 6 pm to reach our goal and get ourselves back on track for completion. Its cool though cuz Chris bought us some sweet road tonies on the way out. Maliha took a trip to Leon today to meet with someone at the University to help with future projects in Camilo.
Tonight there was the craziest rain storm, I don’t think I have ever heard it rain so hard in my life.
September 1st
Today was a bit slower work than yesterday and the day before. We had to rent scaffolding and lifting up the blocks and the grout that high can be challenging. Our walls are about 7 foot 6 inches tall now and Fran believes that we will be able to completely finish them tomorrow.
Devin went and visited his grandparents today who live in Nicaragua. Friday most of us will be going to Masaya, an artisan market, a pottery class, and swimming in Laguna de Apoyo. Chris, Faker, and Scott are staying behind to work a half day help Fran and his guys finish up the masonry and begin laying the foundations for the columns.
The design of the roof has changed slightly, the joists come in 3 meter lengths and our building is about 4 feet too long for that so we need to have a support in the middle of the roof to connect two joists. We are achieving that by placing some small tube steel columns in the slab to hold a beam up. This beam will support the joists as they will be split up on the two sides. To do this we will need to cut through the slab using a concrete saw, dig some 2 foot deep footings, and lay concrete to support the columns. (Yes our original idea we wanted to do almost a year ago). This is going to actual save us time and money.
Tomorrow is trash day in Managua, and for those of you that have been there its not a pleasant smell, so hopefully the work day will go fast.
Wow, that's so awesome to finally be finishing up what was originally discussed as only an idea two and a half years ago, when I was last down there. Even though my original design with Kay, Megan, and Ben was changed due to all the new things that had to be considered, its so great to see all that the group has done for Camilo Ortega.
ReplyDeleteHave fun swimming in Laguna de Apoyo, that might have been the best swim of my life! Try and touch the bottom ;)
where are the photos? Second
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