Working Hands

Our goal in going to Guatemala was to help our friends build their house. If the rest of this post sounds like we were terribly busy, well, we were - but that was good. Nothing would have been worse for my husband then to take off work and travel that far to find himself sitting around because the cement didn't come, or the weather didn't cooperate, or any number of other reasons that can derail plans. Ed put in a lot of work hours, getting up early and staying up late - and he loved it.

The house site was two or so miles out of town in a ranching area. We called it The Hill as it was the highest spot for some distance. The view from the top was spectacular in all directions.  Coming from cold, barren Pennsylvania, the green, lush tropics was breathtakingly beautiful. The house is being built into the side of The Hill. The basement was already built when we arrived. Ed helped to get ready to pour the floor of the house, which was the basement ceiling.

When we arrived, they were having a hot streak that had even the locals commenting on the heat. Ed and I thought we'd croak when the temperature rose above 100 degrees. Thankfully, a few days later the weather turned cool and cloudy.



On the day they planned to pour concrete it rained. The cool, damp weather conditions were much better than the extreme heat for concrete pouring. Lots of friends came to help pour concrete. I'll show my ignorance and admit that when I thought of them pouring concrete, I visualized how we do it in the US with a huge truck pulling up and stretching out a gigantic slide to pour the concrete where ever you want it.



But here there is a lot more hand work involved. Shoveling sand and stones into buckets, dumping into a small cement mixer, and hauling concrete in wheelbarrows.

 

 

It is hard work, and adding in some rain made it miserable work. By dark, the rain was falling in earnest. There was no hope of troweling it smooth in a downpour. Benj and Ed returned home for some sleep. But the rain soon quit and by midnight they were out at the house site again and worked until breakfast. Despite all the problems, the floor looked rather good by the time they finished.



Ed's project the rest of the week was building a block house wall. His recent experience with our own house project paid off, though they do build a little differently in Guatemala to help withstand earthquakes.


 The work crew

True tale of heights!
Ed especially enjoyed working with these guys. They tried to teach him Spanish (and he picked up quite a bit in one week) and were just a lot of fun.



And what was I doing? Laundry, cooking, sewing - just normal homemaking tasks. Though with the size of this household, there was just more of it than I am used to! There seemed to be an endless supply of dishes to wash or clothes to hang up on the line.



I enjoyed helping to sew a couple dresses for one of Benj's sisters and made a denim blanket out of a stack of old jeans.



 

Shopping was a whole set of adventures and a story in itself! I loved the piles of fresh produce.


 
 

But the best part was the opportunity to catch up on a lot of conversation with Holly. We had years of back log to get out! Work is always more fun when combined with great conversation!