Crack On!

Thursday...day of alternating productivity. This morning we all showed up at the site in our rain gear. About 10 am the jefas decided 10 of the 16 of us should go back, go into town, run around, have coffee, go to the Mercado, the internet cafe, have a beer, nice lunch...etc. NOT ME, but ok, have fun buddies! I am not bitter, no. I have a PFS. Back at the site, I joined Leah on the final Truss production team, taking the pieces layed out to construct the trusses, A shaped wood things to hold the roof up. We did pretty well, but I must admit we worked like MUNI employees: when we wanted and as quickly. After our 20 minute Nescafe break, we cranked out a few piles of trusses and had lunch. Then in the afternoon the rest of the crew came back because the rain let up, and we erected yet another of the largest walls. They have been working us in crews to build the walls, there are 2 large and 2 small and an interior wall. The MAESTRO (paid, talented local craftsmen who instruct you mostly with grunts and hand gestures... more on them later) creates the first wall as a template, one of each type, then our crews take over and try to create 6 more replicas. Are they exact? ma or meo...that is the Chilean maestro version of mas or menos, (more or less). Anyway the last few days I worked with a team of guys to erect walls for several of the houses. You really see progress then as the walls form the house. Today we put up the firewall on one and I had to take over from maestro Gillermo to do the plumb line as we nailed the braces in to make sure the wall was straight. If Paola´s house leans a bit left she can thank me.

And before I forget...PLEASE PUT DOWN THE AEROSOL CAN...I have discovered that Chile is right below the ozone hole... it floats above us like a magnifying glass between the sun and my fair skin...now I am a crispy critter with a beard. Every day I wear my Lawrence of Arabia mosquito and sun hat to protect my head, ears and neck. The good thing is that I have not burned them to a crisp, the bad thing is that I look like a complete idiot, and most of the people on the team spend at least 15% of their non coffee break time going around taking pictures.

Ciao peeps