A very important part of all of my days on weekdays is my 4 hour volunteer placement. Despite the fact that I have to wake up at 6 each morning, precluding me from going out at night, it is always an easy choice to prefer my volunteer placement over a night out. A major factor in this is my foreman Freddy. Every day I will meet up with him at Maximo Nivel's office, and we will talk together to the bus stop, chatting in Spanish about all sorts of different topics despite my still restricted Spanish vocabulary. His openness and graciousness when confronting my enthusiastic albeit often limited Spanish, doing his best to understand and answer to the best of his ability while allowing me to understand is what motivates me every day during my Spanish classes. I had opted to work at a construction site, figuring that this type of placement was closest to engineering in spirit and because the prospect of a hard day's work, seeing your work actually materialise, seemed very appealing. I had picked this also because or despite the fact that I had no prior construction experience, meaning I would have to learn on the job itself. Freddy's patience at the placement site, teaching and sometimes demonstrating what he wants me to do several times is unmatched and because of his continous use of Spanish whilst we work, my immersion is significantly increased, and not only do I get to practise the Spanish I learn, I also pick some new things every day.
Typically after meeting Freddy, we will walk 2 blocks to the bus station to wait for the chicken buses to get to San Mateo, a small town just outside Antigua where I am based. Now the chicken buses are simply US school buses still bearing the Porsche label, repurposed for the general public. Suffice to say that in a developing country like Guatemala, environmental standards are fairly relaxed and not the first priority. This can be directly evidenced by the chicken buses, where the exhaust fumes that they produce are black and frankly smell pretty terrible. But at least the bus ride there and back costs only 6 quetzals, which in US dollars is 75 cents. As ever ther is a trade-off which ultimately many of the Guatemalans themselves prefer, as the low cost allows them to travel acroos the country on their wages, despite the bus sometimes having unrelaible service and unpredictable hours. In fact, last week having missed the bus, Freddy drove us to San Mateo by motorcycle, which was actually my first experience being driven on a motorcycle. I gripped on tight to the straps of Freddy's bag, but it was still an exhilarating experience, particularly when we climbed the steep winding hill. As the motor furiously vibrated trying to cope with the weight and the incline, my foot would absorb all the vibrations. Steadily my foot would begin to feel smaller and smaller and my shoe felt like it was going to slip and then the foot itself would drop of the motorcycle and plod along the ground. Thankfully just as I would get worried, the motor would finally explode into a higher gear, awakening my foot in the process.
The roof on the third floor of the project where I work opens a stunning 360 degree view. To the north a volcasno can be seen, usually with its summit dipped in mist. On the other sides, mountains covered with villages appear, with local farmers cultivating and leading their lives regardless of our presence. For the first 2 weeks, I participated and assisted in numerous activities. Starting with the preparation of foundations into which cement was to be poured, where I assisted by tying wire knots around the structural supports and metal bars to the preparation of cement, everything was centered around the preparations of the construction of a wall on the third floor of an school children's center. My first Thursday was a pivotal day, since I was the sole regular volunteer present and that was the day a truck full of material arrived; sand, blocks and cement bags. Having anticipated the scale of the challenge awaiting us he had summoned emergency help by using a volunteer from Spain usually working with children along with various people from the town of San Mateo. Having carried heaps of sand using a wheelbarrow, dozens of blocks, my day was only complete when I carried 4 cement bags, weighing 42.5 kgs each, up a flight of stairs to the second and third floors. The previous days I had also assisted in the erection of a temporary cover for various material that were best not exposed in the rain. Just before starting to build the wall itself, the final cement foundations for the wall were were completed without any barrier or reiling on the edges of the building. Having a fear of heights, I was especially paranoid of falling off the roof, especially once freddy warned that the roof of an adjacent house just below us would height up tremendously and that he personally would prefer falling 5 metres than falling on those metal covers.
At the end of last week work had finally started on the wall itself. Cment was deposited on which the blocks were subsequently placed. Using some thread, Freddy created a visual guide along the wall to be built, to follow when lining up the blocks, to ensure that all the layers of the wall matched up to each other. Using a spirit level and a hammer blocks were gently coaxed into the perfect postions next to their neighbours. So far I have helped mix the cement used to secure the blocks in place, filled the gaps between them with cement, and I have covered any cracks at the bottom of the first row of blocks. Usually having given me a task, Freddy will demonstrate the optimal way of completing a task if he sees me struggling, several times if necessary until I can independently finish the task to his satisfaction. As of today 5 rows of blocks have been placed along one side of the building we have commenced working on the immediately adjacent side. The next stage will involve the towering cement foundations into which quite wet concrete will be poured. Estimated completion time for the project is 3 and a half weeks.
After work, having returned home and eaten, I head to Maximo Nivel's building to have my daily 4 hours of Spanish. The 4 hours are separated in 2 blocks; 2 hours of private instruction with Sandra and 2 hours of group class with Willy. My private classes are mostly conversation with some work done using a textbook with grammar and short articles. Sandra, my teacher for those 2 hours, matches me every step of the way with every joke I make. She now proceeds to tease by implying that the resident cleaner is attracted to me and will proceed to buy Victoria Secret underwear to seduce me. The fact that she is also nearing 50 and has a daughter does not deter from mentioning it. Generally though the majority of time is spent talking about random topics, usually revolving about my daily activities at my placement or my weekend trips. My second 2 hours, of group instruction with a teacher named Willy, is not so indulgent to my idiosyncracies as willy needs to be considerate of the needs of the whole group. Therefore despite me trying my best to amuse and entertain myself and others in a spirit of fun and respect, I have gained a reputation despite constant changes in the people who make our group. Hence I have gained the nicknames 'El Gran Demetrio', where Demetrio is the Guatemalan equivalent of my name, Cleopatro which amuses because of its sheer randomness and Extraterrestre, or alien in Spanish. I have also at times benn shushed and called a pain in the "select which are you thinks works best here, eg butt". Still such is the power of a reputation that it sometimes takes very little for me to make Willy or someone else laugh making it all worth it.
