This week was reminiscent of my earlier weeks in Guatemala, few volunteers with a more relaxed atmosphere. It was just me, Greg and Tom most days while Friday was only me and Freddy. Due to my continuing improvement in spanish and an atmosphere of mutual joking and horseplay, Freddy has been throwing more and more local words at me. Of course, I find out what they mean, learn them and regurgitate them back at Freddy but he has an endless supply. I try to learn to more in my classes to use against him but he always comes up with an answer. Of course this all helping my Spanish, increasing my vocabulary, deepening my immersion, pushing my brain to think, remember and recall words to use against Freddy, even though most of the words do not have any positive connotations in the slightest. But of course I have been able to chat to Tom quite a lot and share opinions on a variety of topics, including Edward Snowden and his revelations of the surveillance programs, North Korean government, military and politics, the Syrian civil war and buffets in the US. It was his last week in Guatemala and I am sad to see him leave as my conversations with Freddy rarely elevate themselves to the same levels of sophistication.
Other than that, this week was a week of consolidation and preparation for when all the new materials would arrive after which extensive work would start. Nevertheless throughout the week quite a lot of time was dedicated to preparing tied rebar beam cage, to be embedded in the walls that will be constructed. This involves 4 steel rebars in a rectangular configuration, held in place by rectangular stirrups tied with wire. Something like this.
I spent quite a lot of time bending steel and making the stirrups required, with Freddy regularly popping up to inspect my work and silently approve those he liked and cast aside those he felt were deficient. The process itself is quite easy once Ive understood the actions and memorized them. Essentially Freddy keeping the size of the stirrups needed in mind, constructed a wooden platform with bolts of steel embedded in the wood. Using a crowbar to bend the samples of steel around these nails of steel, a stirrup is formed. During the week I had also cut dozens of steel rebars using boltcutters, defining a distance to be equal to the distance I need, eg between two cinder blocks with a tape measure, and then cutting away. Tuesday I also helped prepare the perimeter wall by breaking the inside in order to allow one of the beam cages to fit inside. The day was particularly hot and between all the cinder block dust and the full force of the sun on the back of my head, I felt like I was in a steam bath the rest of the day.
Friday was the day I was expecting all the new material to arrive with the all the exhausting work that follows moving and sorting it. This didn{t happen as the company Fredy employed to bring the material did that work for us. I was however able to see the receipt of Fredy{s order which amounted to almost $2000 US dollars. This week we were also joined by more professional builders, similar to Fredy in skill and professionalism. Both of them, Lorenzo and Chookie(based on Chuckie the doll), work in a separate team with the same goals in mind as us, cooperating but working on a separate part of the wall. They have a break at the same time as us and joke around with Fredy, mostly poking fun at me. Still its also possible to joke around with them about Fredy, so its not as onesided.
