Well I believe I have completed the study of strange and often unused muscles of the human body. I know I passed because I am back home in my bunk safe and sound.
We took some back of the envelop calculations on how much concrete we moved today and here is what I can remember: 20 wheelbarrows of rock, 20 sand, 10 fifty lbs bags of concrete and a bunch of water. That equals 160 wheelbarrows of concrete. Or about 12000 cubic yards. these calculations were made by my hombres down here and even though a couple are aggies it seems about right based on my back. We have also handed out more candy than the dentist I know would approve of. The estimates for yesterday were about the same so put us 11 hombres down for 16 tons of concrete. Yikes.
What a great and satisfying day.
Here are some notess from today. We had a dog deliver 8 puppies under the vanwe drove down in. Some kids brought over the biggest scorpion I have seen. wayne on our team bought a soccer ball last night and he played some soccer in the streets. When he should have been working just kidding. Today was Mothers day in Mexico so everyone was dressed up in their best clothes. Amazing that even in this very poor place people still take time to do the family things.
Being here has meant a lot to me. I have met some great guys he have laughed quite a bit about so many things. We work with three guys Fredrico is the foreman and speaks good english he wore a green bay packers shirt today and when we asked him if he was a packers fan he said he did not know the packers and that he just bought the shirt at the flea market for 5 pesos. I assumed same went for the guy riding a bike carrying a guitar and wearing a cubs hat. Fredrico usually tells us if we are messing something up. Santos is the quiet one. Fredrico loves to give him a hard time. Then there is Antonio he is a young guy in his 20s. He and Santos both are pretty quiet but neither speaks english. They are strong men and they put us gringos to shame in this concrete mixing game.
we were able to get about twice as much stuff done this trip as I think they were hoping we would do. We are done with concrete work but unfortanently now we have to go paint. I think I am going to do some electrical work tomorrow as well and I am looking forward to that since I have never done that before.
I am looking foward to coming home tomorrow very much. Can’t wait to see Jeannie and the kids. I wish Jeannie could be here with her camera to take good pictures instead of what I am taking. I wish I could describe for you better what this experience is like. Typing these notes does not do it justice. Hopefully some of the photos I will post will give you a glimpse into different world where there are broken bottles and nails littering the ground that these beautiful little children run and play in all day. There is no running water and every home has an outhouse. Where companies pump toxic waste to ditches through pipes that crack and leak poison into the ground. I have met kids with autism, cerebal palsy and many other diseases caused by the dumping. They are surrounded by wonderful people who may not even be their parents.
I think they all like we are here and I look forward to coming back.
Goodnight all.
Jimmy