This morning the team got up for our breakfast at 7:30. Afterwards we received information about COCREF schools that are with the one we will be working on. Today our work would involve pouring concrete columns. We were driven to the site - past skinned goats hanging for sale, houses made of corrugated metal and plastic. The school is located within a neighbourhood, closer to homes than I had expected. After a short tour of the school and the construction site, some of the men started to help the workers there mix concrete. There were piles of dirt and gravel which were mixed with concrete powder and water to get a mix more watery than what most Canadians would expect.
A train of people was formed to transport the small buckets of concrete to the column. The foreman of the construction site pulled the buckets up to the second storey with a hooked piece of rebar. We passed the buckets down and Harley poured them in. Peter Douwes would make a scaffold out of wood and blocks for the pourer to stand on. Victor, our translator and host, kept giving us breaks. I guess he did not want to work us too hard.
For lunch we were served mashed potatoes, smoked pork and cooked carrots and a local vegetable called tayota. Those filling columns counted approximately 76 buckets were needed to fill a column with concrete. At the end of the day we had filled seven columns. We travelled home, stopping at a grocery store where some members of the team exchanged their American money for Pesos. Showers and some down time before dinner which was french fries, fried chicken, rice with beans and mixed vegetables. At the end of our devotions we sang some songs. I looked at the stars and Chris found out which way was north. Pete went out to buy some ice cream.
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