Today’s heading covers it all. Today involved A LOT of concrete – mixing, hauling and dumping, then more hauling and more dumping…
Today’s projects included three main tasks. One team of people – led by Benjamin – dug a hole 9 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter that is to hold the septic system. When we say dug we mean by hand…with a shovel no machines…in the 500 degree heat…in a hole.
The second job was to carry old broken concrete blocks into the area that will be the floor of the house and then use hammer and sledge hammers to break them up as small as possible. Keep in mind this house is 36 square meters, which means a lot of concrete blocks and a lot of breaking them up. Once that was moving along well we moved towards the final project – more concrete.
Our biggest goal of the day was to complete the foundation work. We hauled bucketfuls of sand and gravel to the concrete mixer, adding the concrete mix and water. We are talking hundreds of trips carrying these buckets – we needed a lot of concrete! As we made each batch of concrete we then halted the concrete mixing process and switched gears to then bucket the concrete out of the mixer and into the foundation. Our chain system worked well with passing buckets from person to person until the end of the line when it could be dumped and passed back towards the fron tof the line to be refilled. It became a very efficient system when we finally got it down right. We stayed late today to ensure the job was done, but it was worth it.
It’s funny to see us on the way home – it’s a very quiet ride in comparison to the morning trip into work. We are all so exhausted by the time we’re heading back to our hotel that everyone seems to be in a daze. The hard work, in combination with the heat and humidity are enough to do a person in!
Dinner tonight was great – we went to a great place across the street from our hotel that is a combo Thai/German food place. It was delicious! One of the other terrific things about this restaurant is that they offer free wi-fi J It is our new favorite stop after a long day of work. With three computer between our entire group the “internet rotation” is working out just fine.
Today’s projects included three main tasks. One team of people – led by Benjamin – dug a hole 9 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter that is to hold the septic system. When we say dug we mean by hand…with a shovel no machines…in the 500 degree heat…in a hole.
The second job was to carry old broken concrete blocks into the area that will be the floor of the house and then use hammer and sledge hammers to break them up as small as possible. Keep in mind this house is 36 square meters, which means a lot of concrete blocks and a lot of breaking them up. Once that was moving along well we moved towards the final project – more concrete.
Our biggest goal of the day was to complete the foundation work. We hauled bucketfuls of sand and gravel to the concrete mixer, adding the concrete mix and water. We are talking hundreds of trips carrying these buckets – we needed a lot of concrete! As we made each batch of concrete we then halted the concrete mixing process and switched gears to then bucket the concrete out of the mixer and into the foundation. Our chain system worked well with passing buckets from person to person until the end of the line when it could be dumped and passed back towards the fron tof the line to be refilled. It became a very efficient system when we finally got it down right. We stayed late today to ensure the job was done, but it was worth it.
It’s funny to see us on the way home – it’s a very quiet ride in comparison to the morning trip into work. We are all so exhausted by the time we’re heading back to our hotel that everyone seems to be in a daze. The hard work, in combination with the heat and humidity are enough to do a person in!
Dinner tonight was great – we went to a great place across the street from our hotel that is a combo Thai/German food place. It was delicious! One of the other terrific things about this restaurant is that they offer free wi-fi J It is our new favorite stop after a long day of work. With three computer between our entire group the “internet rotation” is working out just fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment