getting to work

13 May 2008

Yesterday began work in earnest. We had to take a little time to get started, but once we got going, it began to fly. The Filipinos are great to work with and are extremely eager to get the work done. By the time the first day was done we had laid over three hundred block and core filled everything. It was interesting working with people who don’t really speak your language, but some things are easy to communicate, work (especially construction work) and sports are international in nature. At the end of the day it began to downpour and hasn’t stopped raining since.
This morning we decided that only a few people needed to go to the main job site, but I volunteered to go to our inside job and help strip linoleum tiles and replace them with some nice new ceramic tile. The tile that was in place was the color of dried blood, a poor choice for a health clinic. We are also tasked with placing a concrete pad for an outdoor waiting area so that we can add another treatment room inside. The reason that I volunteered to go to that job is partly because I didn’t want to be bored all day, but mostly I heard that there was a monkey at the next door neighbor’s house. I will post pictures of the monkey on the dropshots site. We spent most of the morning wading through mud and trying to dig some form of drainage to keep the pad from flooding. I don’t know what job I’ll be on tomorrow, but it should be interesting.