Week #1 - Construction Crew at Our Lady of Nazareth School:
Lee Cauble, Alli Cecil, Chris Cross, Lin Cross. Colleen Nolan, Jim Swartz, Barbara Warrion, Iris Yazno
Over the next two weeks the construction crew would build a concrete playground at a Catholic, private elementary school, pre-K-8, Escuela Diocesana “Nuestra Senora de Nazareth Cooperativea Roberto Gilbert Febres Cordero. Hours are 8-to-noon. Classes include: computacion, ingles, religion and valores. The cost is $10 a month to attend, which includes school uniforms. Many families haven't enough to pay the $10. There are two kindergarten classes. Enrollment is 220 with a capacity for 300 students. Thirteen employees are paid. No lunch program, however there are morning snacks for pre-K including boxed, chocolate or strawberry-flavored milk.
Thirteen years ago these three-quarter walled classrooms, made of ceramic hollow block, were built under the direction of an Order of Franciscans from the U.S. Nine years before the group of priests arrived classes were held in rooms made of cane wall and dirt or concrete floors, which now serves as a small, primitive chapel, storage shed and living quarters for the caretaker's family,
Last year a new section was added to the school, housing two kindergarten classes, and funded by a local donor. Today school children are in classrooms with ceramic floor tiles and walls of abode block. Half-way up the wall is open with attractive decorative grid work for security.
Beforehand SMA construction volunteers were told, "the project consists of eight inches of fill dirt topped by cement and each volunteer could work at our own pace." Sounds easy enough. If you get tired you sit it out. Right? Yeah, until we were so short on people that we work and sweat like mules. But I'm getting ahead of myself and there's always more to the story - our wonderful story.
Lee Cauble, Alli Cecil, Chris Cross, Lin Cross. Colleen Nolan, Jim Swartz, Barbara Warrion, Iris Yazno
Over the next two weeks the construction crew would build a concrete playground at a Catholic, private elementary school, pre-K-8, Escuela Diocesana “Nuestra Senora de Nazareth Cooperativea Roberto Gilbert Febres Cordero. Hours are 8-to-noon. Classes include: computacion, ingles, religion and valores. The cost is $10 a month to attend, which includes school uniforms. Many families haven't enough to pay the $10. There are two kindergarten classes. Enrollment is 220 with a capacity for 300 students. Thirteen employees are paid. No lunch program, however there are morning snacks for pre-K including boxed, chocolate or strawberry-flavored milk.
Thirteen years ago these three-quarter walled classrooms, made of ceramic hollow block, were built under the direction of an Order of Franciscans from the U.S. Nine years before the group of priests arrived classes were held in rooms made of cane wall and dirt or concrete floors, which now serves as a small, primitive chapel, storage shed and living quarters for the caretaker's family,
Last year a new section was added to the school, housing two kindergarten classes, and funded by a local donor. Today school children are in classrooms with ceramic floor tiles and walls of abode block. Half-way up the wall is open with attractive decorative grid work for security.
Beforehand SMA construction volunteers were told, "the project consists of eight inches of fill dirt topped by cement and each volunteer could work at our own pace." Sounds easy enough. If you get tired you sit it out. Right? Yeah, until we were so short on people that we work and sweat like mules. But I'm getting ahead of myself and there's always more to the story - our wonderful story.
Monday, August 12
The Catholic diocese of Yaguachi has a civil engineer, who assigned Gabriel as our construction superintendent. His helper is Jose, whom Iris generously paid $25 for each day's work. Luckily, Gabriel and Jose both show up for work every day.
By time we arrive a dump truck has delivered numerous piles of fill dirt within the U-shaped courtyard of the elementary school. During the rainy session this area gets very muddy. Our goal is to construct a solid concrete slab over the pebbled, play area and turn it into a soccer court/playground. Over the next few days we came to understand why this was so important as even the streets are not paved in this land of poverty. Everywhere is dirt. Even the slightest breeze leaves a layer of dust in the open classrooms. Dirt streets are the playground for these school children living in extremely primitive one-room, stick-shacks on stilts made of sugar cane. This concrete pad our construction crew will leave behind will bridge, or connect the narrow sidewalks surrounding the outside of the classrooms.
We are facing back-breaking work ahead of us. Christopher and Alli are in their 20s, some in their 50s, 60s and three in their 70s. Nevertheless, our work begins doing basic manual labor (and we got a college degree for this? Maybe we should have gone into medicine instead!) As lead worker, Gabriel laid plumb lines and built forms with what little lumber was available. After the first half day Gabriel determined more fill was need to provide a high point in the center with a slope toward the sides for water drainage during the rainy season.
The rest of us peons dug through endless piles of fill dirt - which was full of rocks of various sizes from pebbles to boulders and everything in between. We shoveled, raked, leveled, tamped, compacted and hand-watered the rocky fill to bring the ground up to within three inches of the top of the existing sidewalk.
Once an entire row was compacted the next step began. Black rock, sand, concrete-mix were shoveled into wheelbarrows and hauled to a central location. Water was added and the sludge was mixed into something between stew and cookie dough. Then the sludge was loaded back into wheelbarrows and dumped within the forms as our foreman, Gabriel moved around the mixture and leveled it even with the forms. Much more physically hard then we volunteers are used to. Pain relievers were consumed before lunch and again at the end of the work shift, or bedtime.
Every day took on the same repetitive movements. (And our bodies felt it.) Shovel until there is no more. We cringed every time a dump truck drove up with a new load.
School was in session in the mornings so we knew going in we would encounter the hazard of curious children tempted to stand close by watching us work as we wildly scooped rock, sand and dirt and hand mix concrete using shovels, rakes, pick axes and wheelbarrows. As we uncovered large boulders or rocks these were hauled by wheelbarrow, or rolled to a side yard where a rock fence is planned to be built.
The Catholic diocese of Yaguachi has a civil engineer, who assigned Gabriel as our construction superintendent. His helper is Jose, whom Iris generously paid $25 for each day's work. Luckily, Gabriel and Jose both show up for work every day.
By time we arrive a dump truck has delivered numerous piles of fill dirt within the U-shaped courtyard of the elementary school. During the rainy session this area gets very muddy. Our goal is to construct a solid concrete slab over the pebbled, play area and turn it into a soccer court/playground. Over the next few days we came to understand why this was so important as even the streets are not paved in this land of poverty. Everywhere is dirt. Even the slightest breeze leaves a layer of dust in the open classrooms. Dirt streets are the playground for these school children living in extremely primitive one-room, stick-shacks on stilts made of sugar cane. This concrete pad our construction crew will leave behind will bridge, or connect the narrow sidewalks surrounding the outside of the classrooms.
We are facing back-breaking work ahead of us. Christopher and Alli are in their 20s, some in their 50s, 60s and three in their 70s. Nevertheless, our work begins doing basic manual labor (and we got a college degree for this? Maybe we should have gone into medicine instead!) As lead worker, Gabriel laid plumb lines and built forms with what little lumber was available. After the first half day Gabriel determined more fill was need to provide a high point in the center with a slope toward the sides for water drainage during the rainy season.
The rest of us peons dug through endless piles of fill dirt - which was full of rocks of various sizes from pebbles to boulders and everything in between. We shoveled, raked, leveled, tamped, compacted and hand-watered the rocky fill to bring the ground up to within three inches of the top of the existing sidewalk.
Once an entire row was compacted the next step began. Black rock, sand, concrete-mix were shoveled into wheelbarrows and hauled to a central location. Water was added and the sludge was mixed into something between stew and cookie dough. Then the sludge was loaded back into wheelbarrows and dumped within the forms as our foreman, Gabriel moved around the mixture and leveled it even with the forms. Much more physically hard then we volunteers are used to. Pain relievers were consumed before lunch and again at the end of the work shift, or bedtime.
Every day took on the same repetitive movements. (And our bodies felt it.) Shovel until there is no more. We cringed every time a dump truck drove up with a new load.
School was in session in the mornings so we knew going in we would encounter the hazard of curious children tempted to stand close by watching us work as we wildly scooped rock, sand and dirt and hand mix concrete using shovels, rakes, pick axes and wheelbarrows. As we uncovered large boulders or rocks these were hauled by wheelbarrow, or rolled to a side yard where a rock fence is planned to be built.
John Tancock reports, "On Monday we start work on the construction project, the school courtyard area that serves as the playground. Gabriel was the local worker hired to help the rookies. Fortunately we had Iris to interpret, but even then, we encountered a "rocky" start. By rocky, I mean our crew - Lin, Barbara (the birthday girl), Colleen, Alli, Chris, Jim, and John spent the entire day moving tons of rock and dirt with well worn shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, and buckets. A very tiring exercise indeed. Tomorrow we start mixing concrete. The full yard will end up about twenty-five by one-hundred meters, give or take. Oh yeh...and if wasn't for the local superhero volunteer Walter, our total production this day would have been a little less. I'm going to see if we can take up a collection at dinner for a front-end loader from the local "Cat" dealer.
Chris Cross added, "Today was an interesting, yet exhausting day. We arrived at the school early in the morning and immediately got to work. Our goal as the construction team, was to place rocks from the pile of fill, and spread them out on a 24 x 24 yard playground. The task seemed simple enough until we actually got through 10 minutes of it. We then found out exactly how hard it was, in addition to the intense humidity [for those of us coming from the dry, desert climate in Tucson, Arizona.]
The month of August is their winter. While we were sweltering in the humidity and heat the school children were wearing their uniform jackets and several of the local men and woman who came to help in construction wore long sleeves.
Chris Cross added, "Today was an interesting, yet exhausting day. We arrived at the school early in the morning and immediately got to work. Our goal as the construction team, was to place rocks from the pile of fill, and spread them out on a 24 x 24 yard playground. The task seemed simple enough until we actually got through 10 minutes of it. We then found out exactly how hard it was, in addition to the intense humidity [for those of us coming from the dry, desert climate in Tucson, Arizona.]
The month of August is their winter. While we were sweltering in the humidity and heat the school children were wearing their uniform jackets and several of the local men and woman who came to help in construction wore long sleeves.
Tuesday, August 13
John Tancock said, "7:30am. Waiting on the bus....again. This is our second day. For prospective future volunteers, Day 2 is usually much better than Day 1, so you just have to hang in there. On day one, it's a struggle for everything. Especially if your host superintendent is not very assertive. Keep in mind, village construction in the third world is not like your kitchen remodel. If it is, you probably had a frustrating remodel.
"Don't expect to have all the tools, all the materials or detailed plans to work from. If you're an engineer like me, you have to learn to 'go with the flow' or you can lose sight of the big picture...we're just here to help, not to take command of the place.
"12 + hours later: "8:46 p.m. Room 5, in bed...tired, sore and fulfilled. Today's effort turned out way better than I expected so my little sermon to myself (above) worked, as it usually does. With a little prayer and a positive attitude, it's amazing how much better things will get. We are building it and they did come...the parents that is. The local parents of the school, to help make something better for their kids. And we will. Amen
Lee Cauble wrote on her blog - (This may sound crazy but....), "Today we met Superman. Arriving at the school we were confronted with eight large piles of dirt and rock. My first thought was 'How do you eat an elephant?' One bite at a time. So how can we move this dirt? One shovel at a time. But as the day wore on the elephant fought back.
"Our construction supervisor, Gabriel was unstoppable. On Monday he talked to John, with Iris interrupting [and interpreting in Spanish] to hash out our plan for the project. We learned we would be building a basketball court [or something like that]. Sometimes it seemed as if there were more rocks then dirt. We easily picked out a ton of large rocks from the piles. As lunch time approached we all began to feel the weight of the project.
"Although the sky was overcast it was not less hot or humid. John and Jim were especially diligent. Iris moved between [dirt-rock work] and translations. Chris found time to connect with some of the kids. One boy asked if Chris was famous. I told the boy that Chris was Brad Pitt. The boy smiled. ”
Chris Cross added, "Throughout the day there were multiple breaks for the children to come out to play. During that time [of recess] my job, which I took upon myself, was to play with the young children, such as pushing them on the swing set."
Lee Cauble's blog continued. “After lunch it was hard to get started again. John and Jim went straight back at it. Then HE appeared. In khaki pants, dark blue shirt and cap. Superman. Superman's name is Walter. He is the father of some of the students and president of the Parent-teacher Board. Walter moved more dirt in one hour then nine of us did in four hours. We watched in amazement trying to learn his secret. We now have a new measure of workforce – Walter. If we had seven Walters we would be done in a day."
The next day Walter was treated at our clinic on-site for an on-going toe fungus. The skin between his toes split and he was unable to continue working with us. How sad for us.
Chris Cross offered his perspective, “After lunch Walter stepped in to help us with the construction. We all watched in awe as he shoveled away at the gravel non-stop for several hours. He did not even break a sweat and got more done in one hour then eight of us did in three hours. Walter was by far the hardest worker I have ever seen."
We are learning the ways of shanty town life at this elementary school. Here we are lucky enough to have sit-down flush-able toilets. However, the toilets don't flush during certain times during the day when water is shut off. When this is the case water can taken in a small bucket collected in a large 55 gallon oil drum and dumped into the toilet. Nor was there toilet paper. Even if there was you couldn't flush it down the toilet. Furthermore, there was no waste receptacle to be found.
Wednesday, August 14
Jim Schwartz said, "We began our day with our usual prayer service. After breakfast 'Diamond' Lil gave us each a bar of chocolate from her husband, Eduardo's chocolate factory. We are hoping to visit the factory and load up on the sweet stuff.
"Arriving at the construction site we saw several parents (more women then men) had shown up to help us with the construction. We had prepared three areas for paving on Monday and Tuesday. Today we began to mix and lay the concrete. It is hard work. We all did our share, but it is amazing to see how hard and how long the volunteer parents worked. We had two of the mothers who did the same work as the men. Our work involved first loading wheelbarrow full of sand and gravel and dumping them in lines on the ground. Then six bags [weighing 50 kilos - 110 pounds] of cement poured over the rock and sand, then water is added. Then the tough part begins. We had to mix everything together. When it was good and soupy we re-loaded the three wheelbarrows and pushed 40 yards to the pour site. There our foreman Gabriel formed the concrete into long slabs. At the end of the day we nursed our sore muscles and looked forward to a hot shower and dinner."
At the end of the day while waiting for the medical team to finish Chris and Alli were the errand runners. Chris stopped along the way to play with or watch the dogs, then walked further down the street and around the corner to a woman's house set up as a storefront. She came out to her patio and sold individual bottles of cold cerveza stored inside her house. Chris was getting a chance to practice his high school Spanish and was amazed how quickly it came back.
Thursday, August 15th
Today we lost Alli and Barbara again on the construction crew due to illness so we had John, Jim, Chris, Lee, Colleen and Lin. The second half of the second pad was poured. In total there will be 10 pads. We have a long way to go. Several mature trees/bushes were in place so Gabriel cut the concrete grid wire to fit around. A few in our crew were concerned about this vegetation continuing to survive the laying of concrete because the surface space is now narrow and limits rain fall to reach plants. Luckily, there is a Gerry-rigged garden house for the plants.
Students attend school during mornings only and are home for the noon meal. However, Gladys and Jose live on-site as care-takers, and Jose prepared our delicious and sustaining meals. Lunch today was spaghetti with tuna, potato soup, fried plantains and pear juice.
Friday, August 16th
Concrete mix got splashed into Collen's eye. Thank goodness the clinic was a few yards away. Dr. Del rinsed it out and pronounced the eye irritated, but not damaged.
This will be the last work day for John, Lee, Colleen and Chris. School boys Hape, John and Jose clung to Chris with their sad goodbyes, as did many of the school children when he played games with them. Knowing that it was Chris' last day before leaving to go back home several of the boys were visibility sad, as if an older brother was leaving home. Chris took three boys under his wing. He purchased a rosary for Jose, who wore it around his neck the reminder of the day. Then the school boys showed up after lunch, out of uniform, and ready to help Chris clear out rocks. Mission work and international relations is expressed in a variety of ways.
John Tancock said, "7:30am. Waiting on the bus....again. This is our second day. For prospective future volunteers, Day 2 is usually much better than Day 1, so you just have to hang in there. On day one, it's a struggle for everything. Especially if your host superintendent is not very assertive. Keep in mind, village construction in the third world is not like your kitchen remodel. If it is, you probably had a frustrating remodel.
"Don't expect to have all the tools, all the materials or detailed plans to work from. If you're an engineer like me, you have to learn to 'go with the flow' or you can lose sight of the big picture...we're just here to help, not to take command of the place.
"12 + hours later: "8:46 p.m. Room 5, in bed...tired, sore and fulfilled. Today's effort turned out way better than I expected so my little sermon to myself (above) worked, as it usually does. With a little prayer and a positive attitude, it's amazing how much better things will get. We are building it and they did come...the parents that is. The local parents of the school, to help make something better for their kids. And we will. Amen
Lee Cauble wrote on her blog - (This may sound crazy but....), "Today we met Superman. Arriving at the school we were confronted with eight large piles of dirt and rock. My first thought was 'How do you eat an elephant?' One bite at a time. So how can we move this dirt? One shovel at a time. But as the day wore on the elephant fought back.
"Our construction supervisor, Gabriel was unstoppable. On Monday he talked to John, with Iris interrupting [and interpreting in Spanish] to hash out our plan for the project. We learned we would be building a basketball court [or something like that]. Sometimes it seemed as if there were more rocks then dirt. We easily picked out a ton of large rocks from the piles. As lunch time approached we all began to feel the weight of the project.
"Although the sky was overcast it was not less hot or humid. John and Jim were especially diligent. Iris moved between [dirt-rock work] and translations. Chris found time to connect with some of the kids. One boy asked if Chris was famous. I told the boy that Chris was Brad Pitt. The boy smiled. ”
Chris Cross added, "Throughout the day there were multiple breaks for the children to come out to play. During that time [of recess] my job, which I took upon myself, was to play with the young children, such as pushing them on the swing set."
Lee Cauble's blog continued. “After lunch it was hard to get started again. John and Jim went straight back at it. Then HE appeared. In khaki pants, dark blue shirt and cap. Superman. Superman's name is Walter. He is the father of some of the students and president of the Parent-teacher Board. Walter moved more dirt in one hour then nine of us did in four hours. We watched in amazement trying to learn his secret. We now have a new measure of workforce – Walter. If we had seven Walters we would be done in a day."
The next day Walter was treated at our clinic on-site for an on-going toe fungus. The skin between his toes split and he was unable to continue working with us. How sad for us.
Chris Cross offered his perspective, “After lunch Walter stepped in to help us with the construction. We all watched in awe as he shoveled away at the gravel non-stop for several hours. He did not even break a sweat and got more done in one hour then eight of us did in three hours. Walter was by far the hardest worker I have ever seen."
We are learning the ways of shanty town life at this elementary school. Here we are lucky enough to have sit-down flush-able toilets. However, the toilets don't flush during certain times during the day when water is shut off. When this is the case water can taken in a small bucket collected in a large 55 gallon oil drum and dumped into the toilet. Nor was there toilet paper. Even if there was you couldn't flush it down the toilet. Furthermore, there was no waste receptacle to be found.
Wednesday, August 14
Jim Schwartz said, "We began our day with our usual prayer service. After breakfast 'Diamond' Lil gave us each a bar of chocolate from her husband, Eduardo's chocolate factory. We are hoping to visit the factory and load up on the sweet stuff.
"Arriving at the construction site we saw several parents (more women then men) had shown up to help us with the construction. We had prepared three areas for paving on Monday and Tuesday. Today we began to mix and lay the concrete. It is hard work. We all did our share, but it is amazing to see how hard and how long the volunteer parents worked. We had two of the mothers who did the same work as the men. Our work involved first loading wheelbarrow full of sand and gravel and dumping them in lines on the ground. Then six bags [weighing 50 kilos - 110 pounds] of cement poured over the rock and sand, then water is added. Then the tough part begins. We had to mix everything together. When it was good and soupy we re-loaded the three wheelbarrows and pushed 40 yards to the pour site. There our foreman Gabriel formed the concrete into long slabs. At the end of the day we nursed our sore muscles and looked forward to a hot shower and dinner."
At the end of the day while waiting for the medical team to finish Chris and Alli were the errand runners. Chris stopped along the way to play with or watch the dogs, then walked further down the street and around the corner to a woman's house set up as a storefront. She came out to her patio and sold individual bottles of cold cerveza stored inside her house. Chris was getting a chance to practice his high school Spanish and was amazed how quickly it came back.
Thursday, August 15th
Today we lost Alli and Barbara again on the construction crew due to illness so we had John, Jim, Chris, Lee, Colleen and Lin. The second half of the second pad was poured. In total there will be 10 pads. We have a long way to go. Several mature trees/bushes were in place so Gabriel cut the concrete grid wire to fit around. A few in our crew were concerned about this vegetation continuing to survive the laying of concrete because the surface space is now narrow and limits rain fall to reach plants. Luckily, there is a Gerry-rigged garden house for the plants.
Students attend school during mornings only and are home for the noon meal. However, Gladys and Jose live on-site as care-takers, and Jose prepared our delicious and sustaining meals. Lunch today was spaghetti with tuna, potato soup, fried plantains and pear juice.
Friday, August 16th
Concrete mix got splashed into Collen's eye. Thank goodness the clinic was a few yards away. Dr. Del rinsed it out and pronounced the eye irritated, but not damaged.
This will be the last work day for John, Lee, Colleen and Chris. School boys Hape, John and Jose clung to Chris with their sad goodbyes, as did many of the school children when he played games with them. Knowing that it was Chris' last day before leaving to go back home several of the boys were visibility sad, as if an older brother was leaving home. Chris took three boys under his wing. He purchased a rosary for Jose, who wore it around his neck the reminder of the day. Then the school boys showed up after lunch, out of uniform, and ready to help Chris clear out rocks. Mission work and international relations is expressed in a variety of ways.