JCWP Pre-build in Puebla

Well, we were able to get our roof finished, but not many other houses did! We were in blocks of three houses, and the other two had Detroit and New Zealand crews, and we figured out very quickly that working as a large extended team worked best. They moved the dedication and closing ceremony up to 3 because Mrs. Fox, the first lady of Mexico, was there, but we were able to get the last hour in after that and finished our roof at 4. We had a house dedication and gave some gifts to our family. We finally met Ofelia's daughter Esther and her mother. Dennis, the Detroit guy that fell through the roof, showed up on the site about noon with a head bandage on and a very sore shoulder, but otherwise OK, thank the Lord!

At least it was a satisfactory end to a very disappointing week, workwise.

We caught the bus to Puebla Saturday morning, a very nice 4 hour trip with a hairy mountain pass to go over, but beautiful scenery. Saturday in the Plazuela de los Zapos we met up with some of the Puebla Habitat people, and they had a much better build, although they did have a day and a half delay in the middle due to the trucks bringing in the mastix getting lost! The one house leader said they did not get to start their roofs until Thursday at noon, but were finished by 5 that day, they went on so easy.

Today is Monday and Kathy and I went out to the Puebla site and man, is it beautiful! What a difference in the roofs and landscaping and all! Many of the homeowners already have plants and great landscaping in. We took lots of pictures, which we will put on the CD when we get back.

Well, that's it from Mexico, we're on our way back tomorrow morning.

Take care,

Lou

Well, our staging and organization problems have continued, and we only finished half our roof by the end of the day today, which means that we will probably not finish it at all tomorrow. Our house is not the last, either, actually pretty close to the front. It is too bad, because it looks like the homeowners will have to wait until professional contractors come in and finish the job. What a difference from Puebla! BTW, these roofs are SO tricky, with a 1/4 inch concrete sheet screwed down to the perlins and then corrugated styrofoam and fiberglass on top of that. Working the first phase is VERY dangerous, as you can inadvertantly step through the roof: three people did that today and were carried off to the hospital. One was a guy named Dennis from Detroit trying to get everyone interested in the JCWP there next year, a really likable guy who apparently got cut up pretty bad going through the roof. The medi-vac´d him out by helicopter.

Oh well, no more JCWP´s for me. I prefer the closer, smaller group like we had with no real pressure or deadlines. I had enought of that at IBM!

Tomorrow is the dedication, and we all get house group pictures with Carter, and then a dinner on the site. I´ll let you know how that turns out either tomorrow night or Saturday from Puebla.

How ´bout those Sox!

Lou

Another very good day, we have several new crew members that are very hard working. We have all the walls and gables up and the main beam that holds the purlins. Tomorrow we will put the roof on, and part of us will be installing doors and windows. All the block work is now done except more sanding and some sealing on the outside (thank goodness!).

Carter arrived in the afternoon, but I have not seen him yet. I hear that he will come by every house on the last day for group photos. The place is swarming with Mexican police with dogs, and of course secret service agents.

So far no injuries, and no abdomibomidable destress, but lots of sun. It was very HOT again this afternoon, but we all seem to be gotting use to it. None of the rain that was forecast has occured, thank goodness.

Kathy and I have arranged to go to Puebla on the way back, and I am going to check if we can go by the site on Monday and see how they did. The organization and preparation here have been extremely bad, that is why we are a day behind.

Our homeowner, Ofelia, is a treasure, and had us all pose for photos after work this afternoon with her sister, Juliana, who has been working with us since yesturday. Ofelia is not married (at least anymore), and has a 4 year old daughter that I hope we can get to see before we leave.

Take care, and go Sox!

Lou

Another very HOT day, today, but not as bad as Monday. We have now built all the walls up to the level of the U-channel blocks, ready for rebar and concrete tomorrow morning, and then the gables after. We were behind after the first day, because we had a small crew (only 11) and no experienced masons, and our house leader was drafted at the last moment and not really up to the job. But we have a good block leader (5 houses) and he got more help from other houses and we´re just about caught up. Most of the problem is actually that they did such a poor job of preparing the build here. Dale is even more of a prince now as far as I´m concerned. He was an absolute perfectionist, but the build there has to have gone 100 times better (and, did I mention, COOLER?)

We go out every night on our own with the meal tickets they give you, and the food is very good wherever we go, but not like Puelba. Lots of nice folks, though. It is quite pleasant at night, with an ocean breeze in the Zocolo, lots of lights and music. The people here seem a lot more alegre than in Puebla.

Our homeowner is a single mother and a real hard worker, her name is Ofelia (Ofe). Her sister came today to work as well, and they are both really nice.

More tomorrow,

Lou

Sorry for the wait on getting this in, it is really hard to get on the internet here.

We had our first day of building today, and it is HOT. and HUMID. The site here was not near as well prepared as we did in Puebla, dirt streets, whole pallets of blocks stacked directly in the houses, not staged as we did. The electrical is a joke, wires coming directly out of the walls with no boxes or switches or anything. No door frames in place, either. Oh well. We laid about half the blocks today, and lost two house members to heat, the house leader needed an IV despite only supervizing (he´s 71).

Everyone is in good spirits and enthusiastic, though, and the build should go well.

More tomorrow,

Lou

Well, despite the best efforts of Nevil in Americus and Felix in Mexico, it appears that it is too late to change Kathy and me over to Puebla, so we are going to Veracruz after all. At first I was disappointed, especially for all who wanted to see pictures of the work we started done and of the good friends we made there, but then I got to thinking about a new city and new friends and a new challenge and it doesn't seem too bad. (Also, nobody there can blame me for the condition of the blocks!!) I will still take pictures, of course, and the benefit for all you guys will be to also get to see and hear about a new town and new people. If it is at all possible, I will try and get to Puebla somehow and take some pictures there too.

Pray for us, and start looking for blog entries on Sunday night! - Lou

That's what it's felt like. I'm back home without missing a beat...sort of. Thursday was our last day at the site. In the morning we were greeted with our first real complete view of Popo -- the volcano that had been shrouded in clouds for much of our time in Puebla. Our work was fairly uneventful in that we were positioning and marking gable blocks that are very VERY light and fragile. I'm waiting for my pictures to develop for confirmation, but the dry erase board at the office indicated that our team had moved (staged) somewhere in the neighborhood of 32,500 concrete blocks and 700 beams (I took a picture of the board that has the exact numbers -- more or less. But you know that 92% of the statistics you see are made up!). They had hoped for a team of 20-30 and weren't sure that the job could be accomplished. They got 10-12 of us and with the help of local homeowners, we were able to surpass their expectations. I am incredibly proud of the work we did.

I must say I did have my doubts in the beginning. Asking people to interrupt their lives with little advanced notice to perform grunt work in a foreign land doesn't make it into promotional literature for tour companies very often. But that's exactly what we did...and we had one heck of a great time (thanks in a large part to Ibuprofen). I am amazed not only in what was accomplished, but in what was experienced and the connections that were made. It's been quite a magical ride.

I could tell we were all itching to get home when our special treat for Thursday's lunch was a couple of buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The initial idea was to have enough to share with others at the site. But the stuff tasted SOOO GOOOOD!, we wolfed it down like hungry skinny dogs (similar to the ones we saw everywhere in Puebla -- except in the historic district).

Speaking of dogs, I had this strange experience today. Let me jump back a bit... Thursday's work day was shortened so we could get in a few more sights, do a little more shopping, and enjoy what downtown Puebla had to offer. Oh, on the way out from the worksite we ran into our Bimbo girls! They were out on the street handing out fruit and bran bars (drier than the Sahara, frankly, but hey, it's a freebie from a Bimbo!). We met up for a great dinner and some stiff good-bye's (I'm really terrible at that. Sorry.), after which Bruce, Sionna, and I got a few hours shut eye and boarded a 3:00am taxi for a 3:30am bus for a 7:00am flight. Others were heading out in a similar fashion, minus the ridiculously early call. Power naps ensued and I made it home to Corvallis in time to get geared up for a weekend of coaching, watching, and refereeing soccer. What seemed really strange were the dogs...Marissa's soccer team played in Lake Oswego this morning/afternoon. A beautiful community with huge houses, immaculate gardens, Starbucks, and even tasteful gas stations. Designer dogs accompanied most of the stray humans as couples. There was even a ranch for dogs near the soccer field which, of course, appears to be a weekend rendezvous point for dog and dog owner gatherings equipped in dog walking fashion gear created for just such purposes. I'm not trying to pass judgement here -- I'm a dog owner myself. It was just so bizarrely different from where I was a few days ago. The soccer I saw in Mexico was played in the shadows of some ancient Aztec pyramid in a sparsely grassed, lumpy surface serenaded by church bells. Dog parades and Starbucks weren't part of the equation. I wonder if that's what I'll soon be fading into. Probably not.

I'll be prepping for my trip to Zambia and getting in touch with people who'll be joining me in Romania. There will be more opportunities for us to observe more, learn more, do more. That's really what these experiences are all about. And if I'm not observing, learning, or doing...

It's late. I've gone from Bimbos to metaphysics in such a short, convoluted time. Lou will be heading back to Puebla in a week or so. In that time I'm going to figure out how to give him access to this blog so that he can give word of the progress of the JCWP. I'm really curious to hear about his experiences and to compare that event with our own. I'll likely rearrange the order of this blog as well so that it reads in chronological order rather than latest post first. Initially this blog was created to give updates of our progress. Now I see that it's become a story. I seem to like stories. I have a few...

Our work is coming to a close. Much like the Bimbo Girl assault of Puebla. Let me explain that... For the past several days we have resided with a group of touring marketing professionals intent upon bringing the benefits and joy of daily fruit and bran to Mexico. Bimbo is a large bakery and bread manufacturing company -- the largest in Mexico. Their colors are lime green and white. Their street team marketing representatives wear lime green capri pants (rather tight) and white shirts (rather small). The Bimbo girls are fairly young, quite chatty at night, and require 90 minutes to wake up, listen to MTV-Mexico at full volume while showering, and pull their hair back very tightly to the point where it seems impossible to do anything but smile. Each morning is a Bimbo morning for us. And has been for the past week. Their work is coming to a close. Thank God.

Back to our work. Since we did all the big, burly work, we´re now into positioning and stacking all the delicate block. It seems odd to say that cement blocks can be delicate, but they are. And the people that cut and shaped them can get pretty irritated if those blocks break and they have to cut and shape new ones. Being so careful also means that we aren´t as carefree in our work -- we have to concentrate. It also means that we´re a bit more separate as we work. Whereas we used to be one big team in a brickline, we´re now individuals or pairs that go about our jobs separately. I miss being together and I think everyone else does as well.

Things are definitely slowing down. Today we placed a number of smaller blocks at each house. Tomorrow we´ll do the same with even smaller pieces of the roof puzzles.

Today was Sionna´s birthday, fittingly celebrated at the site with a mini-fiesta. Give the Mexicans an excuse to fiesta and it´ll be done! She was serenaded by the homeowners, then serenaded with a solo from one of the homeowners that wrote a song for her the night before. We hope that the memories will last. Happy Birthday, Si´.

I´ll be heading out late tomorrow night (like 3:00 in the morning). I should get one more post off onthis blog. I´m looking forward to heading home, feeling like I´ve been away too long while feeling that I haven´t been here long enough. Strange...in a good way.

I joked about Montezuma last night. Bad move. Very bad move. I was able to pick up Mary at the bus station. She probably was a bit concerned about what she was in for. There I was, pale and sweating...welcome to Puebla. Luckily my stomach hadn´t performed a complete flip until after we got back to the hotel. I was a little slow this morning. And managed to sleep upright in a patio chair at the worksite for part of the afternoon. I´m feeling better now. But a couple other people are feeling the effects of the lamb...at least that´s what we think might be the cause. Who knows?

Our mood in general was a little less jovial at the site. A lot had to do with the work we were doing. Yesterday was really quite a tough day. We blasted through moving a whole lot of block. Today we discovered a number of the delicate blocks we moved previously had broken. We also had to move quite a bit of the block we had moved the day before. That was a bit of a downer. It´s all understandable though. Previously we moved all the block into each house. But we couldn´t move them to their final positions because sinks had to be placed in the kitchens, electricians needed room to work in other rooms, and doors needed to be hung. Just minutes after moving all the block into all the houses, we discovered that we could begin "re-staging" some of the block we had just staged.

Still, though, things are looking really good. Dale, the site supervisor, said this was the first day in months that he could say the project was ahead of schedule, and thanked us for doing more work than he thought a team of 20 could accomplish. My stomach may still be churning, but in general I feel really, really good. Now it´s time for a handful of Tums and hopefully a restful sleep. Later!

For those of you hanging on the edge of your seat, wondering what happened to our intrepid new arrival and our thoughtless host (me), Nancy did make it...with just enough guilt heaped my way to make me feel badly for a day or two. That´s over.

She did get here just in time to put in a half day of work on Saturday with the rest of us. Friday and Saturday our work shifted a bit to stage (read: move more blocks) some lighter channel blocks that will be used as beams over windows and doors. They get reinforced with rebar and filled with concrete, but they´re pretty fragile and breaking them really is the pits. It takes many hours to cut and make them. They create interlocking puzzle pieces with the rest of the beams and must be properly fitted for right and left walls and joints. After thowing around block for some time we´re pretty buff now and delicately handling and stacking these new sissy blocks seems pretty wimpy to most of us. Incidently kids, I can now easily throw you across the living room, so be nice to your Dad when I get home...or else! :-)

During our work day Saturday we also filmed the pilot of a new CBS show, CSI: Puebla. It´s the thrilling story of a team of investigators tracing the mysterious cause of Montezuma´s Revenge which seems to strike at random. The team tirelessly follows the evidence where the truth lies. Was Bill queezy from an undercooked steak served at lunch?, did he brush his teeth with tap water?, or did he foolishly order his Diet Pepsi over ice? And why did George come upon similar, though not as severe symptoms? They did have the same entre at dinner...Hmmm... Stay tuned for another episode when Sionna is overheard saying "screw it, I´m heading over to the salad bar."

Our second half of Saturday was much more pleasant and a bit less dramatic. We toured the city via a trolley bus, discovering that most of the cool places are just a few blocks to the south -- we had always been venturing out to the north. Toad Plaza, the Avenue of the Artists, the Crafts Market...they´re just a few blocks away. We also discovered a whole section fo the city that advertizes (and delivers) 2 for 1 cervezas. These establishments are conveniently located at one half block intervals between wherever we are and the hotel, making for terrific repasses during famed Puebla rainstorms that seem to hit about 6:30 each evening.

Sunday we toured Cholula, site of a large pyramid within a pyramid and a charming city with lots of history. I believe it was a site where Diego Cortez stayed for some time and did some pretty horrible things. On the way we visited a numbe rof ornate churches and witnessed a number of fiestas. It was a terrific day and gave us a much better appreciation for the city that hosts us (Cholula is on the outskirts of Puebla).

Today, Monday, we were back to tossing block, finishing 16 of 18 houses on a row that had been occupied by electricians and other toolbelt hauling sorts. It was a familiar job for us and we were able to do pretty well, but I wonder if we might have overdone it a bit. We´re back to popping vitamin I once or twice a day to ease the muscle aches, and our dinner conversations have begun to revolve around the fine art of bricklines. Yikes! Curiously, I always seem to find myself in a brick line between 2 very hard working, incredible short Mexican women. That and the rains make the bricks heavier, and my back a little more achy.

Mary arrives tonight. Unfortunately, I don´t think any of us will be awake when she arrives. I´m heading off to get some more rest...and to look for my laundry...more on that later. G´night.

Oh, Jeez! How could I forget talking about the Bimbos? Yeah, there are a bunch of Bimbo´s ataying in the hotel with us. It´s really exciting. I´ll have to explain a little more about that in the next post.

It´s Friday. Donna made it in last night and jumped right in our brick line. She had to learn a few of our terms, like "Peeler," "Stacker," and "Splitter" (person who takes the blocks from the pallet, pperson who stacks the block at the end of the line, and person who is in the pivot point when a single line breaks into two...), but soon she had the forearm scrapes that identify us all as block movers.

Donna getting from Mexico City to here on her own was a great relief to me, as communication here is sometimes a challenge. Speaking of which, Sionna wants to tell her Mom, "I love you." :-) Perhaps if I stopped hogging the computer she sould say that herself. But she´s out getting ice cream right now...

Let me tell you a little more about our typical days: We get up and have a light breakfast at about 7:30. At 8:00 3 taxis (the same drivers each day) take us to the worksite, about 30 minutes away across town. It´s a fascinating ride, reminiscent of Disneyland´s Mr. Toad´s Wild Ride. Our drivers are amazing, swerving in and out of traffic avoiding busses and trucks with incredible daring and ease. We take turns riding in the front seat so that each of us can experience the intensity of the ride, at the end of which we dutifully wobble out of our seats and kiss terra firma. It´s definitely worth the 50 pesos we pay for the privilege. One one occassion, my taximates made the unwise decision to purchase coffee to go...it went all right...on their laps!

So from 8:30 to 10:00 we stack blocks, trying to get a few houses down while it´s atill cool. At 10:00, Tommy Tamale comes by for our "T" time. Fridays are banana tamale day. They´re great! From 10:15 to Noon we stack more blocks and lñisten to commercials on the radio because we can´t find a comercial free station and most of them seem almost song free. At noon, everything stops, as if some signal went off in everyone´s head. We look around and wonder where everyone went and realize that we need to know off too. So it´s off to the corner quesadilla lady or the taco hatchback. Today we ate the¨"The Blue Door," an otherwise unnamed establishment with a blue door. Terrific food! Usually we´re back out to the blocks at about 12:45 and we move very slowly for awhile, thinking about taking a little siesta. Then suddenly it´s 3:00 and we realize we have much more to do -- that last hour really goes by as we speed-up to finish just one more (OK, two more) house(s).

Today was a little different in that we began staging other block materials at the houses. Door and window beams that are preshaped and labelled had to be placed in each house so that when the JCWP volunteers come, they´ll simply put the puzzle pieces together. My newest invention, cut off socks that protect my forearms from block-scrapage, are of little use when not in a brick line. But Bruce´s gloves are still the coolest! Thanks, Bruce.

I was supposed to pick up Nancy at the airport this evening, but the receptionist convinced me that I shouldn´t. Actually, she kind of refused to call a taxi for me. She´s kinda mean, really, but I think it has more to do with her thinking my Spanish skills are horrible. OK, they are, but jeez, lady, cut me some slack. Nancy, I´m really sorry I am not meeting you at the airport at this moment. I know you´ll be able to get here with no problem and I´ll be happy to take my punishment...please don´t make me ask for any service from the mean receptionist lady...

Wow! What´s the day? How many houses have we staged? How many tortillas have I eaten? The answer to those and many other burning questions are not likely to be found herein. Our internet connection was down yesterday, so I´ll try to quickly play catchup. We´re getting close to the weekend when all sorts of interesting challenges will present themselves (for me, anyway). The biggest being Loreto will be leaving. On the one hand, that´s great -- he works so darn fast I think he´s killing us! On the other hand, Loreto´s ability to converse in Spanish has opened up a world to us that we probably wouldn´t have experienced otherwise.

We´re also adding a few team members to the team for the next week while we have to say goodbye to Sonya and Loreto. We already said goodbye and best wishes to Joanne and know that she would´ve wanted to work with us if it had been possible. We´ll do our best to welcome Donna, Nancy, and Mary -- forgive me if my communication isn´t optimal. The buzz of activity that surrounds us is incredible! The work is hard, our communication challenges are troublesome only because I really SHOULD know more Spanish, and we have this amazing ability to laugh hard, work hard, and get a lot accomplished. We never figured to be pro´s, but we seem to be (great resume filler here, huh?).

A couple of things from the last 2 days: We staged another 20 houses or so...I think. At about 350 concrete blocks per house that´s...you do the math! (don´t forget to count the 20 or so from Monday and Tuesday).

The heat and sun yesterday was up there (or was that the day before?). White blocks reflect sunlight -- some of us are baked in places we didn´t think possible. The Pancho Sisters can´t stop laughing -- I don´t see how they get oxygen. It´s tough for me to be witty when my body aches after a day of work...I seem to use all of my wit (sometimes mistakenly identified as bad jokes...) while on the site. I´m outta here. Going to catch some grub!

Phew! Pass the Ibuprofen! With the help of many future homeowners at the Jimmy Carter Work Project site, we´ve been able to stack blocks that will be used for 14 to 18 homes (depending on who you talk to). We really cruised today. We´ll really sleep tonight.

We´ve been moving so much concrete block, we´re having to purchase new gloves. At this rate we´ll have gone through 124 pair by the end of our time here. For those of you wondering what you can do for your loved ones involved in this project, a massage would be more than appreciated...after a good hot bath that rinses the concrete dust from our pores.

The weather has been relatively cool. Cmmfortable, really. My only problem is that even with a thick layer of clouds and sunblock on in the morning, I´m still looking like Mr. Lobster each evening.We had mole poblano this evening for dinner. Wonderful chocolate, cinnamon, salsa...(sort of).

This being our second day of work we´re now old pros. Some foolishly said easier...we´ll see what people have to say in the morning.

Made it to Puebla. Wouldn´t you know it, my flight was delayed and I arrived last (along with Bruce and Sionna). Getting to the hotel in Puebla made for a long day.

Today, Monday, we ventured out to the build site. Staging for the Jimmy Carter Work Project is an incredible undertaking. New designs and techniques are developed and tested in order to better meet housing needs with builder abilities. There will be new technologies developed specifically for this build in order to make it successful. I don`t think the JCWP builders will fully appreciate what it takes to bring this together -- I know I sure didn´t...until now.

In the next few week 30,000 concrete blocks will need to be positioned in order to make this possible. That is our job. The blocks are considered lightweight, but they are larger than the blocks we usually work with, so after the first 1,000, they get pretty heavy. 301 blocks have to be stacked in a particular pattern in the center of each house so that the instructions to all workers at the 72 houses on the site will be the same. These are considered mortarless blocks, meaning they´ll be glued together with mastic. The gabling is done with blocks as well, meaning they all have to be cut and trimmed, usually with a handsaw. Like I said, I´m impressed!

We walked around the historic square of Puebla this evening. It´s beautiful! Too bad I´m so tired...and it´s only day one. Buenas Noches.