10.17.2004
Hitting the Street Running
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...
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...
