We woke up and scrambled to put the right stuff in the right bags for the day. Cata (our cook) made us the yummiest scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions with pancakes on the side. YUM. After suncreeening up we hopped on the truck to head to the site (and had to wait for Mincho to eat breakfast). We were supposed to check it out yesterday but we got in way later than we expected and it was definitely too dark for us to do anything. So today was nice that we could see the area in the sunlight.
We got down to the site and started staking out the centerline in the pits the community had dug earlier. Unfortunately they were off just a bit, so we had to do some recalculations and had to excavate more on one side of the river. In the meantime, Kate, Clay, Adam, and I marked up cross beams for drill holes for the rebar to go through for the deck of the bridge. In the middle of that, we stopped for lunch and ate in a covered area the community members built for us. It was nice to just relax, and the shade made a lot of difference. Unfortunately this meant that we stayed cool while the sun only got hotter. Going back to work after lunch was not the most fun thing in the world. We went back to marking up wood and in the meantime they decided to pour the roadside foundation.
Fill in: the pedestrian bridge we're building is 25m across. We need two excavations on each side (which the community members did before we came) for the foundation, and one side is super tricky (and has been all year for design) because a road runs right alongside super close. I think that's pretty much it.
So, we're pouring concrete and all, and I'm the only gringo hanging down by the pit cuz I'm really hoping I can get offered to rod, but I was unsuccessful. Thankfully though, about fifteen minutes later, Esther (one of the design leads) asked if I wanted to rod, so I sprung up and ran down to the pit to start rodding. {rodding is stabbing the concrete so all the voids are filled, and it's super fun} I'm not sure how long we were rodding for, but we finally got the pit filled, hopefully covering all the voids. I got to get nice and dirty and became friends with Santiago, one of the community members. After a while and a lot of ridding, we finished the foundation on the roadside. By this time it's five o'clock, and we had already dodged a rainstorm, so we called it a night. We locked up all our tools and hopped back on the truck to head to the school. Cata made us chicken stew with fresh corn tortillas and that filled us up real good. It also caused me to clog the toilet, so everyone is super happy with me now... after playing cards and talking, we finally hit the well-deserved hay.
2025-02-11