Skipped yesterday’s blog-writing because I was sick. Of all the things to get in Quiché, I had a fever. Ugh.
HOWEVER, after a lil light-headed hiccup in the morning, I felt fine the rest of today. Phew. I did not come here to be sick.
Today went well- we got all the vertical wall bars up, as well as about half of the wall “cork-screw”. But then we ran out of #3 bar. Great. We need to double/triple check quantities, as well as correct the UNHCR document as needed (it has many typos, several of which are numerical which is a problem). That’s ok though, life goes on.
We poured the central and inflow support columns as a way to keep us busy. Unfortunately there wasn’t a ton for the community members to do once we ran out of rebar, but hopefully they weren’t too upset having an easy day with today being the first day of la feria.
Overall, kinda a bummer that we ran out of rebar. We should’ve seen it coming, but our heads are in so many places that I’m not upset with us (I know I’m biased). It’s a lesson all can learn, and it’s good for the freshman to see.
After work, we went to la feria to check out some culture. No marimbas at this hour- weird but incredibly enjoyable. Sometimes my stomach honestly gets queasy just walking around the diesel/marimba-filled town. We checked out la pista and all the fun carnival things they had going on. Some stuff was still not built; there were only three Ferris wheels. But I think the kids still enjoyed it. Afterwards we walked around the northernmost part of La Tribuna itself for the kids to see since we’re working 9km north of the community. We ended up running into Petronila and Maria and Francisco outside of the community center, and we had a good chat with them. They all looked sooo nice for la feria, it made me realize that we too should have cleaned ourselves up for the occasion. Oh well.
We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and man did we deserve that. Coming back, Kassie and I had an emotional moment (seeming to be a common theme for end-of-day moments of nothing). We went up for dinner and after a soup and five bites of pasta, I went to bed... after editing the translation of our agreement (Kassie is meeting with the mayor tomorrow to sign things). I still barely have any appetite, but that’s wayyy more than I had eaten the day before. I dunno.
Overall, good day, we did get far. Would’ve gotten further but materials held us back. Oh well. We learned. Check as you go. We’ll see about tomorrow...
2025-02-11