Shhhh, the workers are tired and sleeping! Ok, that may not be the full truth, but I do have reports of at least two members sleeping in the past four hours! I will say one was our Pastor, but he was exhausted, so I'll allow it. It is winter here, but Florida is not this warm in February! However, the sun is set by 5:30 daily, so at 4:30 when most of you are waiting to get out of work in the next 30 minutes, we have finished a full day's work.
Our brick laying was put on hold, but we have our hands full! The masons are in full swing and most walls are up to 4 feet!
It was unanimous that I (Carl) was elected (in a very unfair election), the PM or Project Manager! (I asked for a recount, and I got twice the count, so I gave up). Now most of the team regrets their decision, as many are tired, sore, and asleep as I write this...will post pictures as proof!
I get directions from the Project Engineer and Foreman on-site and then I delegate these tasks to the team. Our task for the next day or two is to move dirt (clay) from the ditches of the footers to level the floors to the top of the footers and fill holes from construction. Pictures will help you understand, but Brazil is famous for terra-cotta block, and needless to say, construction methods are nowhere near US standards. Even patch and pray methods might be argued to be better. We are basically assisting the contractors that are hired by the United Methodist Church to construct this project.
We continure to be blessed by some wonderful people. Sergio was onsite to bring entertainment to us. He taught himself English and has better English than I do! Which is amazing, so he teaches English as a profession.
Can you believe Brazil does not have pointed shovels? I am still shocked by this...moving compacted clay with a flat shovel is not the most convienient way to move earth, but we have a week, so it might be our only task.
The current daycare "Creche Genre Nova" meaning " New People Daycare" has about 90 kids in three rooms, and is very crowded! The new facility will hold 200 kids, which is incredible!
I got lots of feedback last year from providing GPS coordinates, Google Earth is amazing! The project is located at Latitude:7D58'48"S & Longitude:34D54'52"W (once you have downloaded the free Google Earth program put 7 58'48"S, 34 54'52"W in the search bar and watch it fly!) I advise you look it up...or not.
Going to store...be back in a bit to finish. We are all OK. Tired but ok...Carl Gravely
No comments:
Post a Comment