Day #5

Are we still alive?

I realize we haven’t blogged in the most crucial days of our trip and some of our very caring friends and especially our Mother’s were probably getting worried. Oh and by the way, Happy Mother’s Day from Nicaragua (oh and also by the way, Brittani got a flower).  But hold your breath no more, we are alive and doing well. These past few days have been physically and mentally exhausting but we are slowly getting into the groove, which is the reason we have the time and energy for this post.

So what have we been doing for the past four days? Well, we’ve been experiencing language barriers, busting our butts, digging anchors, dragging cable, playing Marbles with village kids, deforesting with Machettes, getting our boots wet, sweating so much that it looks like we went swimming, moving 15,000 lbs of cement by hand, drinking Pepsi out of bag, killing Japanese beetles like its our job, making friends with a Harley driver named Big Bob, getting love notes from village men (and just to clarify, the girls were the recipients), and violating just about every ISSLP rule like not keeping a journal, driving in the crazy streets of Managua, partying like we’ve got nothing better to do, and most importantly, Mitch is trying to jumpstart a revolution to overthrow the Sandinista’s. [Rachel, of course none of the later are true, but they are… well maybe].

On a more serious note, Megan saw Quique’s butt and Tony decided to go out on a limb and trying the delicate art of fire breathing. He ended up in the hospital and hasn’t been able to speak for a couple days but the doctor says he’ll be alright… The “yes/no” pad has been working pretty well.

On a more, more serious note, construction has been moving along at a splendid pace although we are well behind schedule. We were hoping to have all the excavations completed and most of the tower constructed, but that was not the case. When we arrived only one of the anchors had been dug; and mind you, these anchors are not the same thing you toss overboard when you want to go swimming from your boat, these anchors are 3 meters long, 1.5 meters wide, and 2.5 meters deep or what we like to call a “Quique” in depth. As of yesterday, we dug the other anchor, and the 4 smaller anchors for the wind guys, which will provide support during hurricane-force winds. Today, we dragged the 7 – 160m cables across the gorge using the strength of 30 community volunteers plus your’s truly and began work on the towers. Before today the bridge was lacking significant and essential community involvement but we believe their enthusiasm is on the rise. [I could go off on whole 5-page rant explaining the issue but I thought I would keep this brief… or at least not more than 2-pages double-spaced.]

Well, I’m approaching the two page mark so I better rap it up. If anyone has comments or questions please comment on this blog. Otherwise, we would like to share a link to our team’s theme song and hasta luego.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGrfLQVVI8A