Yesterday (Day #6) was a day of firsts for many of us, with the exception of Mike Paddock, our ever-so-wise engineer. For the seven of us juvenile delinquents, mixing concrete by hand was as foreign as watching Tony breath fire the other day. Luckily, we had better luck with the concrete and we were able to complete the job without a trip to the hospital. A few of us did report "klink burns" to our health and safety officer, young Mitchalot. What are klink burns? Mitchalot, whom the village kids like to call "Michael" for some reason, explained after consulting WebMD that they are reactions to heat in the form of sparks from "klinking" metal. Such has been the advice for the self-proclaimed "health guru" (supposedly that was his name in nickname in high school??). Mike Paddock, on the other hand, informed us that "klink burns" are the common name for the stinging feeling when cement reacts with moisture on the skin. Anyways, by hand, we mixed 16 bags worth of cement to form the footing for one of the anchors. Today, we again mixed 16 bags for the other bridge anchor but in half the time by using a "mud machine," as our good friend Big Bob likes to call it. Apparently
the machine has a temper and only works when Brittani says nice things to it (the jury still hasn't decided whether its a boy or girl). After stalling on us literally hundreds of times -isn't that right Meg- we realized all she needed was some motor oil and leveling. We are beginning to realize the importance of crystal clear communication because we asked for a "working" concrete mixer but should have asked for a "continuously" working one.
In other news, we decided to gather the community again with the hope "to light a fire under their butts," as our Project Manager so eloquently phrased it. The meeting brought together the three villages that will be utilize the bridge on a daily basis: San Diego, San Bartolo, and Piedras Pasadas (translation: "Heavy Rocks"). Enrique, shorted to "Quique," led the meeting. Something tells me he'll be in politics someday, because he sure knows how to influence the locals.
Lastly, I suspect some of our followers would like to know just where we are in the construction phase without having to cypher through all my blabber so here's a list of what is complete:
Excavation of both bridge anchors
Excavation of all four wind guy anchors
Construction of the tower foundations
Construction of the towers
7 of the 9 bridge cables have been pulled across the river
Pouring of footings for bridge anchors
Construction of rebar cages for bridge anchors
So, to sum it up, enthusiasm remains high within our team but morale within the community continues to dwindle. For some reason, the team seems to respond positively to Brittani's random outbursts of Shakira's "Waka Waka" but the community doesn't appreciate it. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
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