Day ? … We’ve been here how long again?

It’s been over a week and a half since our last blog. In some respects we’ve come a long way towards the completion of our bridge and our general “how-to-get-things-done-in-Nicaragua” knowledge, while in other respects, let’s just say we discovered 100 ways of how to not get past the breaking waves while trying to surf and managed to get ridiculously sun burnt on an overcast day. Also, to add to his fire-related tricks repertoire, Tony has discovered a new way to light matches from Quique … just don’t stand directly in front of him when he shows it to you.

For nearly two weeks we’ve been expecting/finagling/fighting for our wood to arrive. We plan on writing an entire blog post devoted solely to our wood saga, but to give you a quick idea of what this looked like please read on! Originally B2P had ordered our wood from some crazy lady, Darlene. We had given her $1100 for the wood (half of the total contract). But failed lesson numero uno in Nicaraguan business: always write a contract and get your receipts! – a lesson we haven’t forgotten since. After several days of talking with the local mayor, tracking down permits, driving out to Timbuktu on a tractor to find the missing crossbeams and planks (this time with more muscle than Darlene had with her … another useful Nicaraguan business trick), and being promised the rest of the wood every day for at least a week we finally got half of our wood from miss Darlene (to match the amount we had already paid her). The next adventure to procure the rest of the wood involved many trips to Managua and the “Oriental Market” (which despite Quique’s concern involved no HIV-filled needles, but was in close proximity to both male and female hookers). After the third trip to Managua on the back of a flat bed truck, four of our team proudly rolled into our jobsite with the remainder of our wood – only about two weeks overdue!

So, yes, let’s hope that the chicken wire fencing that the boys are now planning on getting in Managua tomorrow will not cause as much of an issue as the wood did! We virtually finished laying the planks for the bridge yesterday after only a few more hiccups. These may or may not have included things such as the cables not being a consistent distance apart from each other all the way across the bridge, causing our nicely predrilled holes in the crossbeams to no longer fit any more, a zillion curved and non-uniform planks, excessive friction from the cables while trying to push the crossbeams out one the cables while being harnessed 60 feet up in the air … well yes, you get the picture – we were excited to have enough planks to be able to cross the bridge and were proud witnesses of the dozens of community members crossing with their groceries, children, machetes … and a whole slew of other items one typically sees in this country. ;-) Despite the inconveniences the afternoon thunder storm caused during our attempted stretching of the windguy cables across the bridge, it was actually incredible to see how much the river rose from the hour of rain and how the stepping stones across the river were hidden under the water. After this we actually had trouble keeping people OFF our unfinished bridge as we were working on it in the afternoon!

Today was yet another full day of work and hands-on problem solving. The major accomplishment was the tensioning of the windguy cables on half of the bridge. We never really knew how exactly this would affect the bridge (other than making it look sweet and 200% more legit than it did without them), but the effect on the stability of the bridge was like night and day! It was actually quite interesting (and yes, slightly frightening as well) to witness the plethora of torsional and vertical periods that the bridge experienced as different amounts of deadweight were added to it. However, today, after we had tensioned the windguys on half of the bridge it was clear just how much these would help the stability of the bridge, and hopefully the peace of mind of everyone who will be crossing it! As soon as you passed the point on the bridge without windguys yet, the bridge would again start rocking with your step. Thank you Dr. Kareem and Wobbly Structures (yes, this IS a name of a class that we structural engineers are required to take) for teaching us so much about wibbly-wobbly bridges!

We are hoping to be completely done with the bridge in three more days. We still have to finish the installation of the windguys, put up the fencing along the bridge and construct the approaches for easy access to the bridge. We are also praying for a huge rainstorm right when we finish, just so that we can see how high this water gets during the rainy season, and how helpful our bridge will be once the river truly does become impassable.

Those are pretty much the highlights for now. Stay tuned both for the wood saga as well as how the completion of the bridge and the inauguration ceremony goes.

-Brittani