Thursday, August 2, 2007

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Today we completed the clearing of the debris from the floor of the old building. We leveled the rocks to receive the slab for the extension of the floor. Sounds easy, but it took lots of work with a sledgehammer and countless loads of debris loaded in wheelbarrows. We had two wheelbarrows today, which made a big difference.

Meanwhile, work continued on the concrete block wall. Extra steel reinforcement bars were placed at the course where the old wall ended and the new coursing began. The hand mixing of the mortar reminded some of us of our first trip to San Pedro.

Upstairs, work began on the wood wall which will separate the women’s sewing area from the children’s area. At the bottom, some salvaged panels with line drawings will be reinstalled, with chicken wire at the top of the wall to provide ventilation.

In all of the chaos, Dina, one of the women in the sewing cooperative ironed the pillowcases that the cooperative produces. This involved running a generator to provide the electricity to iron. We learned that Dina learned her sewing skill at Luis’s other church. She will be teaching the other women in the area. Now, she is working with a younger woman named Melissa.
More familiar and some new faces joined us at the site today. It’s especially fun to see the children; in four years, they have grown so much. With our poor Spanish, we are trying to understand the family connections between them.

Dina commented that Britta, Beth, and Jane have improved their Spanish. She said that on the first trip they could not speak at all and now they can have conversations. It made me realize that as we are watching their lives through the years, they are watching us as well.
-Deborah Collins