Building Rising Out of the Ground

Faruke mixing "mud"

Juan laying block on the south wall

Mike tending Lucas on the south wall

Nancy resting between buckets of "mud"

Pouring the footer for the north wall

Sylvia Bauza laying block on the south wall

Bob on the mixer throttle

Tim tending Lucas and Don on the east wall

Today we went back to work on the gymnasium project. The sky was clear and the temperature topped out about 88 degrees. Fortunately a steady breeze has blown in from the ocean all day to give us relief.

Over the weekend Carlos and his local workers and seminary students poured more of the footer and laid more block. So today we had a running start on getting the foundation block laid. By lunch time the foundation block had risen up out of the ground on 3 sides of the structure.

After lunch we fired up the big gasoline mixer to see if it would make our work a little easier. We still needed to pour the footer down the north long side of the building. Juan was able to start the mixer right away, but it quickly sputtered to a halt. After some tinkering I had the magic pull that started it up a second time. We went straight to loading it with sand and cement, only to have it die again. No matter what I tried it would not restart. We were thinking we might be mixing the concrete by hand for the rest of the week. But when Carlos got back from lunch with his tool box, Don pulled the spark plug and found that the brand new plug was fouled. Between the oil the mixer is burning and the varnish on the bottom of the gas tank when we took it out of moth balls, there was plenty of crud to foul the spark plug. Don put the cleaned plug back in and the mixer started right up and lasted for about one round of mixing before it died again. Don cleaned the plug again and the mixer fired back up. It looks like it may be reliable for the week if we can just keep the plug clean.

It soon became apparent the choke on the mixer will vibrate itself closed and just about kill the motor, so Bob McMillan was put on throttle duty to keep the engine running as the concrete was mixed. By the end of the day the final stretch of the footer was poured. Tomorrow the final blocks can be laid on the north side as the forms are built to hold the ring beam concrete on the other three walls. With the mixer working it will make the concrete work much less labor intensive.

Once again today the seminary students came to work after classes about 3:30PM. Carlos is talking with the administrators about the possibility of having students work with us all day a couple of days this week. If that is approved it would allow us to move this project a lot farther along before we wrap up our time on the project Thursday. The students seem very excited about having at least the basketball court completed soon and are concerned about when it will get finished if it isn't done this week before we leave.

Everyone is doing well. We are just tired from the honest hard work and the hot sun. As I type this most of the crew is enjoying the company of the Bauza family and the Restricks in the W&W house after yet another excellent dinner. Don and Mike are teaching the Bauza girls how to play Rook. From what I hear Sabrina and Gabby won the game last night so apparently they are quick learners or Don and Mike are good teachers or maybe it's a little but of both.