Syracuse Kansas

Syacuse Kansas is a town that's about as far south and west in Kansas as you can go. It has a population of 1824 with 2594 in the entire county which is 998 square miles of land. Yeah, Syracuse is about it for miles and miles. The closest town with civilization (meaning a Lowes or Home Depot) was 52 miles away. What does one do with a weekend to while away in Syracuse Kansas. The one and only theatre had one screen with one showing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I believe it employed maybe three people, one for the ticket booth, one for the snack bar, and one for the projector. When entering the seating area, a sign was found that said, "Please let us know if we need to adjust the sound level." I wanted to bring that sign back to Omaha and post it in some of the theatres here as the sound level can be just a little high at times. When the time arrived for the movie to start, there were no trailers of movies to come, there were no advertisements for the snack bar, the lights just dimmed and the movie started.



This is the building we were working on. In about six weeks the construction went from a concrete slab to the building up, the inside walls built, the electrical wiring done, and the drywal mostly completed. All the inside work was completed with volunteers at only a cost of a few meals and a place to sleep for our crews and a place to park their motor homes for the framers and drywallers.

Here was home away from home. Not bad actually. I've had much worse places to sleep than this when on mission trips. It was airconditioned, a deceit bathroom and those with computers could pick up the free WiFi from the bowling alley across the street.

Here's how I spent the week. This is a picture of me in the attic of the church running in MC (Metal Clad wires). I'm actually laying on my side while doing the work. I sure got ribbed about being up in the attic laying down on the job.

This would be the sound booth switches which is where the other end of the wires that I was working on in the the attic go. This is just the power wires there still have to be the load wires, as it's called, which would go to different sets of lights, the baptistry, and anything else electrical in the sanctuary. The sound booth is the hub of everything in the sanctuary. So the next time to pass by a church sound booth this is was is behind the drywall surrounding the booth.

We had a great time even though the group was a small 7 people this time.

Central American Road Warriors

Day one
Of course there's always the last minute scramble to get the last minute things packed into the vehicle and head out on the road. This trip was even more so as time grew short the white flag was raised and it was declared we were ready to leave. John picked me up at my house and we headed out I-80 to begin the "Great Central American Adventure." We stopped for fuel in Wichita, Kansas and kept on trucking South to the border. We stopped in Dallas , Tx about 1:30am at the not so nice budget motel, but for two wild and crazy guys all we needed was a bed.

Day two
We were up and on the road again at 9am. Power bar for breakfast, peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and hamburger Pizza Hut pizza for supper. We made it to Laredo, Tx this day and stayed in a some what better motel than the last night. As we fell asleep, visions danced through our heads about crossing the border in the morning and leaving our country behind. The real adventure would begin.

Day Three
Today we met up with Victor (on the left in the above picture) and Julio (third from the left). Victor is the pastor in Nicaragua that will be receiving the van. Julio is a business man in Nicaragua and raises chickens to sell eggs. He has 78,000 chickens and harvests 58,000 eggs a day. More about that later. The person taking the picture was Greg an Amercian missionary that lives with his family in El Carmen, Mexico.

We crossed the border after eating a Mc Donald's breakfast and acquired the necessary paper work to travel through Mexico with the van and contents. Pastor Victor had a thought that maybe we should try to transfer ownership of the van to him at this point in the trip. It had never been possible before but Victor just had a thought to try again. All were surprised when not only did they say yes, but was completed relatively quick. This turned out to be a very good thing later in the trip. So with everything in order we started down the road toward El Carmen our first stop on the trip.


We arrived in El Carmen in time for the evening conference meeting of the 55 year anniversary celebration of the school there. We ate some kind of soup with big red chips. Central America, as I have learned, it big on soup. They even have soup for breakfast. The weather there was a bit chilly. Houses do not have heat so when the temperature drops to the 40s, it's cold. The church service found everyone bundled up with stocking hats, gloves, and scarves around their face because only tarps covered most of the doors and windows. I could see my breath during the service.

John, I, and another guy that was there for the 55th year celebration bunked down in an old motor home for the night. Of course, it didn't have heat so many blankets were used to stay warm. At the last minute an electric heater was given to us to take the edge off the inside temperature. The great adventure had definitely began.

Day Four
We left El Carmen about 11pm and arrived at Hildago in the morning. Victor, the pastor from Nicaragua, wanted us to experience his favorite breakfast. He had grown up in this part of Mexico and this was his favorite breakfast. It started with a bowl of soup. It was broth with what looked like chic peas in it. Then we progressed to a chicken that had been wrapped in a cactus leaf and buried in the ground with hot coals overnight. A tortilla was used to pinch off a wad of chicken and then flavoring (hot sauce) was sloshed on the tortilla. It all went down good as did many more cultural meals eaten on the journey.

In the afternoon we visited Pastor Victor's Mom and went to the town's market. We tried on many hats and wandered around looking at all the interesting things that were being sold there. Just about anything imaginable and some not imaginable could be bought there.

Upon arriving a Pastor Luis's house, a pastor that John has known for 20 years, we were invited to partake of chicken with some kind of red sauce on it. After that we were taken to a Mayan Pyrimad.

Two hundred fifty three steps later our huffing and puffing group made it to the top. We saw another pyramid and many foundations for other buildings as well as a terrific view of the land for miles around the structure. As you can see in the picture there were many peddlers with many of Mayan trinkets for sale.


Day Five
We stayed over night in a hotel. In the morning we attended Luis's church and of course all four of us had to give a testimony about how we came to bring a van to Nicaragua. John preached the Sunday morning sermon. One of Luis's sons decided to spend time in Nicaragua with Victor and Julio. Now we are a merry band of five headed into the wild territory of Central America. After church service and lunch at Luis's house, we bid John's friend goodbye and continued on with our journey. We traveled through the afternoon and all night to reach the Southern border of Mexico.

Day Six
Upon nearing the border of Mexico, we stopped at a beach front cafe to allow those that had driven all night to rest. We had a breakfast of seafood soup. While the others slumbered in hammocks with the warm ocean breeze wafting across them, I took advantage the time and went wave jumping in the ocean.



The technique of wave jumping is to position yourself at just the right distance from the rising wave to be able to dive into the curling wave. Every so often a good four foot wave will come along and a great thrill comes as it crashes over the top of you. It's a great way to spend the morning. I have been able to do wave jumping a couple other times but never thought I would get to again. This was one of the many highlights of the trip.

We tried to see some big ocean ships but the public was not allowed in to see them. We ate at a Burger King for lunch. In Mexico the double cheese burger comes with two patties of meat, a slice of cheese, a slice of ham, and two strips of bacon. Along with that one could order up fries with melted cheese and hot peppers on them. Since this was a once in a life time trip, I was going to immerse myself in all the culture I could. So one order of cheese burger and cheese fries coming up.

We got as close as we could to the Mexican border and bedded down in a hotel for the night. Since we were headed toward Nicaragua, Pastor Victor's sister-in-law met us at the Mexican border to get a ride to where we were delivering the van. This was a real asset as she knew English and Spanish really well and could interpret for us when needed. Now we are a merry band of six traveling through the countries of Central America.


Day Seven
We were up and eating a breakfast of pastry things with some kind of milk to wash it down. This would be the day we enter Guatemala. Upon reaching the border many people were scouting out the American van and trying to see through the tinted windows and look at what was inside. We were flagged over into what looked like a compound lot until our paper work could be completed.

Crossing a border in Central America is not like crossing a state line in America. In Central America, one must cross a border to leave on country, travel about a half mile, and cross the border into the next country. So it's double the trouble to go from one country to the next. All paper work, passports, and things in the van must be checked leaving one country and then again when entering the next country. Of course each country has a tax for you to be in their country so it has to be paid upon entering or leaving as well. Leaving Mexico was not a problem and we expected to be in El Salvador by night fall.

Because of a new computer system crashing and the needed paper work for the American van seven hours were spend in the 95 degree sun waiting to get across the border into Guatemala. We took a short tour through the black market shops in the little border town and in less than a half hour everyone in the town knew that there was an American van with two white guys in it sitting in the border compound.

Finally we made it across the border but the race was on to get to El Salvador before the border closed. We did not want to stay in Guatemala. About 30 minutes down the road we came upon a tree across the road. Julio the Nicaraguan business man was driving. Without hesitation he swerved across the road, out onto the left lane shoulder, sped around the tree, and booked on down the road. No one mentioned the incident until the next day when Pastor Victor said that it most likely was a trap for us to get robbed. Because of the quick response of Julio, nothing happened. We did make across Guatemala, but didn't make it before the border closed.

We staid in what they call an auto motel. An auto motel is a motel with a walled in locked at night compound area for your car. The motel rooms are inside the compound area as well. All this led me to believe it was not a nice place to be. We got the last two rooms. One for the sister-in-law and one for the five guys.

There was no concern about running out of hot water in the shower because there is no hot water. A shower in Cental America consists of a pipe from the wall with a shut off valve. The water is either on or off. It keeps people from taking a long shower that's for sure.

Day Eight
We had expectations of getting to our destination today as we packed up and got in line to cross the border into El Salvador. We stopped in El Salvador to eat at Wendy's. El Salvador uses US dollars as their country's currency which made it easy to buy the lunch.

After lunch we headed toward the Honduran border with hopes to make it through Honduras before the border closed. We did have to wait a couple hours to get into Honduras.

The border didn't smell the best and this was a common sight as we waited to cross into Honduras. Even a pig wandered through rooting in the trash pile by our van. The road sides look like what we would call a dump. When the trash piles up too high some one just sort of piles it together and lights in on fire. I guess that's one way to get rid of trash and plastic bottles. I'm not too sure about what it does for air quality.

We had to take a courier with us through Honduras. His job was to see that we didn't unload anything along the way. They wanted to be sure that what we entered the country with would not be unloaded in the country and go out the other side. Of course we had to pay for the couriers wages and for a hotel room on the border because it was to late to come back. Even with the courier with us we were stopped four or five times in the two hour crossing by the police checking to see who we were and where we were going. Every country we went through there was a tax to enter the country and sometimes to leave. This tax was any where from $20.00 to $40.00 for the six of us. We did make in time to cross out of Honduras but when we tried to enter Nicaragua we ran into a snag.

Because we were carrying many things with us the guard at the border didn't have the authority to allow us to enter with all the things we had. We camped in the parking lot. We ate junk food for supper and had a great time. We had to sleep in the van. One in the rear seat, one in the middle seat, one in the driver seat, and me in the passenger seat. Pastor Victor and Julio slept on the floor of a storage room with only a blanket and a pillow.

Day Nine
Upon the arrival of the official that could allow us to enter Nicaragua, we had to pull everything out of the van for inspection. By this time we had plenty of stinky clothes in our suitcases so they didn't poke around too much in those. In the end a tax of $40.00 was levied on the used computers and we were on our way.

A few miles down the road we stopped for breakfast in a unique cafe.

This was an open air restaurant with the food prepared over an open fire in the kitchen. I had some kind of black beans, rice, and scrambled egg mixture. While eating you could see the men chopping up the fire wood used to cook with. This was in a big open area to the left in this picture. Chickens were roaming through out the entire area and occasionally one would wander through the restaurant.

Back on the road again we knew the long road trip would soon be over. One last stop before we reached our destination would be at Julio's house. He showed us around the chicken egg farm.



This chicken egg farm has 78,000 chickens and harvests 58,000 eggs a day. This is a picture of just one row of chicken cages. There are four more and other open pens as well. It's one of four largest chicken egg farms in Nicaragua.

After the tour of the chicken farm we were honored guests of Julio and ate a special meal prepared just for us. I'm not sure about what it was as I didn't recognize anything in the soup. I think it was fruit and mystery meat of some kind.

Upon arrival at our destination, we all were glad the trip was completed and looked forward to a nice shower. That was short lived as the water goes off at the most odd times in Nicaragua. This happened to be one of those times. Each household stores up water for just such occasions. With a five gallon bucket of water setting in the shower, a splashing of water all over the body could be accomplished. Then soaping up and rinsing in the same splashing method competed the shower. Nice.

Old friends came to visit while we rested during the evening. I got to visit with Oscar and his wife. Then a good friend Norwing took me to his house to meet his wife, baby, and family. It was a good reunion.

Day Ten
This was a day to rest before leaving for Costa Rica to come home. We visited the Finca (farm) that where John's coffee grows.

The plants are recovering from a severe trimming. Usually they are much taller than what you see here, but every three or four years all growth is trimmed back for the fresh growth to improve the production of the plants. This also is known as shade grown coffee as bigger trees shade the coffee plants. Of course I brought home coffee from the Finca to enjoy.

This was our only day in Nicaragua and we packed our stuff and we left for Costa Rica this evening. We found a place by the ocean to stay which had a nice pool area to with big screen TV to wind down the day.

Day eleven
We awoke in time for a walk along the shore of the ocean to watch the birds dive into the water for fish I guess. Then we packed up once again and made our way to the airport in Costa Rica where we climbed aboard the plane and sped away to Chicago. We arrived with plenty of time to make to the next fight to Omaha and the trip came to an end as I strolled up the drive some where around midnight.

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. (Clicking heels)

Orange Texas

We worked on the same church as in August. It was just a little cooler in October than August. Ah, well, it was a lot cooler. Last trip I was up and down ladders installing junction boxes for emergency lighting and exit lights. This time I had the task of church attic electrical conduit installation. The task was given to another guy and me to run the conduit from the first floor main fuse box up through the second floor into the attic. This first picture is the general area where the conduit had to come up into the attic. Over on the other side of the vertical supports. Ah, yeah, it's pretty small.
Now all that has to happen is to squeeze my somewhat rotund body into the two foot space and connect the conduit from below. That's after we figure out a way to bring it up through the teeny tiny little space between the ceiling joist, the roof rafter, and the tile block outside wall. Oh, yeah and we needed to drag a saws all in there to cut the pipes to fit once we get them in place. That was a real strain for sure.

Once up in the attic, we then made the 150 foot run to the other end of the church. This is the area above the sanctuary. Of course where our conduit was run there was no flooring so we had to be on constant alert not to step through the ceiling.


Across the entry way of the church and down to the junction box for the sound booth. All together we ran a 2 1/2 inch conduit of about 200 feet with four 90 degree bends and two 30 degree bends. That's the maximum allowed in a conduit run. I've really learned a lot about how electricity gets to the plugs. It's not quite as simple as it would first seem.

My team buddie and I finished up the week mounting junction boxes and pulling wires into those boxes. The big conduit didn't get wires pulled through it on this trip.

All in all the trip was a success and one more trip should finish up this project. Then it will be on to the community center. I won't be back on a trip until next year. By then they may be working on something else. Whatever it is the learning experience continues.

Fishing in Wild Horse

After a grueling 8 hour drive to the lovely and senic Wild Horse reservoir, we set up camp on the shore. Being close to the water has it's advantages. It's not far to go fishing.

This guy took the record for most fish caught on the trip. Well of course he had a great advantage with his spark plug weights that would allow him to heave his bait out farther in the lake than anyone else.

First was poles in the water then came breakfast each morning. We were truly rough and ready camping in the wild of northern Nevada, 70 miles from the nearest real town. Temperatures dropped into the 20s at night and rose to 70s during the day. It made for cold tent camping and all agreed that next year we will have tent heaters.

Most of our time was spent along the shore fishing and telling stories about past experiences. We were the great white fishermen.

By the third day we had caught our limit and started eating fish to be able to keep fishing. By the end of the day we were so stuffed with fish, we decided to come back a day early. We had caught probably 30 fish and had to eat enough to make us legal at 20 lake trout. We also caught two catfish one about 5 pounds and the other 7 1/2 pounds. In addition to that we snagged a couple wippers which are a cross between a couple fish.

All agreed that we need to do it again next year. I've been researching bait launchers so look out spark plug man cause Nebraska Dave's coming back with new ideas.

Old Rose

Old Rose was a Rosebud Tree that stood tall and mighty. She displayed her best colors in the Springtime for 44 years in Old Dave's backyard. A few years ago she became home for a dreaded carpenter ant colony. She tried her best to hold up her arms toward the heavens and continue to be the best Rosebud tree she could be. Those pesky ants finally caused a limb to succumb to the continuous gnawing.


Then another branch bit the dust as Old Rose started showing her age. Most Rosebud trees live to a ripe old age of 25 so in Rosebud tree years she was well over 100. Most Rosebud trees don't get much taller that 25 feet, but old Rose towered up to 40 feet.

It became obvious last year that old Rose was suffering and needed to be cut down. With Mighty Moe, the little electric chain saw that thought he could, the process of cutting down Old Rose began. When the last branch was to be hewn down, a little help from friends made the task easier and quicker.

After the last branch came down the task of removing the stump began. A good friend took on the task of stump removal and over the course of several months, he dug, sawed, and chopped on the root system of Old Rose. Finally we called up Big Burtha, the newly aquired Stihl 460 Magnum chain saw, off the bench to dice up the last parts of Old Rose's stump.

Go Big Burtha

In a matter of less that an hour the last of the stump was removed and we celebrated with fried rice, wantons, peanut butter chicken, and other Chinese delicacies at the Hong Hing restaurant.

My stump removing friend

Old Rose will live on in the memories of those that enjoyed her beauty and those that helped to bring her down. All that's left is a hole of victory where she once stood in royal grandeur for so many years. Thoughts have been given about what will become of the space where she lived and those thoughts have been leaning toward a memorial fire pit to warm the hearts of those that sit around the cracking fire telling stories which may just be about the glory days of Old Rose and how she lasted so long.

Long live the memories of Old Rose

Cove Baptist Church August brought the opportunity to be a part of a team that headed for Orange, Texas to help with the wiring of a church. The church had three and a half feet of water in the Sanctuary from hurricane Ike. Since all the wiring below the water line had to be replaced and the church was over 50 years old a total rewiring to bring it up to code was in order. The team staid in Vidor and ate morning and evening meal there.
Noon meal was at the fellowship hall of Cove church which was on higher ground and didn't get any water damage. Snacks at 10:30am and 3:30pm were top notch as well as the noon meal. I always come back from a trip with at least 5 pounds more than I what I left with. But that Southern food just tastes sooo good. I expect it sends my cholesterol up a point or two but I'll deal with it when I get back home.

My job this time was to put rectangle holes in the walls for the alarm system monitor and emergency lights to be mounted. It required up and down ladders all day long. Texas in August is hot hot hot and extremely humid. So working up on the ceiling in a building with no power which meant no airconditioning and only a few fans to keep the air moving was pretty exhausting by the end of the day. A good high cholesterol meal and nice shower really hit the spot.

Mounting electrical boxes for the exit signs was another ceiling job. You would have thought that I'd have sweat off a few pounds, but every two hours the church people wanted to feed us. I didn't have heart to say no. :) Between this trip and the next trip in September that I didn't go on we rolled out about 6,000 feet of metal clad electrical wire.

My Cousin's Patio

The next project of the summer all started with a phone call from my cousin. "What ya doin'" was the question coming from phone on my ear. My response to that question is almost always, "I don't know what am I doing?" She says with an excited voice,"I am going to build a patio in my front yard and need dirt. I was driving down the road and found a sign that says, 'FREE DIRT.' Can you believe it. Free dirt." Well that lead into loading, hauling, and unloading FREE DIRT.

The project expanded into a two week project of hauling, rocks, sand, gravel, and flagstone. I'd never laid a flagstone patio before so it was definitely a learning experience for both of us. We planned and talked and planned and talked then we would dig and shape and talk and plan some more. The two of us together almost made a half a landscaper. But with a little time and wisdom we made it through the building of the patio.
We learned a lot about leveling the patio. It only took a couple days to figure out how to raise up one end to make the patio level with the sidewalk.

Steps and plants finished off the patio. It will take the rest of the summer before the yard damage around the patio fills back in with grass, but by next year it should look as if it has been there for years. My cousin went on to a couple more big projects, but I didn't get to help with those as I had other commitments.

Helping out a friend

The next project of the summer was to help out a friend. She wanted to sell her house and this area was a mud eye sore for sure. She saw my poor man's patio and wanted to know if I could build her a small retaining wall to eliminate the eye sore in front of her house. Well, you know me. I accepted the challenge and obtained the details of how she wanted it to look and set out to aquire the materials. In about three days the project came together and really turned out great. Hopefully the next owner will enjoy the wall for many years to come.

Working at my Sister Pam's house

Las Vegas Work Crew

Everyone knows by now that my sister's husband, Ewald, was diagnosed with a brain tumor in January of this year and lost the battle here on earth in May but now dances with Jesus in heaven. Ewald's sister, Rosie, came to spend many weeks with her brother during his last days. Her husband, Steve, started the task of repairing a kitchen floor but soon it bloomed into an extreme home makeover both inside and out. Weeks extended into months as the project just expanded daily. Family and friends came to help from all parts of the country. Projects that had been in progress for a decade were being completed in a systematic way under the supervision of Ewald's brother-in-law, Steve.

The two sheds beside Pam's house were completely filled side to side front to back were sorted through with save, throw, and give away piles mounting up. Upon completion of emptying these two sheds, one was torn down and taken to the scrap heap and the other was moved to a new location. Pam bought a new tough shed which replaced those two sheds.
New windows around, with trim, and caulking were installed. Amost everything was either replaced or fixed to work properly by time of Ewald's service.

This is a sample of the group that came to help with the refurbishing of Pam's house and yard. We would all decend on the Casino every morning to eat breakfast. By the time everything was finished, we had our special place in the dining area for our group. We just figured they wanted to keep us away from the rest of the paying customers as we heckled each other and the waitresses as well. All was in good fun and they excepted it as just that. This picture was taken close to the last day and was really kind of a sad day as things began to wind down.

Vidor Texas Feburary 2009

In February of 2009 a Nebraska team of 6 particiated in a trip to Vidor Texas to help rebuild what we thought was going to be an old nursing home. Our plan was to rewire the facility to allow it to be used for following teams as a place to eat, sleep, and spend non working hours telling tall stories about other trips. When we arrived we hooked up with about 40 others who came to help with the wiring. We found that plans had changed since we left. The building we were to work on was filled with asbestos and had to be removed before we could begin working. So plan "B" was to wire a new church facility in the same area.

Each morning we gathered in the center of the facility we were wiring to receive instruction, teaching, and encouragement for the day. This was the largest team that I have been on. We stayed at a church that was a center for meal distribution after hurricane Ike went through the area. Our sleeping area was several modular buildings about the size of single wide trailers which were filled with bunk beds. Our shower facilities were two remodeled steel shipping containers with 6 showers and a washer and dryer in each one. Meals were provided by the cooking team of three that was part of the team. Among the team members we had one EMT and one nurse.

Here is a picture of two of the team members. On the right was big Jake and he has a height of seven foot four inches. On the left is shorty and he has a height of four foot eleven. We just thought it would be kind of funny to get a picture of the two standing together. Big jake didn't need ladders much. He'd just reach up and work on anything he wanted on the ceiling. It was real interesting to watch people as he would amble into a Mc Donald's with the team. Almost invaribly someone would want a picture with him. He even got his picture taken with a girls soccer team at one stop.

This is one of our team members wiring a breaker box. These boxes do not come all put together. There are lots of assembly required before hanging them on the wall. We had well over 100 circuits to wire and several boxes were required. In the five days we worked over 7,000 feet of wire was installed and half of that required conduit. Each circuit was wired to a portion of the build and conduit had to be run to a junction box in that area of the building. From there the different circuits up to four would be dispersed to the plugs and lights for a couple rooms or walls. The large team was broken down into smaller teams each with a person in charge of the smaller group. Each smaller group was given a designated area to work on in the building. We saved the church several thousand dollars by helping with the wiring.

This is what's known as a crawdad tower. The crawdad burrows down into the water table which lies about 8 inches below the grass and builds a tower from the dirt removed from the hole. The church yard was filled with towers from the crawdads.

I decided I was gonna get me a crawdad just for fun. I dug up many a hole but never seen a single crawdad. The local people thought it great entertainment to watch how this old Nebraska boy hunted crawdads. I'm not sure how they catch em there but my method was definitely a bust.

The wires that were installed into the conduit pipes to the junction boxes were up to nine individual wires that had to be pulled through the pipe. The proceedure required a stiff fish wire to be pushed through the pipe out the other end. Then the wires were fastened to the fish wire with tape and as the wires were pulled through the pipe they were continually gooped up with some kind to slick stuff to make them slide through the pipe easier. It was quite a process to watch for sure. I learned quite a lot about electrical wiring.

Mexico Trip

Hey,
I cracked the code of the Easy Share camera and pulled out the Mexico trip pictures. The secret was in the sequence of events. First the camera must be connected to the computer with the camera off. Then when the camera is turned on it really doesn't turn on but accesses the computer and begins an automatic hand shake with the computer. Then low and behold a download wizard pops up and asks the question, "Where do you want to store your pictures?" How easy is that?
This is what the work sight looked like when we reached it on the first day of the project. It was nothing but a hole in the ground with a cement foundation to place the block walls on. The dirt there is quite sandy. I'm surprised the walls didn't cave in while we were working on the blocks but they seemed to stay in place pretty good.






By the end of the first day we had completed about 2/3 of the block walls. The blocks there are a little different then here in the States. As you can see they are narrower and have three holes instead of two. I think they are a little lighter than the American blocks and weigh in about 30 to 40 pounds each.

This would be the cement mixer. Yup, you just pile it on the ground, grab a shovel and start mixing. This is a teeny little batch made for laying the block. When the lid for the tank was mixed we started with 80 five-gallon buckets of sand, ten bags of cement, and numerous buckets of water. Three shovelers mixed the huge batch and two wheel rickety barrows were used to move it, move it, move it. We got to move it, move it, move it.

Sometimes the blocks had to be custom fit which required skill, strength, and a accurate eye. Right. You can see a number of broken blocks laying around the site that didn't quite line up with my accurate eye. The structure in the background is the actual community center which will have a second floor when completed to house teams like ours. I learned a lot about laying block on this trip.

Old blocker layer Dave