In previous posts, I have said we have been building near Darkhan, Mongolia. We are building in the town of Khutul (the k is silent). In previous posts, I have commented about the lack of trees. That is because we are in the Mongolian-Manchurian Steppes. This is an area of grasslands that surrounds the north and east sides of the Gobi Desert. While there are mountainous areas in Mongolia that have trees, most of the places in my earlier posts are treeless because of being in the steppes. Next weekend (August 3 - 6) is when eight members of our team go to the Gobi Desert for four days and three nights. Until then, I will remain in Darkhan and Khutul, and overnight Friday Aug. 2 in Ulaanbaatar.
We have been learning new words in Mongolian: hello = sain baina uu; thank you = bayarlalah; mortar = sharwar; water = uus. But my favorite is big = tom; this means I am tom Tom. Many of the Mongolians who speak little or no English get my attention by saying "tom" which confuses me - are they just saying big or are they saying my name? For many, I think they are just saying big because there is a task that needs a tall person (passing things up to or down from the ceiling beams which are eight feet from the ground) or that need a large person to move (the heavy blocks or large beams or the assembled roof trusses). Here is a photo I copied from Karla's Facebook photos that demonstrates why being big and tall is useful, especially when most of the Mongolian workers are much smaller and shorter.
Here is another photo I stole from Karla's blog. For about one half of the task of pouring the concrete piers, I stood on a block and handed buckets of concrete up to Peter on the scaffolding, who in turn lifted them up to and poured them into the forms where one of the homeowner's brothers smoothed the concrete. For most of the next half, Susan stood on the block and handed buckets of concrete up to me on the scaffolding, where I poured them into the forms and Peter smoothed them. For the last half dozen buckets, Peter came down; Susan continued to hand me buckets of concrete and I both poured and smoothed them while on the scaffolding.
I estimate we lifted and poured well more than 100 buckets of heavy, wet cement. Here is what Peter and I looked like on the way home on day 3 - dead tired.
And here is what the concrete piers looked like.
We have been learning new words in Mongolian: hello = sain baina uu; thank you = bayarlalah; mortar = sharwar; water = uus. But my favorite is big = tom; this means I am tom Tom. Many of the Mongolians who speak little or no English get my attention by saying "tom" which confuses me - are they just saying big or are they saying my name? For many, I think they are just saying big because there is a task that needs a tall person (passing things up to or down from the ceiling beams which are eight feet from the ground) or that need a large person to move (the heavy blocks or large beams or the assembled roof trusses). Here is a photo I copied from Karla's Facebook photos that demonstrates why being big and tall is useful, especially when most of the Mongolian workers are much smaller and shorter.
Here is another photo I stole from Karla's blog. For about one half of the task of pouring the concrete piers, I stood on a block and handed buckets of concrete up to Peter on the scaffolding, who in turn lifted them up to and poured them into the forms where one of the homeowner's brothers smoothed the concrete. For most of the next half, Susan stood on the block and handed buckets of concrete up to me on the scaffolding, where I poured them into the forms and Peter smoothed them. For the last half dozen buckets, Peter came down; Susan continued to hand me buckets of concrete and I both poured and smoothed them while on the scaffolding.
I estimate we lifted and poured well more than 100 buckets of heavy, wet cement. Here is what Peter and I looked like on the way home on day 3 - dead tired.
And here is what the concrete piers looked like.
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