Monday, we set out on our daily uphill drive from La Paz to the build site on the outskirts of El Alto. FCH Bolivia has contracted for the use of a large van to transport us daily and we all piled in for the hour long drive to site.
Everyone has their blood pressure and pulse checked and recorded when we arrived. The Red Cross does this, plus has oxygen available for us.
FCH has an area of 200 building lots in a new subdivision that will have about 2,000 homes and businesses. There is a paid work crew of nine Bolivians and the task for our crew of volunteers is to help them on the first seven homes that are already started (two duplexes and three single family homes).
Our tasks on the first day included half the team scrubbing lime off the exterior brick walls - something about the drying of the bricks and mortar causes the lime to leach out to the surface and it needs to be scrapped off. The other half of the team moved bricks, sand and water to the various homes so that the paid crew could do more work on constructing the walls.
After lunch, our blood pressure and pulse was checked again, and the crews swapped jobs. And at the end of the day, we again had BP and pulse checked and recorded again. They are very concerned about our health since we are doing physically demanding work at high altitude.
Tuesday, on the way up the side of the mountains, we stopped at Faro Murillo district so we could take photos looking back down on the city and up the rest of the hillside - amazing views from this point that is about 3/4 of the way up and out of La Paz.
At the build site, progress continues to be made.
Wednesday, we began a new project which the paid workers did not do. Each home will have two septic tanks, one for toilets and one for laundry, sinks and showers. This requires digging two holes, one of one meter diameter and the other of one and half meters diameter. Both have to be one and half meters deep. So we began digging with hand tools. We also worked on other projects, including moving more bricks, sand and water, washing more exterior brick walls and making the rebar frames for the horizontal concrete pillars at the tops of the brick walls.
Thursday, we continued with more of the same. Laura really got into helping dig the one meter wide hole, as well as doing other tasks.
After my blood pressure check Friday, I walked around to see the progress on the other houses. The paid staff have been doing a lot with the walls on the second duplex as well as some interior work on the first duplex.
Saturday was not a good day for me. Patty became ill during the night Thursday, so she did not go to work Friday. Our bus had problems with the clutch and we barely made it there. The driver took the bus for repairs and we rode home in the smaller van operated by our driver's son. Saturday, the supposedly repaired bus died about half way up the hill. Plus, we were expecting to meet some of the homeowners at the build site - but they missed the bus and we were supposed to add those five people to our bus. The solution was for us to start walking up hill to meet the son's smaller van. I did not feel comfortable with the situation and decided to go back to the hotel - I did this alone. After leaving the hotel at 9:00, I got back to the hotel around 10:30. The rest of the crew (minus the recovering Patty and me) got to the work site around 11:15 where they spent about two hours working, playing with the homeowner's kids and eating lunch and then returned to the hotel around 2:00. Saturday afternoon was a quiet time for people to relax and that evening, we went out for dinner for our best meal so far.
One of the tasks I completed Saturday was going to Post Office and getting stamps for postcards back to the USA. The post cards cost 2 BS (about $0.30 US) but cost 14 BS (about $2.00 US) for postage. After writing, addressing and stamping the cards, Patty and I walked to the Post Office and mailed them. On the walk back, we stopped at a shop that Patty had seen before. It is one of the few in this tourist district that belonged to a fair trade group.
Dinner Saturday night was the best yet - so good we went back during the second week. The Melting Pot and Rock was excellent and a great way to end the week.
Everyone has their blood pressure and pulse checked and recorded when we arrived. The Red Cross does this, plus has oxygen available for us.
FCH has an area of 200 building lots in a new subdivision that will have about 2,000 homes and businesses. There is a paid work crew of nine Bolivians and the task for our crew of volunteers is to help them on the first seven homes that are already started (two duplexes and three single family homes).
Our tasks on the first day included half the team scrubbing lime off the exterior brick walls - something about the drying of the bricks and mortar causes the lime to leach out to the surface and it needs to be scrapped off. The other half of the team moved bricks, sand and water to the various homes so that the paid crew could do more work on constructing the walls.
After lunch, our blood pressure and pulse was checked again, and the crews swapped jobs. And at the end of the day, we again had BP and pulse checked and recorded again. They are very concerned about our health since we are doing physically demanding work at high altitude.
Tuesday, on the way up the side of the mountains, we stopped at Faro Murillo district so we could take photos looking back down on the city and up the rest of the hillside - amazing views from this point that is about 3/4 of the way up and out of La Paz.
At the build site, progress continues to be made.
 |
| Those are the bricks we moved Monday |
 |
| Single family home on the left and a duplex on the right |
 |
| The white circles mark where the septic tanks will be and beyond that is rebar work being done |
 |
| Terry taking a break from digging |
After my blood pressure check Friday, I walked around to see the progress on the other houses. The paid staff have been doing a lot with the walls on the second duplex as well as some interior work on the first duplex.
Saturday was not a good day for me. Patty became ill during the night Thursday, so she did not go to work Friday. Our bus had problems with the clutch and we barely made it there. The driver took the bus for repairs and we rode home in the smaller van operated by our driver's son. Saturday, the supposedly repaired bus died about half way up the hill. Plus, we were expecting to meet some of the homeowners at the build site - but they missed the bus and we were supposed to add those five people to our bus. The solution was for us to start walking up hill to meet the son's smaller van. I did not feel comfortable with the situation and decided to go back to the hotel - I did this alone. After leaving the hotel at 9:00, I got back to the hotel around 10:30. The rest of the crew (minus the recovering Patty and me) got to the work site around 11:15 where they spent about two hours working, playing with the homeowner's kids and eating lunch and then returned to the hotel around 2:00. Saturday afternoon was a quiet time for people to relax and that evening, we went out for dinner for our best meal so far.
One of the tasks I completed Saturday was going to Post Office and getting stamps for postcards back to the USA. The post cards cost 2 BS (about $0.30 US) but cost 14 BS (about $2.00 US) for postage. After writing, addressing and stamping the cards, Patty and I walked to the Post Office and mailed them. On the walk back, we stopped at a shop that Patty had seen before. It is one of the few in this tourist district that belonged to a fair trade group.
Dinner Saturday night was the best yet - so good we went back during the second week. The Melting Pot and Rock was excellent and a great way to end the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment