We started off with two teams and two sites. Site 'A' is a four-seater with corridor (for extra privacy) situated in a fairly small area with a walk up some stairs from the mixing area on the street to the work site. Site 'B' (sometime referred to as 'The Palace') has a much more open work site for their three-seater (also with corridor) - with lots of place to stack bricks and mix cement - all without people running into each other.
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| Site A: The Lane and Water Tank |
Since site 'B' is easier to work at and was given the luxury of having re-bar all laid out on Day 1, they finished the maximum number of 5 rows (before hardening) earlier than Site A - so... we were given an extra location. Site 'C' is the smallest area, just barely enough for a two-seater without corridor, and certainly not a lot of space to manouever. Group B therefore had the hard work of working re-bar and mixing cement today.
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| Mortar Momma |
And the kids. There are a couple of kids that live in houses that open onto our worksite - one little girl named 'Amen' is particularly cute and loves getting her picture taken. Also, we had groups of kids posing out in the street, yelling 'hello' to us from the lane, and running away giggling when we went to see them. Sahand from our group was also playing soccer with one little boy out in the lane - where the soccer ball was constructed from strips of cement bags wrapped around a rock. The picture I got is weak, but Sahand said that the kid was a good soccer player.
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| Alex and His New Girlfriend |
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| Soccer Fanatic - in plastic shoes |
I learned something about slums today. First I thought it was odd that there were pockets of slums all over the city, with areas of commerce and higher-rent districts in between. Actually, the area we are working in is not too far from the Prime Ministers House, which is pretty-much across the street from the Sheraton (in case you were wondering). Then when I asked about addresses, I was told that the area we were working in was the Piazza Service-workers Area - which means that people who live here are mostly service workers for the people and businesses in the Piazza area. In fact, when we go for lunch, it is often not more than a couple of blocks away. The Piazza area was named during the period of time when the Italians (under Mussolini) were 'in residence'.
By the end of the day, Site A topped out at around 7 rows on all walls, and up to the maximum of 10 rows on one wall. Site C had fully-poured concrete, and Site B was drying...
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| See You Tomorrow! |
