Concrete and the impending deluge. Sept 23rd

(Sounds like a good band name hey?)

Everyone seemed to have woken up with mended backs this morning. Once again we had a blast at breakfast. Instead of shooting straight to the site from the resort we stopped at the entrance of the resort's driveway....really it's more like an entrance road. Anyways at the beginning of this road there is an old blown out Russian tank leftover from the Revolution in the late 70's and 80's which, along with the massive earth quake this country had many years ago, moved Nicaragua from the wealthiest country of Central America to the poorest. At the tank we took a group picture which was a lot of fun. On the way to the site we video taped the ride there just to give everyone a sense of how bumpy they rural roads are here.

Once we got to the site we got everything ready to go so that we could just pump out as much concrete as possible for pouring the foundation. Problem is that that only takes about half of our group to do so the other half walked up to the church to prep the floor so that we can pour as soon as the foundation is done. (Brain told as that pouring the church floor is a surprise for the church. So now we really want to make sure we get that done). We had some amazing momentum. Even the foreman, Ishmael, got in the ling for pouring concrete.

Then the "...rains came down and the floods went up." Finally it rained on us like it normally rains here. The people here really know their clouds 'cause Ishmael looked at the clouds as they were coming in and said "wet". Then in about five minutes he stripped down to just a tank top and jeans, he pointed down at the ground, shook his head and said "wetter". Sure enough it started to rain and it didn't really stop. It rained soooo hard. At about 4pm the wheel barrows were getting bogged down in the mud and Brain started to worry about the conditions of the roads for the travel home. We've learned already that the non paved roads deteriorated rapidly in the rain...wash outs...sink holes...sheer amounts of mud....So we called it an early day. We still have 1/4 of the foundation to pour and the church floor to pour as well. Sometimes the weather here decides your day for you.

At dinner we were treated to some traditional dance by a group of dancers performing for a large group that is doing some type of conference at the resort. Since it was at the restaurant we were just sort "spectating". We planned out tomorrow....we're hitting the road at 7:30am so we can get everything done. Friday we won't have as much time for working so we want to get as close to everything done as possible.

Sahweet!