Rain, Rain, and More Rain

1.17.19

Rain.  So much rain. It started at the very end of the evening last night and took us totally by surprise.  Especially those who had waited until Wednesday to do laundry. They got their stuff on the line and the next thing we knew, the rain was pouring down.  It does that every once in awhile but then it lets up.  Not this time.  The tent people had some surprises waiting for them out there. (Remember the part from yesterday about moving the tents off the grass?  Well, they weren’t staked and pulled tight the way they need to be and things didn’t go well at the edges.)  We are down to 7 people in tents now, with two bringing their soggy mattresses inside to find a place to sleep.  And we had to create indoor laundry lines to help some of our group members come up with some clean clothes soon.  

And we woke up to rain, which didn’t let up all day.  Team Picante made pancakes and fruit for breakfast (and even some fruity pancakes), which makes for a pretty fine start to the day. Our bus driver had a doctor’s appointment today and due to some miscommunication, didn’t pick us up this morning.  We put out distress calls to our project leaders nearby and they came and picked us up to help us get to work.  For some reason, it was kind of fun to do it this way.  

We had plenty of work to do at all of our sites, even if the work wasn’t always what we expected.  One house has not only developed professional level skills at some of the tasks they have undertaken, but they have also fostered a “hive mentality “ of sorts where they find themselves anticipating each other’s moves and working in almost perfect sync.  They can do ceiling work, floor work, and paint the most remote nooks and crannies without batting an eye now.  They may come in handy when they come home for Jan Term break . . .

Another house had tons of interior painting to do so they stayed busy all day now that the proper paint was available to them.  We are all thrilled when we get to paint because it makes such a clear and obvious improvement in the house that we all can see and feel.  Some of us have gotten really good at painting while others have created new methods and techniques that help to reach tight spots or deal with awkward areas.  

The house where we demolished most of another house yesterday had lots of work to do too, all of which was messy and outside.  We were supposed to tile a bathroom there (our spacers arrived!) but once we got the wet saw connected, we learned that the water pump wasn’t working and needed to be replaced.   Once again, the tile job was at a standstill. The exterior plastering job that a subcontractor was supposed to do was stymied by the rain. 

So that left us with that debris field in the back that used to be another full house.  We went after it.  We gathered up the debris that was already in the space from our work yesterday and we created a lot more concrete debris with sledgehammers and wrecking bars. Alex showed amazing strength and skill with the sledgehammer, hitting blocks perfectly in the spot that would make them pop right out of the floor. Shawny and Sarah started singing the Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball” to him, which he clearly did not take as a compliment (even though it WAS).  He forgave them, though, and joined them (and Jenny) in short “bucket lines” to move the debris out into the discard pile.  

All of us worked really hard today and were eager to get home and get some rest.  We hardly managed to do so, as we decided to make our own dinner out of some fresh kale, broccoli, spinach, and other items to supplement the regular offerings of rice, rice, and more rice that we frequently eat here.  Our meal was fabulous.  

We then moved on to our reflection circle, where team Chanclas Fuegas (an attempt to be “Fire Sandals” in Spanish) asked us each to talk about what we learned at our SBP houses and what lessons we would take to future projects here and elsewhere.  We talked about the passion and commitment of both the project leaders and the homeowners, as both groups know how to persevere against incredible odds.  Some of us are certainly considering whether we would be able to make an extended commitment like the ones our project leaders have made; we think maybe a few of us might give it a try after graduation this spring.  

We also talked about some of the life skills we’ve gained, including innumerable examples of how to work “smarter, not harder.”  We have all picked up certain tips about to work with tools so that the tools do the work instead of us using all of our muscles to make things happen. We’ve all also gotten good at passing our knowledge on to each other, meaning it’s particularly lovely to watch someone learn how to use a flat bar or a chopsaw with clear and careful safety instructions from one of us.  

We talked about how much we appreciate each other and our ways of being together.  And we talked about how we want our future lives to feel and how much of what we are doing/being here we hope will come with us into our eventual careers.  

Tomorrow is likely our last day at the houses where we’ve spent the past week and a half.  We are all hoping to get major parts of these projects fully completed before we have to walk away.  If we don’t (and even if we do) we might find ourselves being drawn back into these projects right here in our neighborhood.  

And we have two new Purple Bikers: Hope and Sarah.  Hope had a lock on the PB just because of her work cleaning the house yesterday. Others helped too but Hope was the mastermind who made a big org chart about how to get the whole job done quickly. But her contributions extend far beyond that cleaning job.  She has helped us connect to interesting new breakfast combinations, in part because she is a vegan, so she doesn’t eat eggs or pancakes, two of our main offerings. Many people piped up about how kind and encouraging she has been to all of us and to the people around us.  She has a particular gift with making connections, whether with us, our hosts, or with complex content that we addressed in our pre-course readings and how that content relates to our actual experience here. She has been a blessing to our group. 

And our second Purple Biker is Sarah!  She gained entirely new respect and affection for tough manual labor today, swinging a sledgehammer masterfully with Alex’s careful instruction.  She also used a wrecking bar to remove the edges of the blocks that remained sealed to the floor. Further, she mucked out the floors of the demolished house, as the remaining wall segments meant that they basically had become pools that contained lots of broken concrete.  And she was totally unaffected by the rain, the hard work, the solitary nature of some of her jobs, or even the termites and other pests that infested the worksite.  She just smiled and plugged away until the slab was nearly smooth and empty.  Thanks a million, Sarah!

Rooftop views of fruit trees at Ana’s house. 

Large “platanos” leaves are used to add flavor to cooking rice by covering the pot of rice with the big leaves.

Rainy dayz.

Enjoying some much needed quiet time in the tents. Also, this is Grayson doing some typical campsite shinanigans!

Pre-work massage train.

  Scott petting Chispa while working on Ana’s house.

The sharing of Clif Bars has become a coveted ritual among work sites.

 Tom is forever grateful to Madi for her trim skills and her Clif Bar sharing. 

Paul is a snot bag.

So excited and grateful to eat as many green things as we can when our dinner plans fell through and the kitchen team came to the rescue. 

This is a neighborhood view of the work sites where Luz and Francisca live.

Stephane and Nils covered in paint from the ceiling paint work at Francisca’s house. 

There are chickens always running around our work sites everyday!

It was our first rainy day today with a very wet atmosphere around our house in Loiza.