My project for last week was a bit of carpentry. Just about every house in Ahuas is raised about nine feet off of the ground by posts. The area underneath the house is large enough to walk underneath and is often used for storage. However, in Ahuas, if items are not bolted down or locked up, they tend to disappear. So, people that would like to have a storage space must fence it in and include a door with a heavy lock.
Anyways, Scott - a fellow Minnesotan - asked if I would lend him a hand in replacing the fencing around his basement. I willingly agreed to help because I figured How long could it really take? A few hours, tops? We only needed to do three sides because the forth was securely covered with wood. And I was right - it only took us a few hours... per side. The project ended up spanning three days. It took so long because it was so darn tedious having to pull off boards, pull out a ton of tiny cramps that held the fencing to the wood, cutting the fence, attaching boards at the top and bottom to seal it, and finally putting new cramps back on.
After we were done and had a tall glass of cold water, I turned to Scott and said, “I better make this whole teacher thing work because I have got to be the worst carpenter ever.” Looking at the fence you can track my path of destruction by following the cramps and nails that are bent and mashed to all hell. I don’t think my hands (and especially thumbs) have been this sore in quite some time. Fortunately, there is a new house being built at the base so hopefully I redeem myself. We are also starting to hand-make cement bricks for the new school house as well. We have 54 done. We need 5,000. That is my after-school project for the foreseeable future.
"I'm waiting for the time when I fail - because we all fail - and I'm ready, I'll take up carpentry." - Adrian Edmondson
No comments:
Post a Comment