Despite losing my wallet today somewhere between the house and kids school, today was pretty good for house progress. After re-tracing my path twice and cancelling my cards, I met with the LEG director and the contractor. We decided to order a gas stove tank set up and a locally made ceramic super efficient wood stove contraption: https://www.comarcasapoyo.org/coci-nica-english. We also agreed to get a bunk bed set up for the Erick Antonio and Darling.
The contractor said he had a crew available this afternoon and with the materials left over at the site he offered to do a concrete floor today for $100. He called the labor charge, about $33, “un regalo”, a gift.
In about 6 hours of work, he knocked out 7 feet. He said we should stop at 13 feet because the water table might get in if we go further. Which is BS according to Darvin. The old latrine was 18 feet deep.
The 4 man concrete crew finally showed up in a big truck around 3pm with all the supplies and tools. They worked extremely fast mixing sand, rock, water and cement in the street and carried bucket loads to the house.
The 3 inches of concrete was done in about 2 hours. Another finish layer and color will hopefully get done tomorrow.
After protesting this yesterday, I was told all agreed this was the best approach to finish this wall, which faces the neighbor they don’t seem too friendly with. More importantly, the wind comes from the other direction. These are the best peices from the old roof. The other 3 walls will be done with the crappy wood planks, which I’m told is best to let the breeze in.
The base prep was about 4 inches of “ta pu he”, the chalky dirt pulled out of the latrine pit from the bottom 7 feet. No compaction needed, just a little raking to get out the big chunks.
I hope it gets a clean tight finish at the top and a coat of paint. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a priority before my time is up here.
Los Daues en Nicaragua 