Workout Day

I've been going to the gym this past winter, and riding the bicycle. Here in Guatemala, there are no gyms that I have seen, and I don't have the bike. But I learned on Wednesday that I don't have to worry about losing my conditioning, I got enough of a workout to last me for 3 weeks.

Mostly, that was because I was pouring cement floors for the houses we had built. I've never done much cement work at home, and I had never worked on the floors here. Me and a small crew of workers put in 2 of the floor slabs yesterday morning. I shot some photos and videos of the process, but I will wait to post them over the weekend when I have more time. Suffice it to say for now that there are no Redi-Mix trucks involved with cement work here. Rather, there are piles of sand and gravel and 80 pound cement bags to be moved with shovels and wheelbarrows. On steep hillsides. My back is feeling it a little this morning, but I'll be OK, no physical work for the next few days.

I also walked several miles on Wednesday around the village in which we have been working. We've had a lot of vehicle trouble this week, dead batteries, flat tires, electrical shorts, and more. When our 12 passenger vans have gone down, we walk. That was the case on Wednesday. Again, I sort of welcomed the chance to exercise. To a point.
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We built our 12 houses for the week, dedicated them to their new families on Wednesday afternoon, and now these young people I've been working with from Memphis are going home today. Only me and Keeci Goodman are staying behind, to do some farm exploring for a few days. Another group from Memphis is coming next Thursday, and we'll go back to working on houses in another village. That group has signed on to build 20 houses.

Keeci and I have to move today to new digs, in Chimaltenango, at a seminary compound. Keeci will stay in the home of a woman who is the dean of students. I will stay in the men's dormitory, which is empty now because the students are on break. I get a whole building to myself. We toured the place briefly yesterday, it's going to work just great, and the people there are really accomodating and will do anything to help us get around. We'll have a pickup truck, and my driving skills in Guatemala are going to have to go to a new level today.