Antonio promised us a short, easy day today. He was half right. We finished by about 3:15. But it was anything but easy. We had a big crew. Tim, Doug, Daniel and I made up the regulars who have been part of the laundry crew all week. Chuck and Sarah have been in Armenia all week, but took time on Wednesday and Thursday to help with the medical clinic. Elizabeth and Olivia joined us for the first time today, and Sue, Rita, and Rita's Sarah rejoined us after helping on Monday in pouring the slab. Jordan, our other regular, took the day to play with the kids at the orphanage. That made a dozen of us.
We started the morning working on three different tasks. Some started hauling sand to mix into concrete – a skill we had practiced a lot on Monday and Tuesday. Another crew continued our work from yesterday, building the forms that would hold the concrete for the 8 x 8 inch beams that run the perimeter of the laundry, suspended 9 feet off the ground by the columns we poured on Tuesday. A third crew learned a new skill: building a 4x4 inch steel skeleton out of rebar to reinforce those beams. In the US all of these tasks would have been mechanized; here they were all done by hand.
The concrete crew was most efficient, finishing first in their assigned task of hauling 21 wheelbarrows of gravel to the porch of the Development Center, and mixing it with seven bags of Portland cement. In anticipation of completion of the forms, they started adding water to the mix.
Meanwhile, the rebar team finished tying each of four steel rods to a steel harnesses spaced two feet apart for 96 linear feet of reinforcing, and finally the carpenter crew finished building the last of three forms for the day. Of course, as soon as we tried to position the first one, we discovered that it had been built backwards. We had to tear it apart and reassemble it. After all the forms were in place we discovered a warp in two of them that required some in-place adjustments to make sure the final product actually WAS an 8x8 inch beam.
During all this activity the temperature kept climbing and the concrete began to set. A weeks worth of fatigue and exhaustion took its toll. Several of us looked like walking zombies. Chuck took a spill with a load of gravel and ended up with several magnificent bruises. Doug lost a ladder and ended up swinging from the forms like a monkey. Most of us were running on autopilot.
After we placed the forms and braced the tops and bottoms, we started filling them with concrete. One five gallon bucket at a time. We had to work fast, because the concrete had already been mixed for 2 hours. At the halfway point we took a break for lunch around 1:00. Grenaches – small fried flour tortillas covered with beans, cheese, grated cabbage and fresh spicy tomato salsa. Delicious! Lazarus used to sell them on the street. His plate looked like a multicolored flower with 6 beautiful petals. He called it a plate of roses. Pictures to follow.
After a short lunch, we were back at it by 1:30. Intense effort on everyone's part got the forms filled with concrete. The extra concrete was embedded in the walls we built yesterday, and all gone by 2:30.
A little more time cleaning and sorting tools and we were ready for "closing ceremonies". We thanked Tono and his crew for the opportunity to work with them and for their patience this week. We gave each of them a "Mission from God" T-Shirt and took our formal group picture in front of the laundry building. After that, we piled into the LandCruiser and the back of the pickup truck for the four mile trip back to Jaguar Creek for soccer (Sarah and Jordan and Tono's work crew) or swimming (the rest of us weary old fogeys).
All in all, a productive, gratifying, fulfilling, awe-inspiring and exhausting week building the laundry facility for the people of Armenia.
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