Wednesday at San José

All of the ceiling beams from the old kitchen were taken off yesterday and now a couple new beams have been set and others being prepared to support the new floor which extends from the floor on which we are all standing as we work and look on.  The first thing after Fredy welds two canaletas together is to hammer off the slag and paint the welding against rust.  Tim and Michael are in the process, making an awful racket as they do so.

Fredy is welding and then cutting the steel beams to length

Armando and his fellow workers are chiseling holes in the retaining wall behind the wall of the kitchen, so that the beams can rest on something solid before being cemented in.  It is tough work doing the hammer and chisel work while balancing on the old wall.  Of course, the lengths are odd, and so Fredy has to piece the smaller lengths together with welding so as not to waste any of the expensive material.

So how do you get the cement up to where it is needed?  Of course, the buckets of sand are carried up and the bag of cement and the bucket of water and mixed by hand on the floor.  

Then Armando tosses it into the holes chiseled out in the retaining wall.

It is starting to look very good.  All level and evenly spaced, in spite of the difficulties of the cement columns in the retaining wall.

Of course, another trip to the hardware store was required and while we were buying cutting blades and brushes, Michael remembered the women of the tortilleria who gave their tortilla makers a real workout every day.  So he purchased three new ones

While we were there, the water truck came by and the women signaled the truck and one of the young men carried up two five-gallon bottles, one on each shoulder.   Not a bad price: Lps 20 per bottle--that is about 80 cents in dollars.  

Speaking of necessary services like water, we noticed a lot of trash on the corner of the street when we came up:

It turns out that this is a collection point for the village.  Once a month the city sends a collection team, who made their appearance today.

Alice wasn't feeling at the top of her form today but still spent it with the children.  We picked up a few more from the neighborhood who seemed to love hanging out, eating lunch, and learning a little English

Here is Bob thanking the women of the parish for a wonderful lunch again: Fried chicken, platinos fritos (fried plaintains) beans and tortillas and watermelon for dessert.