Rain Falls Angry on the Tin Roof

So… the other day I was listening to my music on shuffle and what song comes on but that one “I’ll be your crying shoulder” (I think that is what it is called).  And I’m listening and listening… singing along… and then it comes to the line.. “Rain falls, angry on the tin roof, while I lay awake in my bed”  And I realize that unless you have heard rain falling on a tin roof… you do not know really how angry that sounds!  But ironically I was listening to this song the morning after a crazy rainstorm, so now I can fully appreciate the imagery.  Let me tell you how loud rain is on a tin roof… it is loud… like I was trying to have a conversation with this guy on the phone and I could not hear or understand at all (it didn’t help that the conversation was in Spanish).  And this was a crazy rain and thunder and lightning storm!  My power went off for a bit… I found out the other day when the power was out for like three days.. that not only means no hot water but no water at all!  But yes everyone keeps telling me here that February is the loco month.  Last night there was so much fog or humidity or something that you couldn’t see any of the mountains or lake or anything.  Other fun things about having a tin roof (and a suspended ceiling with those ceiling tiles that just kind of sit there)  Is that when the wind comes… and there is a lot of wind in this season… it comes up under the tin I think, lifts up the ceiling tiles and slams them back down.  So all night it is just bang bang bang.  And then in the morning you have to go and rearrange all the ceiling tiles.  So that is fun.  And then there is some kind of rodent, or bird, or cat, or maybe this racoonish animal which I haven’t seen yet but who apparently lives here and bothers dogs)… well this animal goes racing back and forth in the morning across the roof.  At just about 6 a.m. everyday for an hour at least.  It just runs back and forth.  I really need to figure out what animal exactly this is.  Maybe I’ll wake up early some morning and go down and watch the roof.  But yeah, all these things which I never would have experienced without having a tin roof!  Lucky me!  Oooo other fun things… recenly I have been finding scorpions… does anyone know do they travel in groups or families.  I found one while I was in the bathroom… smashed him and now have a little smashed scorpion mark on the floor…then the other night I am sitting there and out of the corner of my eye see this big thing running across the floor… and sure enough it is a big old scorpion with its little stinger tail all curled up ready to strike.  Well we dance around each other a bit waiting for the other to make the first move.  And then I get him with a big smack from my workbook (those boots are beasts if you have not seen them).  And then there are all sorts of scorpion mushy guts all over the floor.  Then today I am doing my laundry… go to wash these capris which I was so close to putting on that morning.  And there in the capris is a dead scorpion… luckily I had drowned him by submerging the clothes in soapy water first.  (my new laundry method… which is much faster and easier on the clothes I think).  So there is my fun with wildlife in my room.

But alas I must go catch the boat… I am going over to San Pablo to meet with the teachers whose literacy classes I am going to start observing next week!

The joys of (some) volunteers!

Oh man I finally have a chance to sit down and write!  It was a rather crazy last week I must say.  I think I left off on my last entry that we were going to start construction the next day.  Well, well, well, we did start construction the next day… however it was not qutie how I had anticipated. 

Here is how last Wednesday went.  Ok so I wake up put on some work clothes eat some breakfast… book it to the muelle (dock) and I see my three volunteers (retired guys) waiting at the dock… so far so good.  Then as I am walking down the hill, who do I see but Francisco our Albanil (foreman) who lives in San Juan (where we are headed on the boat) and who is supposed to be meeting us at the clinic in San Juan to let us in and tell us what exactly the plans are for the roof.  So I say Francisco, what are you doing in Panajachel… well Francisco is on his way to meet with the Governor (he keeps throwing in the word governor to make it seem important).  So he is going to Solola to meet with the governor to talk about this hotel he is building… and he won´t be back till like 1:00.  Ok excellent… well then how do we get in the clinic because as of yet I do not have a copy of the keys.  Francisco says his son or wife will be there to open the clinic and I was like hmmm ok. 

Alright so I get on the boat with the other volunteers… get to San Juan… walk up the huge hill and through the town to get to the clinic… wait a while for Francisco´s son Andres to arrive to open the clinic… and finally we are in the clinic.  But there are no tools or supplies in the clinic.  I met with Francisco on Monday and gave him the money to buy the materials we needed which we had priced out and some chisels.  But there are no materials there… Francisco hadn´t bought them yet.  So of course these guys who like to work and work hard all day.. no messing around are not too happy… also Francisco did not bring the ladder as he said he would.  So Andres goes and scrounges up a very rickety homemade ladder after I told him that we could not shimmy oursevles up the side of the building.  Andres had to go home to get the money to buy the chisels and bring a seldge hammer.  Meanwhile the guys are getting antsy. 

Ok Andres returns an hour later with the chisels and sledge, we get on the roof, and i tell the guys that we are knocking down the concrete facade.  Then the guys proceede to tell me that they need three sledge hammers, and that this really is an impossible job, and is something that doesn´t need to be done anyways.  ANd why would we knock down the facade (well because it looks like a church and it is going to be a clinic)…. And of course they don´t believe me and I don´t have Francisco there to back me up.  So finally we start deconstructing the facade, and well much to the guys suprise the facade comes off pretty easily since the concrete is filled inside with adobe.  Alright so we get that off… I call Francisco (still not back) and ask him where we put all the adobe and concrete.  He says we need to bring it into the church to clear the alley that it is blocking and then later we will haul it to the truck.  Of course the guys refuse to do this because they do not want to have to move it twice.  So they break for lunch…

Yay!!! Francisco returns at 12:00…but no he has to go home to eat lunch and he will be back at 1:00.  He says once he gets back we will put break up all the adobe and concrete put it in costals (bags) and then haul it to his pickup.  You can only walk to the church there is not road that goes there… so we either have to carry the bags… or we have to use a wheel barrow.  All of these things however are at Francisco´s house… so I go with Francisco´s house to get these supplies…

 But by the time I get back… the men of course have been talking and you know where talking and complaining and feeding off of other´s complaints goes… mutiny.  So I get back and I tell them we need to put the concrete in bags and carry the bags… and they tell me that is ridiculous.  So they half assed put the concrete in bags… but inform me that they are not going to carry these bags… that I should hire someone to carry them.  Then they tell me that they are mad because we are wasting their skills.  ¨we are skilled carpenters, and you are wasting our skills on hauling rocks¨.  (nice servant attitude).  And they kept telling me how we should be so thankful to have their skills and cannot believe that we would use them to do this meanial labor.  I was thinking… well incase you haven´t noticed there is not really a lot of skilled carpentry going on in Guatemala… all the tables and such are the same simple design… and look like I could probably construct them with no problem.  Plus everything here is made of adobe and cement!  So they tell me they are leaving and they need to talk to JoAn and they don´t know if they will be back.  They were also so disrespectful to the community… not wanting to clear the alley where everyone walks through… and when I was translating back and forth between Francisco and the guys they kept saying such rude things like… this is what its like with people in this country… you have to repeat things over and over to get your point across… things take such a long time.   But yeah I´m sorry people can tell what you are saying by your tone of voice even if they don´t speak your language…(haha really I was talking to Francisco about how they were rude) I think I should have given them some of our cultural sensitivity traning stuff… but I figured they come down here with their wives and their nonprofit and dedicate schools and such for a couple months each year that they would get that! 

Well it would have been helpful for them to help carry these bags of rocks because now me (with my incredible strength) and Francisco are going to haul all of these bags to the pick up.  So Francisco returns… the guys are gone… and since there still are not roofing materials here… we go together to buy the materials (which was overall a productive trip and gave me a better handle on construciton and prices and hardware stores and such down here)

 So… then the next day I go to a meeting with our architect here in Pana to plan out the interior of the main clinic building.  One of the guys who was volunteering with us´wives is a nurse who has helped design clinics and her friend are there, as well as one of the guy volunteers.  I say hi to him and he asks all ticked off and just kind of grunts at me… I am like oh very mature. 

Then after the meeting he takes JoAn and wants to talk to her about their experience yesterday in private… I leave and hear some of this…and was feeling pretty overwhelemed and stressed out.  So I cried on the launch the whole way over to San Juan to meet with Francisco.  But Francisco and I started working on the roof, and we got a lot of it done… replacing some of the boards and the tin roofing material.  So it was going well.

Then that night I got back to Pana and got a call from Gary, one of the guy volunteers.  He says that he and the guys will come back…(I told them we had the materials and worked on some of the roof that day) and before they get on the roof… which they think is not as strong as it could be… really it is fine (even the architect says so)… I mean I guess you probably would want to have a dance party up there… but it is tin roofing not something you really want to walk on anyways.  But Gary says… ¨you need to have 20 1×4x8 (um don´t think they really sell 1×4s here…plus it is metric) and 8 2×4x8s there then I can call them and they will come back.  But I am like I don´t have money to buy those materials… and he is like can´t you get money from JoAn… um no what do you think we are made of money.  Plus… we are not even replacing the whole roof… just the part that needs it. 

So finally I said oh so nicely that we would love their help and appreciate all their skills, but we just do not have those materials, and understand their concerns…and if we have any fine woodworking needs we will let them know.  Ahhhh…

But yeah… so Francisco and I have been finishing up the rest of the roof. 

Ok wow…really long desciption… but that is kind of how my week went… kind of frustrating… but of course helped me to learn a lot… and good stuff to know before we start getting teams here!