Workers Doing Repairs

Tuesday September 23

Only two workers showed up. Their boss was not there. When he was here yesterday all he did was supervise. I guess he has workers at some other place. Since a canal has to be building around the house that has to go through rock on two sides and cement on the other, I thought they would have an angle iron. (Marcos said he has his own tools.) Well, it looks like they don’t have an angle iron, so the workers have to use a hammer iron spike and a pickax. The pickax I had to buy yesterday. If they had the right tools the poor workers wouldn’t have to work so hard and more work can get done and they would have got the same money in less time.

Labor is cheaper than proper tools here.


Wednesday September 24

This morning Jayne and I looked at the canal that the workers dug. We saw that the foundation is made build with bricks! These are bricks that deteriorate. On top of this is a concrete slab. How can they build such a foundation? The only thing we can do is to do a patch-up job. It would cost way too much to dig out the bottom of the foundation with supports that would prevent the shifting of the house.

We decided not to have a canal dug on the other two sides of the house (one side has a raised patio so there should be no problem there). On the other sides we’ll have cement put where the ground and wall meets and where it will slope away from the house to prevent water buildup.


Thursday September 25

The workers were here.


Friday September 26

The workers finished doing work on the side of the house, but there is more to be done. They’ll be coming back Monday.