Costa Rica Day Three

Day Three.

Awoke about 06:00 hours. Dozed until about  07:00 then got up showered (now that's another experience). Left my room mate sleeping and adjourned to the area outside the room and completed my day two blog.

It's Sunday, breakfast was served at 08:00. Solid scrambled egg and rice with a slice of cheese on the side. There was also a slice of meat, looked like tongue, it remained on the plate.  Time to meet the rest of the team. Even though we met at the airport, everyone was beat and just disappeared into their room as soon as we got to the accommodation. Dave and Maurine I had met before in Washington. The rest I only knew from their bio's. Ken is my room mate, young guy sleeps a lot, missed breakfast. As the day turned out he missed lunch as well, I finally found him in the room watching TV, that was at about 15:00 hrs.

I was expecting the town to be more Spanish, I don't know why I should think that but I did and it isn't. There are no bars with tables outside. In fact there are very few bars. After walking a few hundred meters I could see why. I stepped over three bodies at different intervals, sprawled across the side walk, (American already). The only way I new they were alive was the twitch they had .
Every property has iron bars protecting it. The steel industry must do really well here. The roads have open drainage along the edge at least 300mm deep. You can't park too close to the side or you drop in. Crossing the road you take your life in your hands, pedestrians do not have right of way. The cars are noisy, they have the same youth culture with regard to cars as we do, loud exhausts and booming music all from cars that look as if they are held together with sticky tape.

Being Sunday it is fairly quiet. I walked into the centre where the cathedral sits next to the central park. The people where spilling out of the doors, this is a very religious nation. I walked from one end of town to the other and from one side to the other and back to the park. Sunday is a family day as most people work a six day week. The park became a promenade, locals dressed in their finest, walked there children back and forth, people watching made easy. I sat there for some time just soaking it all in.

The local chapter of the Hells Angels arrived in a noisy parade and parked outside the cathedral. It's the same the world over. Line the bikes up so they look good, stand around  and look adoringly at your bike. When you know everyone has seen you, you move on.

The streets look very much like American streets that I have seen before,  in Upper New York State and on TV. The kind of hick places you associate with downtown . Plenty of rubbish, mainly in the crevasses left in the damaged pathways and the poles every few meters with all the electricity and telephone cable attached and draped across the street.

The team met for lunch at 13:00m (except Ken my room mate) Potato and Rice. I was in a minority when it came to voting on  setting a time for dinner. Being European I suggested 20:00 to 20:30 thinking I was being considerate towards the Americans. I was out voted, dinner will be at 18:30 and that was a concession to the Big Brit. (me)

Following lunch we had an orientation meeting with the Habitat representative. Do's , don'ts and a program for the work schedule (that's schedule not skedule I'm not that American yet).  The building has not been started yet, virgin ground to be broken, so digging , re-bar, and concrete pouring are on the agenda. The site is about 45 minutes out of  town in a village called Gresia and we start at 07:30 on site. So up at about 05:30. I can't wait. I sometimes feel the waiting about before hand is harder than getting stuck in.

It's 17:40 here that's 23:40 at home. My body clock has adjusted  so I'm on CR time. The guys are playing some kind of card game (cards and dice) they are making a lot of noise and it sounds like there is one who keeps winning. I hear the rest complaining about how much they have lost.

I'm here in the corner plugged in and typing away. I haven't got over lunch yet and in 45 minutes it's dinner time.

Over lunch I had a brief conversation with another team member Geoff. A retired farmer from up on the Washington / Canadian border. I was intrigued by his story about mules and donkeys. He packs his mules and he and his wife head into the mountains camping  for months at a time.  I asked the difference between a donkey and an ass. He replied  "one is human".  The other person who interests me is a retired woman of  70  who worked in education, nursing and then in the peace corp. The only part of the world she has not been to is Antarctic and Russia. She is also the only woman in the team that is working on the build whilst the others minister to the children of the ghetto. More about her later.

Day Four.

We arrived on site at about 07:30. The local contractor had started to set out the foot print. It wasn't long before we started digging, and we didn't stop until lunch time and carried on after lunch until 16:00 when rain stopped play.

We met the family who will be taking on the house when it's completed. A young couple with two children. They currently live in a shack. The plot is situated behind a few other houses built by Habitat a year ago along a track leading into the sugar cane and coffee fields. If I thought the living conditions were grim for the Costa Rican families, the Nicaraguans in the area for the coffee picking are even worse off.

They reminded me of the accommodation that the hop pickers used to live in. (Hop pickers used to come from London to Kent and stay for the season, whole families picking hops for the breweries) They look like stables with families living in an area about 80 sq feet. Toilets in a block and washing from one tap at the end of the row.

One of the families who are living in a local Habitat house provided the lunch. You've got it, rice, but it was good with home made lemonade. This is a dry team. There are no bars near our accommodation and the town shuts down by 19:00. Even the Internet café shuts at 19:00. Looks like I'm the only team member that fancies a beer after a days work, so there is no beer run as in Sri Lanka.  (How crazy of me, I forgot that I had been to Sri Lanka before this trip, I will make it the next adventure to publish)

Dinner was at 18:30 and it's now 19:30. Dinner is over and we are back in the accommodation. Plenty of time for me to write this rubbish.

It's not the sort of town you can go for a walk in. So I'm told, and I was warned against it.

In the afternoon we had an audience on site as the children returned from school. They all lined up along the ridge behind us and just watched, not sure what they thought we were going to do, we were just digging trenches. We got all around the outside walls and started on the inner foundations. Tomorrow will be more of the same. They say we will be block laying by Friday. That's more like it, I much prefer building to digging but you have start with the digging to get to the building.

The journey to site takes about 45 minutes and is quite breathtaking as the roads snake through the mountains , the mist hanging in the valleys like curtains.  The ride home was spectacular with the rain lashing down and the roads hardly visible. It didn't seem to phase the drivers though, slowing down wasn't an option.

The team worked well and Geoff and I had a good system going. Geoff is 68 but certainly not work shy. Dorothy is the name I couldn't remember yesterday. Much like Tanya in Sri Lanka she too, didn't flinch at the work load. She is 70 years old and certainly had no problem getting her hands dirty. She apparently built her own house in the States.

Ken (the youngest member) was plugged into his mp3 player all day, We  had to shout every time we wanted to catch his attention. We are sure he was the reason the young girls were watching the proceedings. As you can expect, he is taking some shtick from the rest of us, but he's a good player.

Terry is his usual self. Pick up a shovel when the cameras come out and spend the rest of the time talking to everyone he can. He doesn't do much manual labour but he sure keeps us all entertained and playing as a team.

Mike, who I met when visiting Terry in Washington is a very dry character with a great sense of humour. Very quietly spoken so I find it difficult to hear him all the time but he and Terry have a terrific relationship, the banter has everyone in fits.

So tomorrow is another day and I'm sure it will be another hard one so I'm going to crash out. 20:00 hours, what am I doing. This is unheard of. Must be my age.

To be continued...........