21 August 2010

When I got up this morning, workers were dismantling the camp. It was a bit sad to realize I would be saying good bye to some of them today. Two that would be leaving have been here since we broke ground in December.
The first problem arose for the cook. The kitchen was being dismantled as well. Sanchez wanted to know where I wanted Celia to cook. The workers had set up a bench on the sidewalk outside of the kitchen with the cooking supplies, but I couldn’t imagine her working out there. I told her to use my kitchen. It certainly is big enough and I can easily work around her schedule. As I left for the morning run, Sanchez and Celia were moving into my kitchen.
Wow! I felt like a native! I was standing on the street waiting for the store clerk when a Peruvian woman approached me and asked where a particular hardware store was. Not only did I understand what she said to me, but I was able to answer her and point her in the right direction. It surprised me that she would choose me to ask.
As Celia was preparing lunch for the crew, I worked some more on getting the master bed set up. It has an air mattress which was deflated during the move. It comes with an air pump so you can pump in just the right amount of air for your liking. The problem is its run from 110. It tried the usual travel converter plugs put the pump was pulling too many watts. Fortunately, I bought a small transformer that functioned perfectly.
As I was doing this, Sanchez came and knocked on the door. He told me something was wrong with the stove. Yikes! Another crisis to handle. Sanches took me into the kitchen and showed me that sometimes the stove would light even though he hadn’t put the match to it. And, it made a clicking noise. I think he thought it might blow up. I assured him that everything was fine and it was meant to start with the spark from the little gadget making the clicking noise. I demonstrated. He tried it. He tried the next burner with the same result. He tried each and every one of the burners, looked at me and said really? He then got this huge grin on his face it was the coolest thing ever! Sanchez, nor Celia, had ever worked with a stove that lit itself. I told them it was new to me too; though only new because I’ve always had an electric stove.
Soon after lunch, the workers piled into the pickup and I took them to Los Organos so they could catch their bus. Some will be back on Monday; some won’t ever be back to work. Since the camp is now gone, they will be camping out in the storage room, the solar battery room, and maid’s quarters. The only workers staying over the weekend are the painters.