Site 1, our single home, is looking like a "real" house! We affixed all the tar paper, added the bailing wire, chicken wire (picked up a few handy tricks with PVC pipe to make our walls smooth and flat), installed two of the windows (complete with hand cranks and screens), and started mixing and applying stucco to the front of the house. It's really coming together.
Site 2, our "double-wide" has also progressed pretty rapidly. While we have not started applying stucco, we did finish the rest of the house and got two windows installed.
Site 3, our school, has nearly completed our roof -- but has all the chicken wire in place and ready for stucco tomorrow.
Everyone is working very hard, and it's very hot. The sun beats down relentlessly from 7:30am - 5:30pm (that's our L-O-N-G work day). Our campsite, which is closer to the ocean, enjoys cooler temperatures and right now the fog has rolled in and it feels a little like San Francisco. Thank goodness for big bonfires to keep us toasty!
Everyone has settled into a routine and has figured out how to get themselves up in the morning (6:30 am!), fix their lunch (and get it into the right cooler), eat breakfast, apply sunscreen, and get their tools together before our 7:30 departure. We count off and have only ONCE had to wrestle someone from their tent who seemed to have slept through the entire wake up process.
To keep clean, the sun shower process is a bit of an ordeal... imagine walking across a large field covered with tents to a wooden structure. The front of the structure has about 8 barrels of water for you to fill your sun shower. It only took one time to figure out you couldn't just "dunk" your bag in the barrel and it would fill with water. Instead, we now work as a team to bring used water bottles or juice containers to pour water into the sun shower. You then have to walk behind the showers to the muddy area and drop your sun shower in an easy-to-find spot and hope for the best. At the end of the day, you change into your swimsuit and towel, shudder across the field (it's a little nippy at 7:30pm), retrieve your sunshower and enter the "boys" or "girls" area. Inside is a large open space with nails in the walls at intervals and plastic mats for you to kneel on while you shower. AAAHHHHH. Luke warm water trickles over your head as you pray you can shampoo, condition and rinse before the trickle of water runs out. Brrrrrrr.....
Equally pleasurable are the "facilities". Luckily our group of tents are upwind of the collection of "houses". We continue to have to stand
Evenings around the campfire are the best. Lots of laughter, music (at least 2 kids playing guitar and 2 on drums), some light and some deep conversations. Friends bonding; new friendships being formed; kids and adults hanging out together. It's a relaxing way to wind down the day before taking a few Advil for some creaky bones and hitting the sleeping bag.
Tomorrow we stucco!!
Submitted by Carolyn (who really in Rosarito working alongside Tici, and NOT in a Mexican Spa).
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems,
but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
- Herm Albright
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