Friday - D4P1

Friday proved to be a fairly uneventful day, much like an extension of Thursday. The weather was spectacular; sunny and hot, with an occasional breeze, bright blue skies. A tropical paradise.  Work on the various sub-projects proceeded apace. We continued to discuss any ways possible to keep the tanks in their original position or re-orient them but use the existing hardware. The real goal was to avoid an expensive trip back into Bocas/Isla Colon. We are on a limited budget and travel costs have a big impact. I know Mike was really worried about this so we really looked long and hard at our options. But, this aside, we were moving along nicely. One little unpleasant incident took place that morning; the progress of getting the sand bags up to the work site had been inordinately slow and only about seven out of the thirty bags had made it up.  I was tinkering with the first flush (we had not yet cemented it in place) when I was approached by Fillipo, the guy who had offered and accepted the going rate to do the job. He said he wanted more money to do it. Plain out extortion. Not happening I thought to myself. It had been a fair negotiation and he had been paid in advance (note - my mistake - next time half in advance, half when finished). I thanked him and said there would not be any more money, that I would bring up the rest of the bags myself. He shuffled off and I figured that the team and I would have to hump those bags ourselves, but there was no rush. Pouring the footings was one of the last things to do, so we had time. To his credit, after being turned down on the extortion bit, Fillipo grudgingly took up his task and brought the bags up. But  for the rest of our stay, every time Fillipo and I passed, I got the ugly look. Chip later said to me "I would at least have tipped the guy", and I said back to him "I would have done nothing to stop you". We chuckled.

By late morning things were going along well enough that the moment had come for me to indulge myself. I withdrew a Bolivar Belicoso from my shirt pocket, snipped the end and lit up. To the amusement of the locals, as well as my team, I strolled around the work area churning out a lovely cloud of blue smoke. I am always careful to keep a decent distance from others but no one seemed to mind. I helped Tim with gutter repairs as the cigar did not impair my ability to steady the ladder or run around and play gofer.  After a bit, Chip and I broke away from the group and headed down to the shack for a chat. It was the first time we had been away from the students since we had I arrived. I worked my way down to the end of the cigar and we discussed, from an engineering standpoint, how things had gone downhill with the system so fast. As the environment seemed to be the key, it reminded me I had wanted to go back and check out our old hut from last year (which was a far safer sleeping site with actual raised beds) and find out why it was no longer in use.

We headed back up the trail and took a bit of a walking tour, heading over toward the northwestern edge of the village where the last house was situated on a lovely bluff overlooking the bay. It could easily have been someplace up on Cape Cod. Heading back, Chip proceed back to el rancho and I went to explore the old guest hut. Here's what I found:

Moisture, termites and passive neglect. Nothing more. It was just not worth the locals time to bother maintaining it. Probably easier to build a new one, if they needed it. Or wait for some other NGO project to build one for them.

I returned to the pavilion around 1:30 pm and conferred with Mike and the team. Re-positioning the chlorinating tanks was the only option and we did not have enough of the necessary materials to do it, so a trip back to Isla Colon was the only option. We discussed who and how many should go and when. We decided as soon as possible was the best choice, possibly even that day if it could be arranged. I was selected because of my Spanish and familiarity with materials and the layout at Richards. Marianna would need to stay behind to translate for the team as they continued to work, but Elizabeth volunteered to come along. I don't know Elizabeth very well but she strikes me as self-assured and naturally curious so I looked forward to the chance to spend time together. We spoke with Ambrosio as to whether he or anyone else on the island had their boat available for the transit (we would, of course, pay for their services so it was a good opportunity for them). Unfortunately, everyone who had a boat was out fishing or otherwise occupied. Ambrosio was able to find someone for the next day, Saturday, with the caveat that we had to be at the dock by 6 AM, 6:30 at the  latest. Not horrible, but assuming a 40 minute trip across the bay we would have a couple of hours to kill before Maderas Richards opened. At this point, Friday afternoon looking at Saturday morning, we realized we were now starting to race the clock with a Monday noon departure time. My best hope was that we could get over to Bocas around 7:30 or so, walk around Isla Colon until Richards opened (at 9?) spend an hour getting the stuff and hauling it back to the dock, pushing off by 10 and back on Isla Popa by 11. That's if everything went well.

The rest of the day went along smoothly. We finished up our work day and headed back to the fishing shack to clean up. On the way down the trail a lone figure approached. It was Ramon. He waited for the others to pass but gestured to me. I hung back and we spoke quietly for a few minutes. Nothing specific. Just little things.  I expressed my sorrow for his loss. He smiled sadly. Again he asked when I would return and I explained most likely next January. He seemed happy with this. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Dinner was good - chicken, beans, rice, patacones, hot sauce. The restaurant is managed by Bernardo, a very pleasant young man I had met last year. He has worked as a waiter on other islands that have resorts so he is quite polished and is a real pleasure to see at the end of the day. I should also  mention here how much this gringo loves his patacones. If I have not described these before they are battered sliced fried plantains. They greatly resemble a flat cut french fry the size of a small ravioli. Most people think of plantains as bananas but that is not so. They are the shape of a banana but have a flesh that is more like a potato hence they are used as a primary dietary starch throughout much of the world, especially Latin America. They are delicious. A drop of hot sauce, and baby, heaven. During that dinner we finished off the first bottle of hot sauce and opened the second. Towards the end of the meal, I pulled out a pouch of freeze dried S'mores, mixed it up with water and let it "cook". The students, as usual, were amused about this campers novelty but enjoyed the spoonful or so we each got of a sugary chocolate desert. I saved a few packs of freeze dried ice cream for the next couple of nights.

During dinner we resumed a tradition from last year called "Roses and Thorns". On top of doing a  review of the days progress (they don't seem to like my term "post-mortem") we go around the table each selecting our own personal "Rose" and "Thorn" from what had transpired during the day. It always produces some remarkable comments, laughs and even insights as to how each of us perceives and processes our day. During this discussion I was really struck by the youth of the students and our cultural age gap. I made a bit of a side wager with Chip that none of the students had ever heard of Quaaludes. Now, granted, Quaaludes were withdrawn from the market in 1982 and none of the students were born before 1992, so it would understandable. Still, I figured  at least one or two would have heard of them. Unfortunately, I won the bet - they all looked at me as though I had made up the word (something they accuse me of) on the spot. Hell, even as I write this entry, the spell-check is underlining the word "Quaaludes". I guess I really am old.

At any rate, after dinner we had another water filtering party - Chip sat this one out. We finished up and headed back. I had an early boat to catch the next day.