Day two of Mexican construction

I know it is impossible to mix cement without water but I figured out construction itself would be completely impossible without Maurice. Yes, this is only day two and here I go complaining BUT…..we have noticed that since Maurice is involved with this project no one wants to make any decisions without him. This will probably be good in the long run but today it was rather irritating. For months now, Valente has known we were starting construction…on a cliff…with no water or electricity. When Maurice asked how the workers would get water Valente said that would be the construction people’s problem. WRONG! It turns out it is really Maurice’s problem.

Today, with an empty pila on top of the cliff, bags of cement and sand, ready to be mixed there was no water. First Valente calls (he is in LaPaz and we are on site) and asks Maurice what we should do. That’s the construction people’s problem, remember???…of course he does not tell Valente that. Next Valente tells Maurice we need to buy an additional pila. (that would make 4 we would own) Maurice, in his sweet way, says NO FRICKIN WAY!!!! WE ALREADY OWN 3 OF THESE THINGS AND WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS TODAY!!!!!!! THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MIXING CEMENT!! YOU WERE HERE YESTERDAY AND NO ONE MENTIONED ME SPENDING ANOTHER $700 TO BUY A PILA.

Sensing Maurice’s frustration Valente tells Maurice he will personally buy the pila back from him so we order a pila. The pila comes…of course empty. Now what do we do, they ask?? We attempt to pump 2500 liters from one of our filled pilas into this pila but Maurice calculated that at the speed of our pump it would take 2 ½ hours and the water would still need to be pumped again, up to the top of the cliff. It was 1pm at this time. So off Senor Backhoe Retro goes, oh yes, he is our new best friend, and fills the tank from???…who knows where. Next we see him driving his truck all the way up the cliff with water splashing out the top of the filled pila. We were waiting for the pila to catapult off the end of the truck but it didn’t. Now the water still needed to be pump UP the remaining 60 meters that rises above the parking lot.

So 2 ½ hours later (after we went and bought an additional hose) there is water on top of the cliff and ready to make cement….but wait?? Where is the worker's cement mixer?? Stored down in our bodega. Of course none of the workers thought about getting it earlier in the day. Why would they?? It makes sense they would wait until the exact minute they needed it! The process of bringing it up the cliff takes another hour - plus 5 workers, Maurice and his truck, with a newly added trailer hitch to pull up the mixer.

The day ended. Thank heavens they are all not being paid by the hour, but by the job. WE HOPE!! Tomorrow there will be water and it appears we are ready for step two. Mixing of cement. We still need Senor Backhoe Retro to bring the 8 skids of concrete blocks up the cliff. The concrete blocks that were delivered earlier today in two truckloads, and unloaded, one by one, onto the ground. Tomorrow they will have to be re-loaded, one by one onto Senor’s truck, so they can be taken up the cliff.

Mexican construction…..hmmm…..patience really is a virtue!!