chimalhuacan: day five 5:44 PM (Mexico DF time)

the sun is out today. REALLY out. well, actually the cloud cover has increased to where we're shaded right now, but for most of the day -until we broke for lunch around 3, there were clouds, but none were overhead. the sun was almost a physical presence ... it makes you want to run for cover, find shade, hibernate. Siesta isn't so much a custom as it is a survival instinct. we got the middle wall footer dug and poured, and Margarito started laying bricks. he's the only one of us besides Norberto who knows how to. so the rest of us find things to do. Don ran a wire from the outside light on the back building across and along the wall to the new entryway, and connected it so that anytime Romualda or any of the family needs to go outside at night the length of the lot will be lit. we had some cement mix left over after pouring the footer, so we poured it onto the floor under the new gate, and angled it up to the row of bricks that extend across the internal courtyard, so Romualda and Mari won't have to wrestle the tricycle over that step when they bring it back in.

Norberto has been gone most of the day to the recording session that's been scheduled for the last month, and he'll be gone tomorrow as well. Valentin and the rest of the guys will be leaving tonight to head back to their respective homes for the weekend, and will return on Sunday evening so we can get back to work on Monday morning.

In conversation a couple of nights ago with Norberto and Isidra i found out that we're basically only going to be able to get the shell of the building done before WE head back. we're pouring the ceiling, and it has to cure for at least two full weeks before the supporting timbers can be removed, and THAT is when the wiring can be run and the floors poured. :-(

not that i'm unhappy about that. it is amazing how far we've come in the four days we've worked. i think there's even a chance that we might get the rest of the walls laid and the ceiling poured BEFORE next thursday ... but i won't count my chickens before they hatch. at the rate the guys are working, it's within reach.

Isidra has been feeding us delicious food. INTERESTING at times, but delicious nonetheless. with it just being Don and me from north of the border, she's much more at ease fixing traditional mexican fare for all of us. she confessed this afternoon at lunch that, in thinking about a team of six AMERICANS coming down, she was wigging out over WHAT she was going to be able to prepare that we would have EATEN. :-)

gonna check on the guys. Don and i stayed here at the house and rested this afternoon. we were dragging this morning, and the heat took whatever *i* had left out of me ... i asked the guys if it would be okay if i stayed here when they left after lunch, and they were fine with it. they realized that i'd just be standing around.

more later.

grace & peace