Let’s just say….it was hot. No, it was beyond hot today.
There has to be another word for hot, steamy wet (which, as they say is nice if
you’re with a lady, but not if you’re in the jungle). Whatever that is, that’s
what it was today going out with the Curti water crew to fix one of their river
crossings that I pointed out last time we inspected the water line – that was
when it was relatively dry and the rivers were low.. The 3” PVC pipe was
sagging pretty badly and had only one wooden branch support in the middle of
the river, which a big rush of water could take out at any time. We brought
along some nice 3/16” wire to support the line. The key tool was a
“come-along”, which made the installation relatively easy. I say relatively,
since it started to rain as we were finishing. Leo took a tumble down the bank
and into the river and (fortunately) came up laughing. Alberto lost a boot in
the mud and I hit a deep spot in one of the river crossings and filled my boot
with water and was barely able to get to the shore to take it off. And then I
dropped my camera in the mud. (It is now sitting in a rice bath, so no photos).
Just when we were all about done in, along came a huge 6 wheel drive logging
truck and gave us a ride the rest of the way home. Though I must say, when it
did start to rain/pour on our way home – it felt REALLY good. The other downer
was that all the watermelons had been harvested. And the monkeys were somewhere
dry (smarter than us). I’m tempted to say “I’m getting too old for this shit”.
But, apparently, I’m not. After a nice hot/cold shower, some aspirin and a nap,
the world looks right as rain again.
Lesson learned : if
it’s been raining for days, is steamy hot and looks like rain …. Take a rain
check on that jungle hike.
Please Fence Me In
The water system project Du Jour was in Piriati, putting a
fence around their water tanks so the cows don’t stomp on the tubes going in
and out and kids won’t go swimming in the tanks. If Thursday’s bridge project
was the Hike from Hell, today was a walk in the park that even Susie
Creamcheese could make. A big 4x flatbed truck, loaded with all our cyclone
fence materials, cement and sand for setting the posts, and our work crew of 7,
pitched and bucked and romped to within about 100 yards of the tanks. So, the
trip up was easy, except for the one guy who lost his breakfast. Coming back
wasn’t bad since it was downhill, it
wasn’t raining and the track was fairly dry and there were only 2 river
crossings that were deep.
It turns out that none of us had ever installed a chain link
fence before, but we don’t let minor details like that stop us out here on the
perimeter. I laid out markers for the post holes. Almost as fast as I could
mark them, two young bucks with a post-hole digger and a special digging tool
had the hole dug to perfection. Side note: My old geometry teacher Dave DeRusso
would have been proud to see me bisect a straight line in the field, with just
some string and sticks, to get a 90 degree corner.
The lads got the holes dug lickety-split and mixed the
concrete 3rd World style – on the ground, by hand. We had some issues
about holding the posts straight up vertical. Apparently, Panamanians have a
very poor sense of level/vertical. I kept going around with a level to show
them, but then they would “correct” to what they thought was vertical. Needless
to say, the fence looks like it was built by a group of drunken sailors, but it
came together nicely and will serve its purpose. Although someone forgot to
include a padlock on the materials list (that would be me), we improvised, as
usual, and went home happy.
For me, these work projects are more than good and needed physical
improvements. They are also a time for bonding and spreading some goodwill and
friendship. My biggest hurdle in that department is trying to convince them
that not everyone in the US is like Donald Trump, nor does everyone agree with
his behavior and actions. They are convinced we have elected a mad-man and want
to know why. I ask myself that, as well. Frequently.
Though it wasn’t the grind that Thursday’s hike was, the
aspirin, hot / cold shower, adult beverage and nap still felt mighty good. I
always have mixed feelings about these physical exertions – on the one hand, I’m
glad I can still put out that kind of effort and keep up with the 25 year olds,
but I wish I didn’t hurt so much afterwards. No more jungle hikes on the
schedule for at least a week.
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