Day 4: Snakes & Scorpions & Heat, Oh My!
It was a scorching 118° at one point today and we had three team members (including Pete, who is a doctor) who stayed at the hotel for health reasons. Pete opted to stay behind to monitor their condition and be available to address any of their needs. After breakfast this morning, we were reminded that we should only be using bottled water to brush our teeth, and that we should be doing our very best to avoid getting any tap water in our mouths or nasal passages. Several team members have adopted a consistent regimen of Imodium or Pepto-Bismol as ‘preventative maintenance’, and we’re taking our anti-malaria medication every day (of course).
Hydration tablets and/or Emergen-C are game changers in terms of feeling good throughout the day, although we are all exhausted and a bit bedraggled by the end of the day.
Nonetheless, It was a productive and entertaining work day.
At our house today, Joe (one of our team members) moved a brick today and a black mamba snake was under it. For those not aware, they are one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Some of the local workers ran over and beat it to death with a stick. It was a baby snake, only about a foot long, but that was plenty of length to inspire fear.
Five minutes later, Joe moves another brick and a scorpion comes scuttling out. It was also quickly killed. Joe has since refused to move any more bricks.
At the end of today’s work day, Souzand, the construction supervisor, told us how pleased he was with our progress (we are ahead of schedule) and if we keep moving at this pace, house 1 will be ready for a roof by Monday afternoon, house 2 will be ready for a roof by Tuesday morning and house 3 will be ready for a roof by Wednesday.
All this and we’re managing to make work FUN!
Tomorrow is our day off, so we’ll be checking out the local market and giving our bodies a good rest.
