Life in a different culture
On Christmas day we borrowed the family car and took off for a trip around the city. Well, a trip about the main park anyway. Here are some photos of what we got up to…
The San Martin statue on a mountain looking over Mendoza.
A photo to prove that we (um, they) were there.
Paul showing himself as part of the statues in the park.
Me being a statue in the park. Can you tell which one I am?
Resting down by the lake, just before a storm comes over.
Christmas was celebrated on the night of the 24th, starting dinner at 11pm with toasts and lots of fireworks at midnight. We also had our share in the noise and lights of the fireworks although I have never seen such craziness as our neighbours were doing… throwing huge fireworks balls onto the street when they were designed to be launched in a tube to great heights. Needless to say, their explosion on the street was massive and caused all of us considerable ringing in our ears.
Here are some photos to share our Christmas with you.
Every home needs a Christmas tree.
The whole family gathered to celebrate Christmas at midnight.
Making Christmas phone calls to everyone (oops. Where is Paul’s face?).
Playing with roman candles on the street.
It was hot, so we all hung out on the street until late.
These are the latest pics of the bathroom, just before I left Puerto Madryn on my way to Peru. The shower floor is still not done, and there is a huge kink in my main sewage pipe which I made while trying to replace a broken T-joint. The problem was that my friend who knew how to do it was not with me at the time and so it ended up flattened.
The flattened pipe. Doh!
The business end of the bathroom.
The shower floor still needs to be tiled yet.
The ceiling will be finished with plasterboard.
My first window that I have ever fitted is working perfectly.
Looking through from the main house area to the bathroom.
The outside of the bathroom with an 800 litre water tank on top.
For the last two weeks I have been stuck in the bathroom and have hardly left. There from the morning until midnight most nights, and rarely a moment to eat. What has happened to me? Some exotic disease or a severe case of the runs? Nope. Building.
From virtually nothing we have made a bathroom in only a few weeks. Most of the time I have been working alone on the project, although at times Fabian and others have come along to help out. Their help has been invaluable. The following photos tell more of a story of the development of this new part of the Prayer House…
Tues 11th: Gabriel and Juan Pablo prepare the concrete for the roof.
Tues 11th: Helping get it up to the roof.
Tues 11th: Fabian loads the roof with concrete over the foam bricks.
Tues 18th: Nothing beats matches as a gap measurer for tiling.
Tues 18th: Fabian tiling the shower walls.
Wed 19th: Putting in the window. It is held there by cement.
Thu 20th: Grouting the shower walls.
Thu 20th: Lorena helps with painting the walls (yep, white walls).
Thu 20th: Ernesto puts the dividing wall in between the shower and the bathroom.
There are more photos of how the whole thing looks as it is mostly finished… but I forgot to take them. Doh. They will come in another post later on as tomorrow I am heading towards Peru (also another post yet to come).
During these last two weeks I have hardly spoken to anybody, have slept very little, have not been near town, and have had my emails piling up without being answered. What has caused me to be so involved? A bathroom.
Plumbing and preparing the walls.
Nope, I am not talking about diarrhoea or anything like that. We are currently building a bathroom – the last part of the Prayer House that needs to be done before it is completely finished. As everybody is heading off to Peru or Bariloche within the next two weeks, there is very little time left to get it finished.
The base of the bathroom – our starting point only a few weeks ago.
So I now have a goal of having the bathroom completed to operational stage by this next Friday. There may be a few extra details to finish after that, but it needs to be ready to use by then. Once it is in use we can finish off the details with more leisure.
Right now the walls are rendered but need their finishing coats, the electrical cables are installed but are awaiting the painting of the walls first, the floor is poured but needs to be raised with a small wall for the shower areas, and the roof is in place but needs concrete poured into it. A wall for the water tank needs to be built on top of the roof too, and the final plumbing sorted out, plus floor and wall tiling.
Necessity drives… bringing needed items home by bike.
In reading the things written down here it sounds like there is a fair bit to do, but there are a bunch of people helping me out and based on the progress of last week I believe it is possible. So after today we are going to be going flat-out on it until it is done. And then I can rest.
The Plumbing
Gabriel prepares the walls for the water pipes.
Marking the pipes for cutting.
Cutting the waterpipes with my new grinder/cutter.
Juan Pablo helps me connect to the mains water supply.
Preparing the Roof
Danny helps us to lift up the concrete beams to the roof.
Gaby helps me to lay the beams on the roof.
Placing the beams on the roof with Gaby.
Paul cuts the dags off the roofing beams.
Rendering the Walls
Rendering the final part of one wall.
Fabian helps tremendously with rendering the walls.
Juan Pablo helps mix the concrete for the walls.
Other Related Stuff
To get the rocks and sand that we need, we make trips down to the local dry creek bed and bring it back one wheelbarrow at a time.
Vicky helps out by painting the main front door.
Paul helps me prepare the electrical installations.
Juan Pablo waiting for the next call for cement.
Water tank, floor and wall tiles, cement and cal – all needed for the bathroom.
A full house – foam roof bricks, toilet and lots of tools needed for the bathroom.
Every summer our small-ish little town is inundated with cruise ships. These ships come from the north starting in Brazil and heading to Ushuaia and from the south starting in Chile and heading to Brazil. Every now and then there are international ships travelling around the world too. In every case the ships normally stay just for the day and our streets fill up with the thousands of tourists housed by those huge homes on water.
The normally empty Sunday streets had people today.
Today was one of those days. We had an Argentine ship that came to port today.
The ship at berth will remain only for the day.
This current school of Discipleship is comprised of mainly foreign students, so as Christmas gets closer they are missing the feeling of Christmas from back home where there are lots of decorations and other signs of Christmas around them.
Katy and Nicole preparing their decorations.
Not happy to let things lie, two or three students set out to make a difference and surprise the rest of their class. So they set to work, using the Prayer House as their base, making up a whole range of creative decorations.
Then, on the night of the 7th after everyone had gone to bed, they set to work decorating the classroom with everything that they had made. The next morning as each student woke up and made their way through the room to the bathroom they were presented with an amazing surprise.
Feliz Navidad is Spanish for Merry Christmas.
The whole room is now colourful and Christmassy with lots of creativity, a fireplace, Christmas tree, and plenty of decorations. Thanks Katy and Nicole – you guys did a great job.
The newly decorated classroom during breakfast.
Our very own Christmas tree.
Even a fireplace to warm ourselves by.
Baby Jesus in a manger.
A baby Chinese Jesus – adds to the multicultural feel.
Cute sheep and two angels also adorn our walls.
The girls even found an origami book to make some flowers.
Well, living down here in the Patagonia, one of the things that tends to be pretty common is the wind. The old-timers around here tell me that about 20 years back the wind never ever stopped all year round. If there happened to be a day where the wind did not blow, everyone stopped what they were doing and had a BBQ to celebrate such a different day.
Now-a-days it is not that bad, although this time of year sees a fair bit of wind. The difference with having a windy day here is that the air fills with dust and makes it very hard to see where you are going… both for the dust in the air and the dust getting into your eyes.
Of course, as I am often riding my bike, this dust makes not seeing even more critical… and the wind is strong enough to cause me to ride angled in to it – which causes a sharp swerve back to upright again when a truck passes me by and cuts off the wind for a moment.
Looking at a city clouded by dust.
It is now almost 20 years since I was officially a motor mechanic, and most times I keep this news quiet. But somehow the information gets out and before long my skills are called upon to help somebody out who is in need. Since on our base we only have one car this is not very often.
Today however, there was a serious problem with Jorge’s car as the speedometer suddenly stopped working and he was about to embark on a 6 hour journey early the next day. A quick look at it revealed the most common problem – the speedo cable had broken. So we headed down to the local shop and for 10 pesos had a new cable in our hands. I tried to fit it on the car while it was parked in the street, but without the tools and better access it was impossible.
No problem for Jorge. Within minutes we had arrived at the home of one of his friends – a pastor and also a mechanic. Although this guy had no available time to help fit the cable, he loaned us his workshop with a pit in the floor so we could fix it up. It only took 10 minutes once we were in to have it all sorted out and fixed, although the oil leaks managed to stain all of Jorge’s and my clothes in the process. Good thing they were all old.
The only photo I remembered to take. The workshop.
Returning home, Jorge and I were very happy as the speedometer was now working again. Being a mechanic is both a blessing and a distraction, but if it can help people out when in need I am happy to help out every now and then.
There is only one car in our YWAM base here in Puerto Madryn. That belongs to Jorge and Isa, our base directors. Everybody else has to walk. Most people tend to walk the dusty main entrance road to the Quintas, hoping that somebody will pick them up along the way. It works most times.
One couple recently had a baby and have discovered that people rarely stop to pick them up while pushing a pram. Not only that, but the dust and danger of walking along that road is something that they also wish to avoid. So while they still have no car, the trail way that I always use on my bike has also become a pram-way for these guys.
I met them half-way along the way one day as they were on their way home…
On the way home from the city – with baby.
Almost home on a hot, hot day.