He took me seriously, of course, and said he would give me the full experience of being an ayudante (assistant to the mason). Then I could work my way up to media cuchara (half-spoon--probably my favorite name), then albañil (mason) and maestro constructor (master builder or contractor).
His family, however, did not think I was serious. They were shocked when I got up early, with work clothes and tennis shoes and headed out to the job-site. I think I gave some neighbors a good laugh too.
First we had to mix the mortar and concrete (he just eye balls the proportions of course). I hauled water, gravel, and sand...then took my own turn at mixing! Then we had to haul cinder blocks and start prepping to lay a row at a time. I learned about the plumb line and everything. I also learned about some muscles that I didn't know I had (on Monday morning :) |
| my 2 blocks! |
After my hard work as the ayudante, I got to lay 2 whole blocks! Of course, I probably slowed Henry down more than anything, but he was a patient teacher, and happy for the distraction while he worked.
He told me when he started working for his dad (at age 13) he earned 4 lempiras ($0.20) for every block he laid. I earned 8 whole lempiras. Not even enough for the taxi ride from his house into Santa Rosa!! He said on an average day (with an average helper) he can lay about 120 blocks. But--now that he's moved up in the world, he doesn't get paid by the block any more.
I came away from my morning as an ayudante with a couple of realizations...
2) I admire people who do this all day every day to earn their income.
3) Doing all this labor by hand is incredibly tedious...I was there less than an hour and I was ready to rig up a pulley system to haul the cinderblocks from the pile to the house!
4) I have a much better understanding of how hard Henry has worked all his life...and it makes the house built by him even better :)
