Hello Everyone,

It's been an exciting 10 days since I was last able to report in.

After letting the concrete foundation pour cure, we stripped the forms and started the fun part....setting the columns! For the first time the building had a vertical dimension to it and eyes were popping all around. People were showing up from across the valley because you could see the red oxide primed columns sticking up for miles around against the gray sand background. Hector took pictures as each one got hoisted by several people and it's fun to watch them in fast sequence as a building finally appears one by one.

The Community Center gets a vertical dimension

It took us most of the next day to get them all perfectly to height, square and plumb on their anchor bolts.

From there it has taken 20-30 people per day, 6 days to get all the sand moved to back fill the foundation and level the inside of the building area. When that got done, our group of steadfast moms and a few men carried all the trusses into place so we could bolt them together. We've rented a backhoe to lift them on Monday....next week we have a roof profile!

Along with all that shoveling of sand, we also built the forms and poured the wall that will be the first commercial farming terrace at street level (there will be 5 in all). As perfectly as the foundation pour went, this pour turned out to be a complete cluster 'f'. We had 3 blow outs, a very soupy mix, and too many people getting in each other's way. We just really weren't ready for the pour. In retrospect, I should have just called it off the afternoon before because we didn't take the time to properly secure the back side of the wall and double check everything.....

Oh well, it's a super strong wall with lots of rebar, and a brick cap on top along with some hand detailing after the forms are pulled will make it all be fine. We attached some kids’ sand molds of fish, turtles, shells and crabs to the front wall forms to create cool recessed shapes and I hope they come out well.....again some hand plastering may need to happen.

Remember my good friend the Mayor? Well this Monday he got recalled in a vote and is no more! Of course, there is no new mayor for at least 30 days. They asked me to run....hahahahhahhahahahhahhha ! No kidding. I thought they were joking, so I said, well I'm sorry, but I'm not a resident of Ancon. And they said 'no problem, we can take care of the papers'.

Raul's days are numbered too, I must say. The other day, I pulled back the covers on my bed and out flung Raul against the wall! That does it. He's cute on the floor but I have my boundaries! I bought 2 traps and put a piece of cheese in each. Next morning, cheese gone, traps not sprung. Emily jumps to the rescue.....'no you have to use peanut butter because he won't be able to just stretch out and grab it'. Ok, she baits them with peanut butter. Next morning, lick marks, no Raul! Tonight, peanut butter with a piece of cheese stuck it in. Sheeeeesh!

Oh yeah, we killed 2 scorpions in the meantime.

From the zoo in Peru,
Rome