Monday in Monterrey

Well, it was hot! We were up at 6 am or so, had breakfast on the hotel balcony and then left for the work site about 7 am. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the job site from our hotel. We are working in Escobedo, which is on the northwest side of Monterrey. The last couple of miles takes us through an industrial area and then a 'housing' area that is even poorer than the area where we are working. As we passed one of the elementary schools many of the children were walking to school with their mom or dad. They wear white uniforms that look spotless. It always amazes us that in the midst of all the dust, their uniforms are so clean.

Once we got to the job site, Jan Milligan led us in the morning devotion based on Matthew 25:32-40 which is the story of the sheep and goats. Verse 40 is : "The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers, you did for me."



Jan reminded us that while it is good to come on these mission trips and serve the 'least of these', we should do it every day of the year, not just on mission trips. A very appropriate thought to start the day.

The first construction task was to start framing the forms for the concrete slabs. Each slab is 21' 6" on a side, so we have to splice a 10' piece and a 12' piece for each side of the form. After nailing the four sides together, we adjust it to make it square.



Then we shoot each corner with a transit to get the form level.



Then we put stakes all along each side of the slab to hold it in place when the concrete is poured. The next step is to dig footers along each of the four edges of the slab.



The final step is to install grade stakes in the middle of the slab. These are used when we are pouring the slab to get in level all across its surface. All of this sounds simple, but it always seems to take longer than we expect. With seven slabs this year, we really have a lot to do. We made great progress up until about 11:30 am when we had lunch. After lunch, the heat began to take its toll on all of us and progress slowed considerably. However, by about 2:30 pm we had all the sites ready or almost ready to pour. The first concrete truck is scheduled for 8:00 am on Tuesday and then every 30 minutes after that. Promises to be a busy morning!

There is not much shade on the build sites, but Erroll found it.



He deserved a break. He, along with everyone else, worked very hard today!

The only problem of the day ( and even it wasn't major) was that we misunderstood where on of the slabs was supposed to go and ended having to move it about 17 inches to get it over the property line.

While we were working today, we were approached by some of the school children who obviously had an assigment to come talk to us. Each had their notebook with written questions to ask us and for us to write the answer in their notebook. The questions were 1) When were we going back to the USA?, 2) Where were we from?, 3) What was our name?. Some had a fourth question which was how old we were.





It was amusing because some of the kids (they were about 12 years old) were too shy to ask us directly. They would hand their notebook to one of the other kids who would bring it to us. They were all very polite and thanked us for helping them with their assignment.

Tonight we were guests for dinner at the church.





Some of the ladies of the church prepare an authentic meal for us every year. This year there were two beef dishes and one pork dish. All were served with tortillas.

Muy delicioso!

Buenos noches de Monterrey.