3 weeks left...

It's been an exciting couple of weeks. We still don't have all of the materials, but we've started work on constructing the pieces. So none of the pieces came cut or ready to go (not really surprised I guess), but there are people in the community who have 'equipment' for cutting and welding (I say it that way because I'm 90% sure this is a hodge-podge homemade welding apparatus, sort of just a high voltage box and some twisted together wires...). I ended up redrawing the technical drawings by hand to include the new dimensions of pieces and they have been so helpful with communicating. Without pictures I'm pretty sure this would be impossible. So far we have all the table legs done, and today they are cutting and welding all the remaining pieces. It's a little bit difficult, and they seem to be over complicating it (like in my picture the table is 2m long along the inside edges, but the first one they made was 2m total, so they calculated how long to make it rather then just following my numbers the easy way). We painted all the pieces with rust-proof paint the other day because a lot of them were starting to rust already. Needless to say my hands were covered in the paint, and he insisted on pouring a clear liquid out of a recycled milk jug on them. It was paint thinner. It burned. (So, uh, safety standards are not quite the same here as they are back home..).

We're behind on schedule, but like, I'm pretty sure that no construction projects actually ever go following their desired time line. I'm a little worried we won't finish in time though. We still don't have the plastic, or corrugated metal and stainless steel sheets. But the solar panel got here the other day! And I sent out the required fan details (and a link to it on amazon) the other day to David and Eneyda, so hopefully that works out. (The fan is super important, it needs to match solar panel power, and needs to keep air moving at the desired speed to maintain the desired temperature.)

We went to a really pretty island over the weekend and that was a nice break from the stress of trying to communicate with the two worker guys. Got to go swimming, and ate so much fresh fruit. I did find out that I am rather sensitive/allergic to the chichicaste plant (essentially like poison ivy), I guess it touched my arm while swimming causing my entire arm to burn and break out in a rash. I'm all fine now, but it's really scary to not understand what is happening.