The job site is only 15 minutes van ride from the apartments and our driver is terrific. We follow the main road from town, cross the river, toward the mountains up hill onto dirt roads. And here we are, our work site # 1 is a plot of land with a house under contruction next door. The family are currently living in an apartment, the mother, 5 sons, daughters in law and the children, 18 people in all. They qualify for a Habitat house meaning they will put in the many hours of sweat equity and be able to pay the 0 interest loan.
INTRODUCTION TO THE JOB SITE, SAFETY BRIEFINGS AND THE END OF CLEAN CLOTHES!
We started with a meeting an empty room of the house next door, a room which was our meeting room, dining room, "hide in the shade" room. Mukim was the contractor, a fun guy who has a great sense of humor even though it all came through MMJ's interpretation. Every day we had a safety briefing which consisted of: "Thank you for being here, safety is very important. Be careful. Do not drop a brick on your foot. Do not drop a brick on anyone else's foot. Do not drop a brick on Carol's foot :-)" Then we would sign the paper and off we went to the site. First order of business, meet the homeowner and his brothers where were helping, plus a few friends. MMJ and Farhod were worked continuously as interpreters and helped us off to a good start. First; DIG THE TRENCHES - the soils is dry dirt and rock and as we could gaze to and almost touch the mountains to the northwest, images of the mountains of Afghanistan, a few hundred miles to the south came to mind. So we would dig until - "chink" shovel hits a rock. Some were small enough to get out, but after the first few days we were consistently impressed by the men's ability to get boulders out of the trenches with a rope and manpower. Mike had the good idea of just pouring the concrete around some of them, but they were removed anyway. Thus brothers started consulting Mikey, aka "Ahnold" because he's from California. Smile and jokes started on the first day even though all we did all day long was dig trenches.
I'm frustrated that I've forgotten the homeowner's name, one of his brother's is Osim, tall, great smile. There is a younger brother as well, tall, big shoulders, cutie patootey! The guys were digging and they didn't have gloves. We had 2 bags or red gloves so I started handing them out and the homeowner didn't want a pair, so I tried again thinking something was lost in translation when he showed me a broken blister on his hand. So I went to the first aid kit in my backpack and grabbed a bandaid and with sign language got him to rinse and dry the blister so I could put on the bandaid, then he could wear the gloves! Many, many smiles.
As the days progressed we noticed that the brothers and their friends made progress before 8:30 am and after 4pm when we weren't there...a lot of progress. In the trenches we started putting in wood frames for the concrete. At this point there were a variety of jobs and the reminder that in third world countries things are slower because you work with what you have. 3 shovels (1 broke), several buckets, a water tank, a couple of picks, 3 hoes and some rebar. A rebar grid went into the bottom of the trenches and the brothers pulled in some sheets of metal and put them next to the two large piles of gravel. And so it started, shovel by shovel, bucket by bucket the gravel went onto the metal sheets. When it was about 1 ft high and levelled off we put on 3 bags of cement. Then the water, bucket by bucket when the brothers with a shovel each would start mixing the gravel and the cement powder from the pile while one of us would pour on the water. (No hose available from the tank, there are some great photos of Carol sitting very Zen like on the tank filling buckets for us). Mixing concrete with a shovel is not easy task, each shovel full is heavy. They would fill buckets with the wet concrete and our "bucket brigade' would pass it down to the guy at the end who poured into the frames...alot of concrete, a lot of buckets.
PLOV!
The days flew by, Farhod would always run off to get lunch and the break at mid-day was always welcome and enjoyable. Food usually consisted of meat, lentils, some vegetables after we started requesting, juice and always, every meal, bread. Round, decorated with a "pounder" the bread is something to behold. One day the homeowner said he was supplying lunch and we were treated to a fantastic "Plov" - pilaf, rice, meet and vegetables.
It was fantastic! The brothers and their friends were so kind, they learned more English that I learned of Tajik. My favorite word is "rahmat" (roll the r, gargle the h like a ch - but not like cheese, it's a throaty sound) for thank you. The brothers would come back with "you're very welcome!" A couple of times mama, the wife and the 3 children came to see us.
It was fantastic! The brothers and their friends were so kind, they learned more English that I learned of Tajik. My favorite word is "rahmat" (roll the r, gargle the h like a ch - but not like cheese, it's a throaty sound) for thank you. The brothers would come back with "you're very welcome!" A couple of times mama, the wife and the 3 children came to see us.
AN UNLIKELY PAIRING
At the end of each day we had a ritual (at least until the R&R time and a shift in dynamics) of going directly from the site to the little outdoor cafe near the apartments for the best thing ever, ICE CREAM AND BEER! After a hot day of shoveling and digging it was such a great reward. Even though as I would sit in the shade and the dust would "poof" up from my clothes...we truly looked like "Pig Pen" from Peanuts...all of us had an "ahhhh" moment at this time, usually around 4:30pm after the work day ended. It was good while it lasted and the ice cream man loved having us there and asked about us when we stopped the ritual.
Even though we made a lot of progress on this build, the foundation was about 3-4'high and 18" thick to prepare for the brick to be laid upon it, there is so much more to do for their house. Another team will be there in August and when we left it was already getting quite hot, mid-summer would be difficult. The winters are cold though so they need that thick foundation. It could be a year before the house is complete. They were so grateful though. Mama came on the last day and gave us all kisses, hugs and scarves, while the kids were checking us out, so adorable!
Everyone asks why anyone would pay to help someone they don't know build a house while on vacation. And yet the brother's friends were there everyday, helping. They indicated that strangers probably would not have helped and Tajiks probably wouldn't travel to a foreign land to help someone they didn't know build a house. And yet they gave us so much. Feel the culture.
At #2 just down the road, some of our group went to help move brick. This house has progressed beyond foundation to brick wall building and there was a lot of brick to move from piles outside the house to inside the house. The men of that house were jolly, sweet fun as well, different personalities but very happy. A pile of brick can seem infinite, thank Mikey for spontaneous trivia quizes and things to keep our minds active while passing bricks down the line!
Talking with people ; one time we were all shoveling and no one was talking, so I asked MMJ to ask the brothers and their friends what they would want to ask us. So happy that no one is shy about opening dialogue about world events, "global crisis", Obama, religion.
