Day 4 - Concrete

Today we poured the concrete for the grease traps and the housing foundations. The day started off with couple of people feeling nauseous, including Marcia and Dr. Eason. Once we got to the home we started finishing up the forms so that the concrete could be poured, which took a couple of hours. The group started to get into a pretty good rhythm working together on several different tasks at once which helped the day go by a little faster.

Our overall efficiency as a group greatly improved once the forms were done and we started mixing the concrete, everyone lent a hand when it was needed and we all took turns doing the more labor intensive jobs to make sure no one passed out from heat exhaustion. Some of us also learned how easily heat exhaustion can set in. Kudos to Chase and Alex for manning the concrete mixer ALL day.

It was incredible hot out and the mixer was pumping out some thick smog so the fact that they were lifting buckets of cement, sand, water, and gravel all day is very impressive. Also the honors students helped out a lot with loading the buckets for Chase and Alex, especially Brad, he was shoveling all day. Once the concrete was mixed the workers we hired helped Matt fill the forms in while everyone else was fine tuning the concrete and the forms to make sure they were picture perfect. After 4 or 5 hours and several concrete "suggestions" from Katrina our job was done for the day and half of our project had taken shape. Then we cleaned up and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Aaron placing the grease trap form

Completed grease trap 

Brian casting the grease trap lids

Alyssa adding cement to the concrete mix

Local workers helping cast the concrete

Chase and Alex were exhausted after a hard day of mixing concrete