During our first full week of work, our focus was on repairing the iron fence and preparing it for new paint. The fence was very rusted and it was bent in a few places. Terry, definitely the strongest person on our team, bent parts of the fence and used a grinder to remove small pieces to bring it back into alignment. All of us, along with helpers from the community, used grinders to remove the rust and old paint. David joined us for the weekend, so we had about 8 people working simultaneously.
All of this was happening in 90+ degree heat and very high humidity, so if we look sweaty in these photos, well, we were!
Watermelon in the park helped to cool us down at the end of the day.
Rain came unexpectedly and we watched our beautiful iron fence oxidizing before our very eyes. Oh, no! We re-sanded to remove the new rust and quickly moved forward with primer to protect the iron fence until we are ready to paint in a few weeks.
During our first week, we asked one of the local handymen to help us with removal of the old, non-functional toilet, and installation of a new, working toilet. Sr Beto is his name, and he was a terrific help! He listened patiently to my broken Spanish and understood what we needed. He helped us to buy parts from a local hardware store, reducing our trips to Home Depot (45-minute drive from the worksite), and he got the new toilet installed. We greatly appreciate having a working toilet on-site.
Peace,
Donna Auguste
www.leavealittleroom.org
