Back to Work!

Yesterday was a rather exhausting day. Almost sensing that Eduardo, Maxxe, and I were refreshed after a work-free weekend, Charlie - the construction chief for Common Hope - thought concrete-floor-tile preparation would be a good way to begin. The quantity of concrete we were to prepare was definitely more than I've dealt with in the past. I have mixed many bags of concrete, but mostly by itself (i.e., without adding gravel), and only at the rate of about one bag at a time, with mixing happening only in a wheelbarrow. Here, it took place in a specialized containing area.

Luckily, the afternoon was not nearly as difficult, consisting of refinishing concrete forms for solid foundations (i.e., grinding off the rust and painting them).

As Debbie shared, we spent the evening talking about Guatemalan and Central American politics and Common Hope's objectives and measures with Jeff Barnes, the Director of Strategic Planning. It was interesting talking with him about strategic planning in the real world, as I only possess an academic understanding of the process at present. According to Jeff, one of the most difficult measures to come up with is a reliable set of statistics for graduation and promotion rates in the Guatemalan public school system. While the government is becoming better about publishing these statistics, they fail to jive with those of, for example, UNESCO.