Purple Duct Tape Extravaganza Thursday, Build Day 4

By Casey

Amen to Steven's blog about this being the hardest day yet. But here
it is at the end, and I am hydrated, belly full of dinner, and feeling pretty damn good! Last night was tough indeed. After heading to bed, I heard the generator kick on after a brownout. My AC died (I can only turn it on using the remote from Steven's room) and so I was relegated to using the fan. Honestly? Was totally fine! Then around 4:30am, I woke up tangled in covers and sweating like a sauna because the meager electricity we had from the generator had finally run out. I heard the hotel guys slamming the truck doors and cussing (you can pretty much tell when anyone is cussing in any language) so I figured they had been roused from their slumber for a pre-dawn fuel run. Oh well, no fan, no AC, still at least 85 and muggy in the dark. So off came the
sheets, open went the window and I spent the remainder of time until
wakeup drifitng in and out of sleep and finally hearing what sounds Ghana makes when it is waking up. A whole chorus of roosters competing to fill the empty air, the smell of cooking fires, the pounding of cassava, and mothers cajoling kids into getting up and at 'em. I hadn't had the chance yet to absorb Ghana without the interruptions of car engines, generators, radios, or other Habitat foreigners.... and
it was a nice reminder of just how loud and harmonious the "quiet" can be.

But back to the workday. We did move on to the tough outside work at
the insistence of our team leader. At first, I thought he was crazy. The first task, moving 35 pound cement blocks off a pile up a slight hill, and stacking them where useful around the foundations of the house, seemed impossible. But there we were, forming a human chain. Graduate student passing to retiree. Retiree passing to young scientist. Scientist to MBA. MBA to acupuncturist (you can guess who
that was!). And before you knew it, in the insane equatorial heat and
beating sun, we had accomplished it all.

Well, and also due to the duct tape. I am going to make a little digression here. One of the challenges with the teamwork aspect of a block chain is to figure out the best and most efficient way to get your hands on the block when the passing person's hands are already on it, and so on. So if Steven is holding front right corner and back
left corner of the block, I need to be ready to grab the two open diagonal corners. And so on and so on down the line. It takes more communication and trial-and- error than you think! In any event, a number of people end up grabbing the block from underneath and resting it on forearms, which causes some nasty brush burns. So out came my trusty roll of purple duct tape and we found use #523 for the darn stuff! We made duct tape cuffs for the "forearm grab" block liners
and it worked like a charm. I have pics of the very useful (and stylish!) cuffs, will try to upload them some other time!

Here are some of the other uses to which we've put the purple duct
tape this week:

Marking people's water bottles with a certain specific purple duct tape pattern so that we don't steal others' water

Making purple water and mortar-proof bandages for blisters and stubbed toes

Purple nametags plastered on the middle of our back so that the local
artisans can shout our actual names when we are doing something
dangerous like dropping a block on our toes

One of the many things I have learned on this trip is never travel without duct tape. And also plenty of clean underwear, of course.

I am absolutely floored that tomorrow marks our last build day of the week, and marks a full week since I left the States. After work tomorrow, we are going to have drumming lessons from some local folk. I can't wait to learn a bit and hear some local music, especially since our hotel has played a steady rotation of Celine Dion and
Boys2Men at the bar.

p.s. Someone mentioned water ice today and it sounded like heaven in
this hotbox of a country. So if one of you fine people wouldn't mind
FedExing me (preferably for delivery in the next ten minutes) some of that fine stuff, half cherry and half chocolate, that would be great. Thanks, friends, I am sure you will figure out how to make that happen. :)

pps from Steven... If you just write on the packaging "white people in Sefi Bekwai, Ghana" it will probably get to us. I prefer lemon or mango. We already have the vodka to mix :)