Use Men and not machines to do a big job

 August 23, 2022

Today we poured the concrete on the roof of the newly enlarged casa.  I've built a lot of homes in my lifetime.  And watched a lot of slabs of concrete being poured.  I've never done a concrete roof, like they do in Mexico, since everything is out of masonry.  But this was an amazing feat.

We had to muster together all 4 construction men, plus my 7 laborers to get the job done.  But by the end of the day they did it.  They did not stop moving for 6 hours.  Everyone had a task and it all worked seamlessly.

In Mexico there is a philosophy of work.  It is "Why pay a machine $400.00 a day to help speed up a job, when you can get 20 hombres instead at $20.00 a day?"

I hope you find the video of the day interesting.  It was very interesting to me, and I've been in construction for many years.   Pay attention to the little guy in the red cap with no shirt on. He's one of my favorite workers and is 65ish years old.   (He thinks.  But not for sure)

I've done a crop-and-close-up of this fellow.  I love all my workers, but this man is special to me.  His name is Fabiola and he's about 65+ (he thinks).  He doesn't speak Spanish.  Only Mayan.  The bucket of concrete he is hoisting up on his shoulder weighs about 30 kg (65 pounds) and he hauled them all day long just like the younger guys.  The biggest problem I have with him is reminding him to please put on his flip flops because he prefers to work barefooted almost always.  Even when I tell him to put them on, I'll notice an hour or two later, he's barefooted again.  He's happy as a lark all day long and works as hard at anything I ask him to do, as I could expect.  He's also very good at climbing up and down rock-faced walls in his bare feet and says he's done it all his life.

After the guys had all be working for me for about a month, I kept hearing the other 4 always yelling at Fabiola.  Since they were all speaking Mayan, I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it just seemed like they were bullying him, or being very impatient with him, by yelling all the time.  One day I got the foreman to the side and just told him that it made me really uncomfortable to see the harsh way all the men spoke to Fabiola.  He laughed and said they weren't yelling mad at him, they were yelling because he is almost deaf and can't hear anything unless you get right in his face and scream.