The time has come and gone quickly for us in El Salvador. We completed our last day of hard core work yesterday and today we will be worshiping with local believers in the Corinto church. I am excited about that...I always enjoy feeling the presence of God in foreign places because when you can't rely on language to be a conduit to God, you get to feel it through the people instead. (Haha, loving my electrical reference)
The plan when we came was to wire the church at a place called Hacienda as well as 3 classrooms and a large storage room. Then to move onto 2 houses up the hill from the church and after that to move onto 2 more houses in Corinto.
The PLAN didn't materialize as expected and so we did everything but the 2 houses in Corinto. When I say 'hard core work" I wasn't joking! The last two days have been almost more than my uncalloused little hands could take! I am not used to physical labor 10 hours a day, no...I'm more used to sitting on my rear end making nice with a computer keyboard, getting up once in awhile to grab a coffee or some printing.
Climbing up and down ladders, pulling large bundles of wire around twisted poly something or other and pounding holes in the lava rock ground for power poles is a little different and definitely more arduous than my normal routine.
The last two days have been especially long, the end was in sight and a certain amount of work had to be finished before we wrapped things up for good. Yesterday we were at the work site at 7:30am and started working immediately. By 9:30am I was thinking we would be able to take a siesta in the afternoon because things were moving along so well. By noon we realized that if we finished with the sun still in the sky it would be a miracle. By 7:30pm we were loading up and pulling out.
One thing that has happened to me is that I MIGHT have conquered my fear of ladders. I have been afraid of ladders for as long as I can remember. I'm not okay with wobbly, shaking, unstable things that you have to rely on for personal safety...and that includes skates, ski's etc. So in order not to look like the biggest wimp in the universe I had to suck it up and act like I was okay being hundreds of feet in the air. Okay okay, I know I'm exaggerating but when you're afraid of something, that's what it feels like~everything gets distorted in your mind.
Biggest fear on a ladder? Well only one thing of course...that you will fall off. Second biggest fear on a ladder? That someone will see that you are scared on the ladder and you will be relegated to the ranks of "spare wire piece picker-upper from the ground" person. Not me, uh uh. I'm no sissy woman.
That untried confidence was quickly put to the test. There is actually no better motivator in the world than someone talking to you like you CAN do it, so when our fearless leader Maestro Martin asked me to climb up a ladder and help him pull wire I jumped right on that thing. I was able to blame the instantaneous rush of sweat gland action on the heat, but between us...I was in a fear zone that I hadn't entered for awhile. As any of you wonderful people who use ladders for a living know, when your hands are sweaty you can't hold on very well.
Martin is a Master Electrician. All he did was give me directions and I scurried around to do his bidding. We were on the east wall of the church building early in the week and someone had to take his ladder so he was crouched up against the metal frame of the roof and I was along the same wall but farther down. I had a sturdy ladder which gave me a certain level of comfort but we were pulling large bundles of wire through a tough spot and really had to yank hard. We eventually gave up and decided to use a lead wire which the team affectionately called the fish thingy.
A lead wire has a small hook on the end and it gets threaded through the conduit to the outlet you want to the wire to go to. The person at the outlet hooks the wire to the hook in the lead and the person at the other end pulls. Well Martin and I had this song and dance going on with the lead wire. I am at the outlet end and had finished attaching the wire we want pulled and Martin starts to pull. Because it was a tough spot, Martin starting pulling very hard and the lead went so fast that it hooked itself to my bra and started lifting me from the ladder! My frantic screams seemed to attract enough attention that people joined in the screaming and Martin finally stopped pulling. Disaster averted!
By yesterday I was feeling quite good about my high-rise capabilities and was put to the test again. Late in the day we were hot, tired, very dirty and some of us bleeding...I had a small run-in with a barbed wire fence. Anyway, a couple of us set a smaller ladder up outside house #2 to finish up the exterior light. I quickly climbed up and was being passed all the appropriate tools when the earth started to move under my feet.
Suddenly everything slowwwwed downnnnnn. No sound. Only tools flying by my head and a sick feeling in my stomach as I rode the ladder down. My guardian angel was right beside me because I stepped backwards onto the next rung as the ladder was falling and not forward. If I had stepped forward I would have broken my foot for sure when the ladder hit the ground. Sound erupted in an almighty crash as the ladder hit the cement pad. No worse for wear, I am thankful to God for protection!
The interesting thing about all of this is that I chuckled all week to myself about the bra incident and it took my mind off of the fear. Each time I climbed up another ladder I would smile and it kept me from being afraid of the height I was at. It became a good distraction that moved me forward with the work without getting too uptight. It actually allowed me to fall off a ladder and get right back up on it again without flinching. I guess focusing on distractions isn't always a bad thing and wearing quality undergarments is now mandtory.
The plan when we came was to wire the church at a place called Hacienda as well as 3 classrooms and a large storage room. Then to move onto 2 houses up the hill from the church and after that to move onto 2 more houses in Corinto.
The PLAN didn't materialize as expected and so we did everything but the 2 houses in Corinto. When I say 'hard core work" I wasn't joking! The last two days have been almost more than my uncalloused little hands could take! I am not used to physical labor 10 hours a day, no...I'm more used to sitting on my rear end making nice with a computer keyboard, getting up once in awhile to grab a coffee or some printing.
Climbing up and down ladders, pulling large bundles of wire around twisted poly something or other and pounding holes in the lava rock ground for power poles is a little different and definitely more arduous than my normal routine.
The last two days have been especially long, the end was in sight and a certain amount of work had to be finished before we wrapped things up for good. Yesterday we were at the work site at 7:30am and started working immediately. By 9:30am I was thinking we would be able to take a siesta in the afternoon because things were moving along so well. By noon we realized that if we finished with the sun still in the sky it would be a miracle. By 7:30pm we were loading up and pulling out.
One thing that has happened to me is that I MIGHT have conquered my fear of ladders. I have been afraid of ladders for as long as I can remember. I'm not okay with wobbly, shaking, unstable things that you have to rely on for personal safety...and that includes skates, ski's etc. So in order not to look like the biggest wimp in the universe I had to suck it up and act like I was okay being hundreds of feet in the air. Okay okay, I know I'm exaggerating but when you're afraid of something, that's what it feels like~everything gets distorted in your mind.
Biggest fear on a ladder? Well only one thing of course...that you will fall off. Second biggest fear on a ladder? That someone will see that you are scared on the ladder and you will be relegated to the ranks of "spare wire piece picker-upper from the ground" person. Not me, uh uh. I'm no sissy woman.
That untried confidence was quickly put to the test. There is actually no better motivator in the world than someone talking to you like you CAN do it, so when our fearless leader Maestro Martin asked me to climb up a ladder and help him pull wire I jumped right on that thing. I was able to blame the instantaneous rush of sweat gland action on the heat, but between us...I was in a fear zone that I hadn't entered for awhile. As any of you wonderful people who use ladders for a living know, when your hands are sweaty you can't hold on very well.
Martin is a Master Electrician. All he did was give me directions and I scurried around to do his bidding. We were on the east wall of the church building early in the week and someone had to take his ladder so he was crouched up against the metal frame of the roof and I was along the same wall but farther down. I had a sturdy ladder which gave me a certain level of comfort but we were pulling large bundles of wire through a tough spot and really had to yank hard. We eventually gave up and decided to use a lead wire which the team affectionately called the fish thingy.
A lead wire has a small hook on the end and it gets threaded through the conduit to the outlet you want to the wire to go to. The person at the outlet hooks the wire to the hook in the lead and the person at the other end pulls. Well Martin and I had this song and dance going on with the lead wire. I am at the outlet end and had finished attaching the wire we want pulled and Martin starts to pull. Because it was a tough spot, Martin starting pulling very hard and the lead went so fast that it hooked itself to my bra and started lifting me from the ladder! My frantic screams seemed to attract enough attention that people joined in the screaming and Martin finally stopped pulling. Disaster averted!
By yesterday I was feeling quite good about my high-rise capabilities and was put to the test again. Late in the day we were hot, tired, very dirty and some of us bleeding...I had a small run-in with a barbed wire fence. Anyway, a couple of us set a smaller ladder up outside house #2 to finish up the exterior light. I quickly climbed up and was being passed all the appropriate tools when the earth started to move under my feet.
Suddenly everything slowwwwed downnnnnn. No sound. Only tools flying by my head and a sick feeling in my stomach as I rode the ladder down. My guardian angel was right beside me because I stepped backwards onto the next rung as the ladder was falling and not forward. If I had stepped forward I would have broken my foot for sure when the ladder hit the ground. Sound erupted in an almighty crash as the ladder hit the cement pad. No worse for wear, I am thankful to God for protection!
The interesting thing about all of this is that I chuckled all week to myself about the bra incident and it took my mind off of the fear. Each time I climbed up another ladder I would smile and it kept me from being afraid of the height I was at. It became a good distraction that moved me forward with the work without getting too uptight. It actually allowed me to fall off a ladder and get right back up on it again without flinching. I guess focusing on distractions isn't always a bad thing and wearing quality undergarments is now mandtory.
1 comment:
Guardian Angels are wonderful things, not to be taken for granted, and definitely appreciated.
What an amazing trip.
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