the sticks (all the poles) were put up and tied by Kekchi men who also "thatched" the ends of the house - the roof was "thatched" by 30 Mopan men. Kekchi and Mopan are two seperate and distinct groups within the Mayan culture. They are friendly to one another, inter-marry, etc but their languages are as different as Portugese and French and many aspects of their culture are very distinctly different.

we start on the walls in the morning - here Kathy has just inhaled a very large butterfly (not really) 

view toward the sunset end of the house 

a magnificent frigatebird flies over to checkout the progress  

on our way back to our current (short-term) residence tonight we saw proof that "every cloud has a silver lining" 

what neat people that we are getting to know - our hope is that many will come to know Jehovah 

most of the crew poses to accept credit for a very professional days work - they had a lot of fun - were treated with great respect - ate a great lunch - and recieved a very nice wage for their efforts - two of the men are fathers of young men that are our Bible studies si  

a brief break in the action as the days work comes to it's end

some of the many children in search of mangos, pumpkins, watermelons, guava or any other edible item - I can only do about half of the names so I won't even give it a try 

while the men are doing their thing - the ladies work on a lunch that is part of the pay for the day for the workers - caldo, tortillas, rice, a freshly made cocoa drink - ALL in great volume and VERY tasty - Francisco works to co-ordinate all of the various aspects of the day - and the children make sure that no mango or guava goes uneaten

just another angle of the process 

the house got a roof today - or in local terms - was "thatched" - two groups each working one side of the house start at the bottom and work to the top - another smaller crew on the ground supplies cahoon leaves to the middle men - 32 men in all

they were not going to use this forked "beam" because it was too short - I found a home for it  

both horizontally and vertically 

the building style sure does fit it's setting 

these men are builders AND artists 

the next few pictures are of the string work - the stuff is called "bush string" and is tougher than any rope 

if you divide the area of the gable end into four triangles - the middle one is the area that will not be covered - it opens into our third floor sleeping area - 14 X 20 - facing the rising sun 

just a few "sticks" need to be tied in the morning - on Monday the thatching of the house will happen - 30-40 men will cover the entire roof and a good part of the ends - then "all the corn tortillas and caldo you can eat - or carry home" (again, wonderful chicken soup -50 pounds of chicken) and some sort of drink that I am not too sure about yet. Francisco's wife, his mother-in-law and Domingo's wife will do all of the cooking

the floor inside the house is very nearly done and the veranda flooring should be done saturday - the quality of the materials and the workmanship is clearly not the best but we are quite happy with the results 

finally, to get some perspective what this stick-tying business is all about - it's 30 feet to the top stick from the ground and the flooring on the main floor is only done for the first 8 feet starting on the right - if he were to fall the first thing he would hit would be the floor joists, then 10 more feet to the concrete - these men are not fearless but they are extreemely careful - also note the wad of bush string hanging in the middle of the picture - I"ll have some pictures of the string work tomorrow

the weather has been very co-operative and the skies are incredible 

sorry for the color distortion, but I really wanted to see some of the individual details of the "high climbers" 

what an amazing day - these guys are builders in every sense of the word - Mr Pop in the center is every bit of 60 years old and while not as nimble as his son-in-law Domingo (on the left) Mr Pop is the "ram-rod" of the stick-tying project and will not move on until each step is correct

i'm not sure, but I think this guy taunts Cleo to chase him