Day 2 of the build

When I think back to that second day of build, I think “scaffolding.” Who in their right mind would agree to be suspended one meter in the air on a bendy piece of wood held up by two piles of cement blocks? I certainly wouldn’t want to stand on any scaffolding that I had a hand in building.

And yet, it worked out.

Another memorable thing happened when I was occupying myself by refilling the plates of mortar for the more active builders. Tseveen, our construction boss came up to me with a naughty smile. He gestured that I should follow him, even held onto my sleeve as he led me out the door. There was more than one raised eyebrow at this unexpectedly affectionate gesture from the usually stoic Tseveen.

He deposited me by the newly arrived truck…full of bricks. It was clear in that instant that Tseveen hadn’t just singled me out, but he had gathered a few of us girls. What made him think that our valuable house building labor could be sacrificed to unload a few bricks!?

There was no point in dwelling on that. The truth was, it was flattering to be thought of at all…and I will forever hold onto that memory of his cement covered work gloves pulling on my dusty little sleeve.

This entry was posted on October 1, 2008 at 6:35 am and is filed under Mongolia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.