Construction Stories

Are Guatemalans Smarter than Americans?

I was walking down the cobblestone streets of Antigua with an acquaintance, a woman named Christine, and her friend when Christine said, “You know, I bet the average Guatemalan is smarter than the average American. Physically speaking.” What she meant was that because the roads and sidewalks were always uneven and unpredictable and because a lot of Guatemalans will do things like share a single bicycle between two, three, or four people, Guatemalans have a better awareness of their bodies and balance.

Yesterday, I worked at the new school construction site with Juan Pedro and Enrique, two teachers at the school who were hired to help out with the building. They climbed up 9-10 ft tall walls of cinderblock like Jackie Chan and stood on top of them, either casually stepping around the protruding metal rods as they navigated the perimeter, tossing tools back and forth across the unfinished room, or even pelting each other with rocks. If I were up there, I would have fallen onto the wood scraps and chip bags covering the dirt floor. It made me think about how my dad would never let me use the lawnmower growing up because he was scared I’d slip under and lose a foot… or something like that. Now I just feel ridiculously unhandy. Maybe protecting kids so much isn’t such a good thing after all.

I’ve Become a Migrant Worker

I’ve gone to the construction site maybe ten times since getting her, and my motivations have usually been the same: I wanted to be forced to use my Spanish for a few hours a day, I thought it would be nice to get some exercise outside, and I secretly hoped that I’d be taught how to do something more specialized – like hammering a nail or stacking cinderblocks. Well, these last two days, my expectations/hopes were left unsatisfied: I was told to use my trust pick axe, shovel and wheelbarrow and move one big pile of dirt from the bottom room up a hill to make a different pile of dirt up top; I worked alone, so there were about 15 words of Spanish total; and I think I’ve only managed to give myself a sore back and aggravated my aching left ankle.

It’s amazing how lonely it can feel, just standing there, hacking away at a six foot mound of earth needing to be excavated while pebbles occasionally explode off a rock and dart into your eyes. Then once it’s loose, you load up your wheelbarrow to the brim, heaving it up a one foot wide, unsteady dirt hill, dumping it out in some obscure location, and walking back down to do it all again. The Guatemalan workers – the ones not affiliated with the school – watch you do the same thing over and over. They don’t want to talk to you, unless they have a joke… but even then, you can tell their not laughing with you. You just keep your head up, keep working hard, and wait for noon to arrive.

First Attempted Robbery?

I was walking down the hill from El Nahual to the road that takes you to both my new hostel and the construction site. Two workers were walking towards the school and the one stopped and shouted, “Churrasco,” barbecue in English, his “nickname” for me. “Why do you call me that?” I asked, and he said there was no reason, that it was just a nickname. He had a smirk on his face like he knew something I didn’t, the same smirk he had every time I walked by with the wheelbarrow. He joked that we were going to the coast, and I said, “Let’s go.” He smiled, put out his hand, and for an instant I thought that maybe I was somehow being tested and I had met his approval. I asked him what his nickname was and he said “the Camel,” as we shook hands.

His friend said his name was “Cornelio” and that he didn’t have a nickname. As we shook hands I noticed his left hand had someone made its way to my right front pocket, where my cell phone was bulging through my pants. He had barely gotten a fingertip in when I casually slapped it away, and he took the whole thing in stride. Part of me wants to believe he was just turning and his hand happened to collide with my leg, but I just don’t think it’s true. Nevertheless, I'll be back there tomorrow.