There is a house next door to ours that is under construction, and this situation warrants some coverage. Since this is a downtown area, the process started with a deconstruction phase that was completed using tools such as sledge hammers and jack hammers. For several days the men worked from 8:00 AM until about 8:00 PM, sometimes later. During two days of the constructions there were two men who worked in the road. Their task for the entire two days was to use a sledge hammer and iron to cut rebar to the desired lengths. I got used to this sound as well and I knew when the men made a clean break of the rebar due to the special "clank" that went through the neighborhood. We had gotten used to all of this and then one night something special happened.
About 3:30 AM I awoke to the sound of a large diesel truck on our street. Our house sits only a few feet from the road, and the balcony and window to our bedroom is on the front of the house. When the diesel truck parked and set its air brakes on, this sound caused me to wake up and begin taking notice of what was going on outside.
One nice part of the construction is that there are several ladies who work on the job. Whenever we walk in and out of our house, they take a few seconds to smile at our kids. These two ladies are especially nice, even if they are out there working in 95 degrees of hot sun. Here you can see them shoveling loads of sand onto saucers. Then they put them on their heads and climb the stairs to where the men are working and dump them there. It seems as though the men and women should switch tasks, but I guess that's just a western notion.
All of this sounds pretty awful, but you need to see the finished look of the buildings these people make. Here is a photo of our house, only a few feet to the left of the house currently under construction. Their attention to detail is amazing, and the architecture that is used here is very special.
One more fun photo... Yesterday we had Vani come over and cook for us. She arrived with a chicken and a huge bag of vegetables, herbs and spices. She used all these ingredients to make us a delicious meal, leaving lots of food for the rest of the week. We saw the bag of herbs and had to get a photo of it. This is the real stuff! Inside this bag there are onions, chilis, ginger, cilantro, mint, curry leaves, and probably five other herbs.
