The New Building
As a ministry, what do you do if you were kicked out of Belgium, are renting a house for an office in Madrid, and the lease on the house is running out? You build a new building.
I spend a couple of hours everyday on this construction project. I photograph details for the overseers in the U.S., and videotape daily for use in promotional materials and historical documentation. This also involves alot of computer time manipulating images. Although this task is not one of my opportunities for stretching my creative skills, it has become an important part of my daily routine. And as a consequence, I have gotten to know the spanish-speaking workers quite well. That is good, because this building project will continue for a year or more.
The guy drilling into the wall is George (hor-hay) who is from Ecuador. He is the yard boss and he does it all, always wearing his baseball cap backwards. He is proud to tell me that he knows people in Chicago (shee-koggo).
The materials and procedures are very unique. There is already enough concrete in the building to require a bunker-buster bomb to penetrate the foundation. I have not seen any wood. Dangerous moments occur often. No one wears hard-hats. Here is a brick block with 82 holes. Copious amounts of cement bind these holes to the next block. Trapped air is further insulation against the Spanish heat.
Here is a wall. The pipes seem random. They are.
This is Eduardo drilling a meter-square hole into the floor of the old swimming pool on the property. He is very young and has a child. Eduardo and I always wave to each other in the morning.
Very often, specialilized craftsmen come in. These past two weeks have seen steelworkers preparing the skeleton of the building. They laughed when I showed up on the jobsite a week ago using a Roman helmet for a hard-hat.
The vertical beams have been installed. This building is going to be huge and cost over 2.5 million dollars. It towers over the neighborhood. We can't tell the neighbors what it will be because the facility's true use is a bit of a secret. I have my own opinions. They are wide-ranging and its best if I do not share them.
I spend a couple of hours everyday on this construction project. I photograph details for the overseers in the U.S., and videotape daily for use in promotional materials and historical documentation. This also involves alot of computer time manipulating images. Although this task is not one of my opportunities for stretching my creative skills, it has become an important part of my daily routine. And as a consequence, I have gotten to know the spanish-speaking workers quite well. That is good, because this building project will continue for a year or more.
The guy drilling into the wall is George (hor-hay) who is from Ecuador. He is the yard boss and he does it all, always wearing his baseball cap backwards. He is proud to tell me that he knows people in Chicago (shee-koggo).
The materials and procedures are very unique. There is already enough concrete in the building to require a bunker-buster bomb to penetrate the foundation. I have not seen any wood. Dangerous moments occur often. No one wears hard-hats. Here is a brick block with 82 holes. Copious amounts of cement bind these holes to the next block. Trapped air is further insulation against the Spanish heat.
Here is a wall. The pipes seem random. They are.
This is Eduardo drilling a meter-square hole into the floor of the old swimming pool on the property. He is very young and has a child. Eduardo and I always wave to each other in the morning.
Very often, specialilized craftsmen come in. These past two weeks have seen steelworkers preparing the skeleton of the building. They laughed when I showed up on the jobsite a week ago using a Roman helmet for a hard-hat.
The vertical beams have been installed. This building is going to be huge and cost over 2.5 million dollars. It towers over the neighborhood. We can't tell the neighbors what it will be because the facility's true use is a bit of a secret. I have my own opinions. They are wide-ranging and its best if I do not share them.
posted by windarkwingod | 2:05 PM
5 Comments:
Construction sites can be fun.
I'd like to see an entire construction team in Roman helmits. That would be hilarious.
So this is a missions building?
Who owns it? Who's paying for it? And who is the Architect? I am curious about all these things.
That is some crazy stuff. Do you wear a helmet?
the funds are half Spanish Assembly of God (from Spain) and half North Texas District. The Architect is the son of a higher-up in the Spanish Assemblies. The head dude is named Jesus (hey-zoos). He is also a pastor. I hear two different things. One: we are the first clients in a long time who want to keep all finances above the table, and two: we must keep our real blueprints quiet lest they be rejected or we incur major fines. Weird. BTW a new state-of-the-art edit suite is about $5k or so.... Forrest - what is the scoop?
During my visit with my parents we got to see pictures from my dad's job that he just finished in California. It's pretty cool to see the stuff from the ground up. We visited a lot of sites he worked on as a kid, so I know what to expect, but it's still fun to see nothing become something! :)
As super his job includes capturing it on film for the main company guys in Indianapolis, so part of his daily routine is the same as yours! :)
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