Whirlwind of a week

Sometimes things don´t go as we plan.  Seems that the norm for life is that we get thrown curveballs and that it is rare that we get a fat fastball thrown just as we expect it, waiting to be hit out of the park.  So, the challenge lies in learning to read the curves so we can anticipate where the proverbial pitch will be when it arrives our way.

I arrived in Chile to carry out a project in renewable design and construction for a high-end, 5-star resort.  We arrived in Chile on July 4th and since then life has been great, but overly full of unexpected "pitches."  Within the past two months those unexpected situations led to us to be on hold for over a month waiting to start the project.  At the beginning of last week (Oct. 10th) things had bottlenecked to the point that I saw no reason for me to stay in Chile.  I decided to return to the United States within the week, which meant I would abandon the project and leave the company.  I was one click away from buying a new plane ticket when God spoke strongly, and now I find myself installing foundations in the construction project.

This past week has been a whirlwind because I had to re-jumpstart everything that had been stalled for over a month and Nathan had to get serious about getting the building permitted with sufficient details in the plans.  I had 6 days to re-estimate materials, re-write contracts, purchase supplies, and get laborers to the site to begin work.  I didn´t ever dream it would happen, but it did.  We began work yesterday with myself and four others.  Cecilio is the maestro of the crew, his right hand man is Pedro, and two younger guys named Pablo and Luis (Zapallo) are on our team.  Next week we will have three more and boy will things move then.

I have many pictures, so those of you who are interested in construction details will do well to look back in a day or two when I upload the pictures.  The details are very different from US construction, but also quite rich in the way things work.

Bottom line, I feel like in this last week and a half I learned how to read the spin on the ball, and so far it appears that I have hit it successfully, still with the possibility of a grand slam here in Chile.