The Chain Gang

With the heavy rains this past rainy season, there was some damage to the street in front of the house. Our gate keeper (Alvaro) chose to help his friend repair the road, and I asked if I could help. He looked at me strangely because manual labor is no work for a "jefe" (a "boss" as he likes to call me, partly bacause he knows that it makes me cringe), but he agreed. Then of course, my little helpers wanted to come along as well. We got a lot of smiles from those that passed by. It was quite a site to see a 4 year old gringo doing road work with a garden shovel. As a joke, Alvaro paid each of us 25 centavos for our help...that is about one cent. It is now an ongoing joke. I pay him 25 centavos for any work he does above and beyond his job description, and he pays me when I help him with his work.



Mixing concrete Nica style