Hard Work and a Serious Little Dude, Part II

The next day I happened to be wearing sunglasses. At one point I was sitting on a bench, and I motioned for him to sit next to me. He did. We just kinda sat there quietly for a bit. Then just as I got up, he reached up and touched my sunglasses, which were hanging on my shirt collar. So I let him borrow them.

My sunglasses, which are large even for my face, looked like triangular computer monitors on his.

He none the less donned a serious "cool" face. I actually forgot my camera that day, so this picture of him is from Thursday.

Slightly off-kilter sunglasses are totally in right now.

However, I needed my sunglasses back, and wasn't quite sure how to say "If I don't have my sunglasses my eyes will be crunchy by the time I go back to the states."

So I decided to make him a trade. I had brought my balloon animals with me as well (a backpack is a very handy thing) so I pulled those out and asked him his favorite color. He chose red. I asked him if he liked dogs, and he nodded. So I pumped it up, and twisted him up a dog (much to the amusement of every person in seeing range.)

The glasses were soon forgotten entirely.

After a while of him making the dog bounce along the pavement, float in the air, twist in half, and pop back into shape again, the tired canine burst.

The old guy in the blue shirt took an interest in the remaining pieces. He tried to blow up the end piece with his mouth, but couldn't, so I gave him the pump, and he made a little caterpillar lookin' thing, by pumping up the balloon little by little and tying it off after each section. It was fun watching him and Serious Dude  interact. I don't think they were related though- kids are kinda public property around here.

At this point the project had a new direction, but had not yet obtained a plan. So at very least we were only searching for a seemingly invisible pipe under dirt, instead of cement. Still pretty discouraging.

Finally, on Thursday, we found the pipe we were looking for, and once we had that tiny bit of info, we were able to formulate a plan. Now, not only are we working with purpose, but our purpose is something that will affect the hospital for many years in a significant way.

However, we still have to dig crazy amounts of dirt in insane temperatures/humidity.

By Friday, we had essentially routed the whole thing. That was a beast of a project, and it's nice to look at it now and see how much improvement has been made.

Also, on Friday, I saw SLD smile, for the first, and as far as I know, the last time. Turns out the secret is off-roading in wheelchairs.