Adventures as a Grown Up
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John: Croatian/Australian Cementer, Carpenter and Carpetor
This week one of my tasks was to help John (jack of all trades) cement the wall up the hill at Ostii’s house. I don’t think I have ever worked with cement and I really just wanted to work in the garden this day. But I volunteered to help however was necessary. And as an “adult” I needed to follow through.
John is in his 60s (I think) and is a funny looking, quite rotund man with squashed flat face. He was having a difficult time getting the wheel barrel of sand and then mixing the cement, bending over to scoop it then lay it in it’s place. So, I helped with with all of it.
I carted over sand. I mixed concrete, sand and water. I shoveled it into buckets and took them up to John. Together we poured the concrete and while I was refilling the buckets he would smooth out our recent pour. This continued for about 6 hours.
As we did the back breaking labor, and I got dirtier abs dirtier, John would ask a question or give me direction. However his Croatian accent that he never really lost mixed with the Australian accent he picked up made it very difficult for me to understand him. Thus I reverted to the “smile and nod” tactic. I figured it was more polite than asking “what?” each time.
He asked a few times why I was here, what I did in the US. Where my parents were and what they did. He directed me in the right number of scoops of sand to cement ratio (which it took a few tries to perfect) and even showed me the art if “flinging cement” on to the wall we had to patch. He seemed content to mumble at me as he went and just enjoyed the help and company.
He worked incredible slowly. But I guess the work of cement laying is t a speedy job and why should it be. It doesn’t dry that quickly anyway. I have learned that many Australians work at this pace as well. Sure their work gets done, but there isn’t the haste, as there is in America, to move onto the next project. Maybe it’s just the vegan yoga hippies I’m working with. Maybe not.
Either way, Cities and cathedrals don’t get built in a day. Why would this wall? John reminded me to slow down and do what is necessary; and to end your work day at 2:30 ;)
