Tar

 Yesterday, the workers completed about a quarter of the road in front of my house, which I guess means that they will be here for some days to come. I was told that I could go out this morning, but must be off the road by afternoon. 

It's kind of interesting to watch them work. The whole thing is done in the "primitive way", of course. First they build a wood fire beneath a large barrel of tar.] While the tar is "cooking", they spread fine gravel across the road from edge to edge. Once the tar is cooked, a worker dips a bucket with holes in it into the the vat of boiling tar, then sprinkles the tar across the gravel on the road, which had previously been flattened by a little steamroller. The road is then raked for evenness and the steamroller returns to flatten the new tar and gravel surface. This, one worker tells us, will expand and swell under the sun. Holes may form, which will be repaired as they go. 

All of this is done under the beating afternoon sun and the workers are inundated from head to foot with oily smoke, their skin, their clothing, their hair. It is the classic "dirty job". They take their breaks in my driveway, get some water, smoke a cigarette, joke and laugh. In the evening, they douse the fire and black smoke wafts along the street and through the grasses of the field like a ground-level thunder cloud. 

In the meantime, and at the same time, the work on my patio covering, or "canopy", has been finished. This consists of a whole bunch of long sticks set into a frame and then covered by a clear plastic top. I suppose it's supposed to have a natural dwelling sort of look, and I reckon it's okay. Would be nice, however, if I had more of a stylish wooden table beneath it rather than the square white plastic thing that I have, along with its white plastic chairs. In any case, it will be nice to have a place in front to sit, and a much larger space at that, as the wall garden area in the back is just a narrow corridor, suited only to one occupant, and then not even that many when the maid happens to be doing gardening out there. 

This canopy in the front would seem to be the end of the renovations at my place and things should return to more of a quiet, peaceful atmosphere soon--although they have just now embarked on the same project for the unit next door to mine.