Fall 2013

After a very intense period of time on the hospital construction site completing the piles, work has slowed down over the past couple of weeks.  The contractor is now off for the second Eid holiday but will be returning near the end of the month to start work on the pile caps (first layout and pile head breaking).  We have been stockpiling materials on-site (various types of sand, stone, cement, steel, etc.), building additional housing for the construction workers, trying to catch up on paper work and working on final design details. John M.,  one of our American Architects, is here on his 5th trip to help to finalize some of those design details.  It has been good to get some additional architectural input and history.  Jon and John M. made a quick trip to Dhaka and Chittagong to meet with our national architects, engineers and the contractor to discuss implementing some value engineering changes.  I have added some related photos as well as other random shots from the past couple of weeks (warning: there is a good spider shot at the end).

Jon, John M, Dr. Kelley reviewing plans.

Trucks delivering 20 mm crushed stone.

Measuring the load quantities.

 An evening trip to Cox's Bazar to negotiate materials prices with our suppliers

 (sand and stone for concrete mixes).

Concrete Cylinder Compression Tests with our Workshop Welder, Sadek.

Boats in the Chittagong Harbor

Final Game of a District Women's Soccer Tournament in Cox's Bazar (a new discovery!)

 The final two teams were both from the Chittagong Hill Tracks.

MCH employee (hospital staff) annual soccer tournament

A local chicken (a bit more free range than the white farm chickens
 available).  This guy was not too happy about his coming fate of becoming dinner.

 Lots of new lambs on the compound.

 Caterpillar found in the vegetable gardens.

Very large spider caught a large cockroach on our veranda
(one of the reasons why we like spiders).

Holly