Break Time

Crumbling adobe walls and rusty metal roofs have been the view from parts of our building into the empty lot next door. One day a workman appeared, armed with a hammer, chisel, and pick. He attacked those walls and soon he was surrounded by huge piles of rubble. More workers came, each with a shiny blue wheelbarrow and a shovel. All day long for many days and into the nights they shoveled, hammered, and dumped.

Because this is the historic district of Oaxaca, there are many building restrictions, including prohibition on changing the outside of the building or constructing anything new that is visible from the street. Since the only entrance to this lot is a normal sized door, all of this material is removed by wheeling it through that small space. At night, dump trucks (the only machinery involved in the whole process) park in the street, men lay some boards for a ramp, and they wheel all the dirt and rocks into the trucks. 
At noon the men take a lunch break and a much deserved siesta.