Day 10: Pokhara Workday

This morning we once again met for 7am tea and breakfast. We did devotions this morning because we were all too tired to do them after dinner last night. Then we headed back to the shop for a full day of work. Rewanta and I worked on rounding the nuts down for the wheelchair's rear wheel mount. He laughed at my double glasses because I had my normal glasses plus my safety glasses ontop and he nor any of the other Nepali workers wore glasses while working in the shop at all. Travis started welding the wheelchair frame and realized that we had some clearance issues in our fixture. With a few cuts and modifications and revisions in the manufacturing process, we were ready to continue on. Meanwhile, Cai and Blake were working on putting another coat of primer on the Prone Trolley in preparation to paint it soon. Thomas was working on grinding down the wheelchair mounting plates so that Giraldo could drill the holes for them. Then after lunch at the hospital, we resumed working. I finished grinding down the nuts and then worked with Giraldo to mark and cut the mounting plates. We had some issues with our drill shifting from its original mark and we resorted to using the Mechanical Design textbook to make sure we would still have enough strength in the remaining welding area. Now we can't say the stuff we learn in school is useless! Travis finished fully welding one of the wheelchair's side frames and tack welded the other to be finished off tomorrow. Dr. Van Dyke got back from a bit of shopping today and put the first coat of Oxford Blue paint on the portion of the prone trolley he primed yesterday. We finished out our workday with dinner and devotions at the hospital. Then Van Dyke and Giraldo went to bed while the rest of us set up a mini salon in my room. We bought scissors, a comb, and hair dye packs from the little convenience store right next to the hospital and to dye Thomas' hair and cut mine. I don't know how the guys convinced Thomas to dye his hair but my hair was too long and getting too knotted and dirty to keep taking care of with the low-pressure faucets we have in our rooms. So I half-jokingly said I'd let one of the guys cut my hair and Travis jumped at the idea since he "cuts hair on the side." I have to admit, he did a pretty good job. The hair dying adventure was less of a straight-forward win. We finished the bleach tonight and will put the dye in later. Hopefully all goes well with that tomorrow.