Day of ropes and more
Yesterday was my day to lead the teaching. I had the job of doing a rope rescue class. Ordinarily that would be no problem, you know ropes and me. The challenge was the lack of equipment. To do rescue systems by the book it is very gear intensive. Here we are very limited by equipment. El Grullo had two ropes, two prussic cords, several pulleys, six locking carabineers, and four non-locking carabineers. Autlan had one rope, two figure eights and two carabineers, Ayutla had nothing! I had brought down thanks to “Firefighters Crossing Borders” two prussic cords and a couple pieces of webbing. I started out by teaching knots followed with ladder slides with a two to one system. After lunch we moved up to the skate board park known as “Kent Washington” and built several systems with the gear on hand. The students all seemed to learn a lot, I really received a lot of good feed back saying that my class gave them real skills they would be able to use with the limited gear on hand. At the end of the day I was both mentally and physically exhausted, but it was a great day!
So we get done with teaching and it was time to go to dinner. We were hosted by Tiemo a rancher that heads the public lands distribution for farmers in the area. Just that night he had finished his new courtyard and entertaining area at his home (very nice). Also there were many other “movers and shakers” in attendance, including the past mayor that started the fire department, most of his former administration, a police chief from the next town and several other people that I’m not sure who they were. We had a great meal and lots of laughs and even got some work done. Home around 23:00.
I had a great talk with Rebecca via IM Live through the Internet before heading to bed. This morning I embarked on a cultural adventure and left at 07:00 with Tiemo, to go “milk cows” something that I had not done since I was a kid. It’s a good thing I don’t need to make my living milking cows. I was very slow. We still managed to get back in time for breakfast and get to class on time.
It hard to believe I’ve been here a week already, in some ways it seems like we just got here it others it seems like we have been here a long time. At any rate we have done a lot in a short time, and will do even more in the next few days.
This is a nine-day class with no days off. We know this has been really tough for a lot of the students, most of which are volunteers that had to take time off work to be here. The students from Autlan and Ayutla travel over and hour each way to be here. One of our students Gissell comes to class all day, leaves class to work an evening shift as a nurse at the hospital, then some nights pulls her volunteer shift all night at the fire department, before coming back to class. All of the students have put a lot of effort into their training. Today (Sunday) we are doing strategy and tactics, Monday I’ll teach the classroom portion of my extrication class, with Graduation in the afternoon. Then back again on Tuesday for the hands on part of extrication. Hopefully we will have several cars to kill at the wrecking yard. The Graduation will be attended by the student’s families, as well as the mayors and officials from the towns represented.
The El Grullo fire department had a video made that is on the Internet at http://www.cheshvan.blip.tv and click on the second picture. The guy that made the video is a local filmmaker that is very talented. Watching the video you would think they don’t need much help, just keep in mind some things look a lot better with editing and a good script. Anyway check it out it does give a good view of the area and people we are working with.
Yesterday was my day to lead the teaching. I had the job of doing a rope rescue class. Ordinarily that would be no problem, you know ropes and me. The challenge was the lack of equipment. To do rescue systems by the book it is very gear intensive. Here we are very limited by equipment. El Grullo had two ropes, two prussic cords, several pulleys, six locking carabineers, and four non-locking carabineers. Autlan had one rope, two figure eights and two carabineers, Ayutla had nothing! I had brought down thanks to “Firefighters Crossing Borders” two prussic cords and a couple pieces of webbing. I started out by teaching knots followed with ladder slides with a two to one system. After lunch we moved up to the skate board park known as “Kent Washington” and built several systems with the gear on hand. The students all seemed to learn a lot, I really received a lot of good feed back saying that my class gave them real skills they would be able to use with the limited gear on hand. At the end of the day I was both mentally and physically exhausted, but it was a great day!
So we get done with teaching and it was time to go to dinner. We were hosted by Tiemo a rancher that heads the public lands distribution for farmers in the area. Just that night he had finished his new courtyard and entertaining area at his home (very nice). Also there were many other “movers and shakers” in attendance, including the past mayor that started the fire department, most of his former administration, a police chief from the next town and several other people that I’m not sure who they were. We had a great meal and lots of laughs and even got some work done. Home around 23:00.
I had a great talk with Rebecca via IM Live through the Internet before heading to bed. This morning I embarked on a cultural adventure and left at 07:00 with Tiemo, to go “milk cows” something that I had not done since I was a kid. It’s a good thing I don’t need to make my living milking cows. I was very slow. We still managed to get back in time for breakfast and get to class on time.
It hard to believe I’ve been here a week already, in some ways it seems like we just got here it others it seems like we have been here a long time. At any rate we have done a lot in a short time, and will do even more in the next few days.
This is a nine-day class with no days off. We know this has been really tough for a lot of the students, most of which are volunteers that had to take time off work to be here. The students from Autlan and Ayutla travel over and hour each way to be here. One of our students Gissell comes to class all day, leaves class to work an evening shift as a nurse at the hospital, then some nights pulls her volunteer shift all night at the fire department, before coming back to class. All of the students have put a lot of effort into their training. Today (Sunday) we are doing strategy and tactics, Monday I’ll teach the classroom portion of my extrication class, with Graduation in the afternoon. Then back again on Tuesday for the hands on part of extrication. Hopefully we will have several cars to kill at the wrecking yard. The Graduation will be attended by the student’s families, as well as the mayors and officials from the towns represented.
The El Grullo fire department had a video made that is on the Internet at http://www.cheshvan.blip.tv and click on the second picture. The guy that made the video is a local filmmaker that is very talented. Watching the video you would think they don’t need much help, just keep in mind some things look a lot better with editing and a good script. Anyway check it out it does give a good view of the area and people we are working with.
1 comment:
I watched the video, but it was all about bullfighting. Not a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. It was only afterward when the video defaulted to next one in line, that I realized the 2nd video (not the one at the top of the list that opens first) is of the Bomberos -- THAT's the one you intended us to see....
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