While some workers were demarcating the site, the contractor (to the right,holding the hammer) built the stairs and a shack to the left to hold tools. I had heard from many Brazilians that I should be careful of things being stolen but I haven't had even a nail stolen yet.
The pine boards on the shack were completely infested with termites within a few months. They will eat anything except the dense wood. I'll be talking plenty about termites later.
The contractor assembled a bunch of guys and they started digging one meter square holes (39.25 inches) about 10-12 feet apart and about 5 feet deep.
All of the holes are dug by hand. The soil is not rocky but it is still a lot of work. The contractor has a big extended family so he always had plenty of labor available. One thing I found curious. The tools used to dig didn't include a spade shovel. They use what they call an enxada (which is that tool that looks like a big hoe), a pick axe and a long pike to loosen the soil, and then they use a flat shovel to discard it to the pile.
I had already bought a spade shovel but when I asked if they wanted to use it they politely refused. When I later used a spade shovel here I could see why. The design was different, with the blade being much broader and the point was not sharp. It really didn't penetrate the soil very well. I thought it would be much more efficient with a good old proper spade shovel. But don't think I'm being arrogant and I think we do things better in the US. We can't be too arrogant when we still haven't adopted the metric system.
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