Back to being normal……….kinda.

It was Monday, December 5th, 2011.  J, G and I headed up to the bunkhouse to install the new entry doors and finish some outside sheathing.  It’s your classic island crew.  ‘J’ is hard of hearing (deaf as a long-dead duck) and G mumbles semi-coherent half-jokes mixed in with requests and instructions as he thinks aloud.  He often keeps his glasses in his teeth as he speaks.  If he is wearing his glasses, he has a pencil in his mouth instead.

“Nowunderthecomooty………………………lostfaithinye, yuol’git! Passámmeréh? Angityr handsoutothebluddyway, eh! Got it?  We gonnatakit uprighéhereandyoolot blanceit, ferasec. Anyonegottasmoke?”

Exact translation of the above is: “No wonder the community has lost faith in you, Dave, you old git.  Pass the hammer, eh?  And get your hands out of the bloody way, eh?  Got it?  We are going to tack it up right here and you lot balance it for a seond.  Anyone got a smoke?”

Real translation: “Let’s get started.  Pass the hammer.  You two hold the doors in place while I put a nail in”.

He knows we don’t smoke.

And so it goes all day as we slowly get better at the interpretation of the monotonal, polysylabic, carpenter’s pidgin that passes for G’s communication style.

J is pretty smart.  He does it all by reading G’s or my body language and anticipating the next step.  Not easy.  If I make a move to hold the doors, J grabs his side of the frame. If I move past the doors for the plywood on the floor, he misses scarcely a beat and picks up his side of that.  We are like an ugly Russian ballet.  And we are mute.

He can’t hear a thing.  Especially if there is any background noise and this is a construction site complete with a generator.  He doesn’t have a chance.  And I don’t repeat G’s semi-gibberish because I am trying to translate it, interpret it and process it.  So he just waits for a movement from me or G and jumps to it.  I have to learn gibberish-with-pencil-in-mouth and J has to learn two body languages.  We get better at it as the day goes along.

G knows his stuff.  He’s been a carpenter all his life.  He has the ability to build ‘outside the formula’ and still make it work.  I am trying to anticipate his moves but I can’t.  “Sheesh, man.  I’m glad you’re doing this.  I would’ve thought we’d have built tilt-up walls and then added a stud or two and then done something else and, like, I never would have built it like this.  No criticism.  None.  I just wouldn’t have done it thís way.” 

“Seeanystuds, dýa? Iswadyado if yadon’got anybloodywood, eh? Anitsbetter, anyway. Like. Bloodyél we gotnomaterials, dowe?”

Translation: “Dave, we don’t have the wood or materials for that.  And the normal way is stupid, anyway.  This is better.  Stronger.  Different.  Don’t worry about the rules.  They were made for people who don’t understand physics.  Once you have the principle of the concept handled, you can be more creative and we have to be because we don’t have the wood!”

I don’t think J spoke a word all day.  He just worked and ‘jumped to it’.  I occasionally tried for clarification or asked a question of G who was our leader, none of which elicited a comprehensible response, what with the glasses and the pencils and all.  So we just worked in a state of guesswork and anxiety trying not to misinterpret a gesture, a mumble or a twitch.  J and I were constantly doing double-takes as we searched for signs or hints. Or danger.  We moved like squirrels.  It can get stressful.

J cracked early.  He had to go home, anyway, but I know that the stress and tension of trying to guess your way through a creative construction process was getting to him.  He bid us adieu around 1:00.

“NizeguyJay, eh!” (My interpretation: “Nice guy.  I like him.  Good to work with.  I’d work with him again.”)

At the time I thought he’d said, ‘noskajakay’ and was wondering what the hell that meant and so I just looked at him like I was an idiot.  And G looked at me like I was an idiot, too.  We were at an impasse.

After a few seconds of that, he just shook his head, mumbled something to himself and we moved on.

We got most of it done by 4:00.  And so I was packing up my tools.  “IfyadonneedémleaveémanI’llfinishmyselflader.”

Translation: “You were only useful for bringing your tools.  Leave them with me and I’ll finish up here on my own. Maybe tomorrow.  Let’s go home.  I’ll fix you a cup of tea.”

It’s a wonder out here.  It really is.  A real wonder.