After two blissful days of peace and quiet in the neighborhood because of the holiday, the construction project continued today.

I decided to walk over there and see if there was someone that I could ask about how much longer the project would take.

My neighbor down the street had told me that the people who live in that house have temporarily moved out until the construction is finished, so I can’t ask them.

I’ve been over there a few times, and all the workers had been up working on the project so there was nobody at ground level for me to talk to.

But today I hit pay dirt. There was a fellow in a van directly in front of the house.

I walked over and when he saw me, he turned off the van, as I guess he realized I wanted to talk to him.

Alas, his Inglés was not too good.

But he did get the gist of what I was asking him.

“Boss”, he replied. And he pointed to the phone number on the pocket of his shirt.

“Oh, you want me to call your boss?” 

He nodded.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that, not having been properly introduced, after all. But after a couple more give and takes with the caballero, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone and made a call.

He said something and about all I could understand was Americano, and then he handed the phone to me.

So I said something like, “Hi, I’m a neighbor and I was wondering how much longer this construction project is going to take.” 

His Inglés was much better than the caballero, but he still had a thick accent. He said something like today or tomorrow.

I wasn’t sure that we were communicating. But after a few more exchanges, it became clear, he wasn’t talking about the whole project, but he was talking about the, as he put it, the “boom boom boom” main noise that they had been making. That, he said, should all be done after today or tomorrow. After that it will be mostly interior work plus they’ll have to put on the siding, but that shouldn’t be as noisy, so he implied.

Anyway I thanked him, and handed the phone back to the caballero and thanked him as well.

And I walked away with a bit of a spring in my step.