Notes of explanation:
Hue - pronounced WAY
Hui - pronounced Hughy
Hua - pronounced Huwa
Dati - IndoDutch term for Papa
Baki - IndoDutch term for Brother
Onkla - IndoDutch term for Uncle
From Book 4
A telefax message came into the office with the cover page of the proposal to rebuild the Nitrate Mining and Processing Plant at Iquique, Chile signed and accepted with no changes. There was a letter from Senor Algodones asking that work begin as soon as possible. Hue called Concho and Thomas into his office to discuss manpower for the project, Concho would be Project Manager and Thomas would be Geology Engineer and Project Chief Engineer. Bic and Phillip would be in charge of the electrical installations and Hua would handle the Mechanical Engineering along with Concho. They had a new foreman, Matt Daniels, who would be assigned to the project and they would use their own mechanics and electricians rather than hire locally. Concho was nervous as a hen in the wolf den, Thomas held him and said, "Cho, you can do this and I am gonna be right beside you to help in any way I can." They began the ritual of gathering their tools and supplies and notifying employees of their assignment to the project.
Chapter 1 - HURRY UP AND WAIT
They planned to arrive in Iquique the last week in November, as it was scheduled that the mine would cease operation on December 1st. Their ocean shipment of tools and equipment arrived in the port of Bajo Molle on November 16th and 'Tavio reported that the company had taken delivery.
The Family celebrated Thanksgiving a couple of days early and the morning of November 24th saw them all at Hilo Airport. This was not the first time Concho had managed a project, but it was his first experience being in sole command of the operation.
He tried to look calm and in control, but inside his fears were running wild. Thomas spotted Concho's jittery condition and took him over to a row of seats and sat beside him, holding his hands, "Cho, we are partners, remember, I am here for you and so are your cousins, you are not in this alone."
He hugged Concho and whispered in his ear, "I love you, Cho."
Those simple words calmed Concho down and his jitters left him.
Half their work crew was traveling with them and the other half would follow in two days.
They went through security, they had a little trouble with Sammy, he was carrying a bag with all his drawing supplies and the TSA officer wanted to examine each colored pencil and all his erasers, charcoal sticks and pads of portrait paper.
As usual, their party took up the entire First Class and Business Class seating. It was a short flight and four hours later they were landing in Los Angeles, where they had a six-hour layover before their flight to Santiago. There were two stops on the flight, Cartagena and Lima, but there were no plane changes.
They retrieved their luggage and rechecked them at the Chilean Airways counter, then spent several hours "people watching" at the busy airport. Sammy was busy sketching scenes and people as they hurried on their way.
As their departure time approached, they made their way through Security and went out to the International Departures Terminal, where they found a restaurant where the entire party could be seated for a light meal.
As their flight time approached, they all went to the Premier Departure Lounge to wait to be called. With such a large party travelling together, the JetWay attendant came over and checked all their passports and visas ahead of time.
It was early evening as the plane was loaded and finally, the huge jumbo jet was ready to depart. All their crew were experienced travelers and they were soon asleep. Concho and Thomas went over some of their plans and discussed the upcoming work schedule before they drifted into sleep also.
Both teens had been sawing logs almost from the time the plane started down the runway. Just before arrival in Cartagena, breakfast was served, the only ones hungry were Sammy and Corbin, but then, like all teenagers, they could eat nonstop, if allowed to!
They sat on the ground in Cartagena for almost an hour before they loaded a few passengers and were ready to continue the journey. The stop in Lima went quickly and, as soon as the plane was in the air, a lunch was served.
It seemed like they had hardly picked up the plates from lunch when the plane began its descent into Santiago International Airport.
It was dark outside, but, as they emerged from the Arrivals Terminal, they spotted 'Tavio and a crew of workers to handle the baggage. 'Tavio warmly welcomed them back to Chile.
As soon as their luggage had been accounted for and loaded onto the company plane they headed for Iquique.
The next morning, Thomas led the work crew and Bic and Phillip around the facility, showing them the layout and describing what they were going to do.
Concho met with 'Tavio and Sr. Algodones for several hours discussing the project before 'Tavio had to fly back to Santiago to meet the remainder of the Best Son's workmen.
Sr. Algodones asked Concho and Thomas for supper that evening, his Mother was with them and he wanted Concho to meet her.
Concho met up with Thomas, Bic and Phillip for lunch and Bic was exclaiming about spending the morning in a working museum. Concho laughed, "Yeah, some of their equipment came over with Columbus!"
After lunch, they watched as the production crews began the process of shutting down the plant, it was arranged that most of the production employees would be assisting the Best Son's mechanics as helpers and not be laid off for the duration.
By the end of the day, the mine and processing plant was shut down and eerily quiet.
Several truck-loads of new machinery had already been delivered and Concho had it inspected and inventoried. There was not a lot that could be done until the old machinery had cooled off, they had all the haulers driven out of the mine pit and the wheel digger and scoops placed in the center of the pit for dismantling.
Bic and Phillip reviewed the drawings to make sure the right of way was clear to run the main feeders into the pit to supply the new electric mining machinery. They staked out the location for the substation pad and the umbilical tower before it began to get dark.
Concho and Thomas got cleaned up; they would be heading to Sr. Algodones' home for supper. Sammy and Corbin were content to spend the evening with Bic and Phillip, the Guest House had television, but neither boy was proficient in Spanish, so they found other activities to occupy their time. Corbin read a book while Sammy finished a drawing he had started earlier in the day.
Sr. Algodones introduced his Mother to Concho and Thomas, Sra. Maria Algodones was a gracious lady, but spoke no English. Concho tried some of his barely remembered native Quechan and the lady listened intently, chuckling at his ragged accent and poor grammar.
She spoke Spanish to her son and he translated for them, "My Mother is laughing, Sr. Concho sounds like a 10-year-old child to her. I reminded her that you were but 11 years old when you left Peru for America."
They had a pleasant supper and the conversation was mostly centered around the upcoming rebuild of the nitrate mine and processing plant.
Sr. Algodones was interested in how such a young man as Concho was in charge of a large undertaking as the rebuild. Concho told him about the Electric Generating plant in Australia that was an even larger project than Chilean Nitrates and also the Plant in Nevada.
Sr. Algodones looked at this young seeming man with a new appreciation of Concho Best.
Concho spoke some more with Sra. Maria Algodones and words began to come back to him from his childhood. By the end of the evening, he was able to carry on a conversation with the lady without stumbling mortally.
The next morning, the remainder of their work crew had arrived and he and Thomas took them around the facility while Bic and Phillip inventoried several large shipping containers of machinery sent by Le Tourneau.
The control equipment and umbilical mast had arrived as did the crawler and wheel digger. Two of the electric trucks, along with their drag cables and dump basin had also arrived.
They decided to run the power underground up to the mine lip, and then go aerial down to the umbilical mast.
Up in the processing plant, Thomas started the crews dismantling all the old machinery and clearing the buildings. Only the buildings themselves were going to be salvaged.
Almost daily, SeaVans were being delivered on LoBoys from the port. They mostly left the new machinery in the SeaVans to protect them from the weather until they were ready to begin rebuilding.
As soon as the floors were cleared, old pits and steam pipe chases were filled in and new concrete poured to even out the floors. In places, the entire floor had to be jack-hammered up and replaced.
The two teens started school in March, they were now high school sophomores at the American School in Iquique. Both boys made friends readily and were happy in their small classes. There were few actual Americans as students in the school, the majority of the students were those hoping for scholarships in American or European colleges and universities.
Their classmates were eager to question them about life in America and to practice their American English.
That they had two Papas was of little interest, compared to stories about living in America. In fact, the matter of having two fathers held little importance to them at all.
Chapter 2 - CONSTRUCTION HAIR LOSS
By April they were ready to begin replacing machinery and Concho was running wide open, putting out "fires". After one particularly hectic day, he came back to their apartment and plopped down in the chair, "If that ball mill fights me anymore, I am going to be bald from pulling my hair!"
They had spent the last four days trying to level the mill, it had to be exactly level, otherwise, the nitrate particles would not be uniform in size.
He was beginning to think the base was sprung, so he put in a telephone call to the manufacturer in Denver to explain the problems they were having. The TechRep suggested that they heat the base with torches and then slowly bolt it down to level.
The next day, he gathered up all the acetylene torches in the plant and began heating the base. As soon as it began to glow a dull red, they started tightening the bedplate bolts. When the machine was exactly level, he had the mechanics and their helpers stop tightening the bolts and let the bedplate cool down overnight.
The next morning, the ball mill was perfectly level and Concho was sure he had bald spots in his hair! That, fortunately, was the largest machine to be mounted in the processing plant and the only other singly huge machine was the wheel digger in the mine pit. Since it was mounted on self-moving treads, it required no leveling or bolting to a floor.
All the machinery had been delivered by the first week in May and they were running slightly ahead of schedule.
Hue and Danny came for a visit and were impressed with the amount of work being done. After Hue had spoken with Thomas, he couldn't resist teasing Concho. He asked, "Hey, Cho, are you going bald? Your hair looks kind of thin on the top!"
Concho just growled at him and made a typically American obscene gesture! Hue put his arm around his nephew and they continued their inspection of the progress.
The first week of July was the end of the semester in school, both boys brought home report cards worth framing, they were all A's. They had a week off from school and winter weather had not set in yet, so Concho and Thomas took the boys to the beach down at Bajo Molle for three days. They had a great time swimming and just relaxing in the warm waters of the South Pacific Ocean.
Sammy spent one day with his drawing, there was a freighter in port, swinging huge pieces of cargo from the holds of the ship onto waiting for LoBoys on the pier. When Sammy showed the picture to Concho and Thomas they were amazed at how the boy had gotten the drawing so lifelike, they were waiting for the cargo to be dropped in their laps!
They stopped in Iquique on their way back home. Both boys were growing out of their clothes. They needed new trousers, shoes, shirts even underwear. As the boys were choosing their new clothes, Concho had a flashback of a small boy in his arms while he picked clothes for a boy who had never had anything to his name.
Thomas saw his distress and held his hand until it passed.
That evening, Concho told Thomas what had distressed him and Thomas held Concho, "Cho, that boy doesn't exist anymore, he is almost a man now and is becoming whatever he was meant to be. He has Corbin and between the two of them, they will be going places and doing things that we never even dreamed of."
Concho replied, "But I am not ready for him to be grown up!"
Thomas just shook his head and said, "Time waits for no parent!"
The boys returned to school and their Dads immersed themselves in rebuilding Chilean Nitrates,
They planned on a December 1st start up and by October 1st, they were running the final wiring and testing the controls.
The company had rotated the mill workers so that those who had not been used early on as helpers, would be employed to help finish up the project.
In early November, they began testing each piece of equipment, they started up the wheel digger and started raw nitrates flowing through the system, by the time it arrived at the mill, all the pit machinery and conveyors had been thoroughly tested.
The raw nitrate entered the ball mill and, when a goodly amount had been processed, they stopped the system and took samples of the ground nitrate, sending it through various-sized screens to test for particle size. They then had to adjust the speed of the drum until they had the specified nitrate particle size.
The new dryer was heated with electric coils and Thomas had to show the lab personnel how to test for moisture content. It has never before been a problem, but now, the company was trying to enter new markets.
The final step was bagging and which had been completely changed out to a fully automatic system, there would be no hand shoveling of nitrate into bags. The new bags were heavy plastic and the ends were heat sealed automatically as the dried nitrates were less likely to outgas.
The end of the building had been altered, so that the bags could be loaded directly into a SeaVan for shipment from the port. Several of the employees had been fearful they were going to lose their jobs after the rebuild, but, with the additional capacity and now shipping directly off the production line, ten additional employees were needed!
It was summer vacation for the boys and Sammy took every opportunity to sketch the plant and mine, he produced a large panorama of the entire facility and asked the plant carpenter if he could make a frame for it.
The old man was a craftsman and he delighted in making furniture quality wood projects. He found some fine native mahogany and finished it to a high polish.
Sammy wanted to pay the man and he wouldn't accept anything but Sammy's thanks. Not to be outdone, Sammy came up with a way to acknowledge the man's beautiful work.
The company arranged for a celebration in honor of the rebuilt plant and Concho was scheduled to speak.
Sammy showed his Dati the drawing and beautiful frame and that he wanted to present it to Sr. Algodones during the celebration.
Sammy wrote out what he wanted to say and went to 'Tavio asking him to correct his bad Spanish. Then Sammy told 'Tavio what he planned, 'Tavio became a willing conspirator.
The day of the celebration, Sammy carried his drawing up and placed it near the podium, covered in a clean cloth.
Sr. Algodones welcomed all the employees and their families to the new mill and mine and spoke about how it would add to the progress of Iquique and all of Chile.
Concho then spoke, reading from his notes that he had laboriously translated from English to Spanish. He told of the hard work that the plant employees had performed in helping restore the plant and how all The Best Son's employees had enjoyed working with them.
He then said, "My son, Sammy Best has prepared a gift for the plant,"
He then turned to Sammy and introduced him, "This is my son, Samuel Concho Best."
Sammy stepped forward, carrying his covered drawing. He spoke in Spanish, slowly so that he got the words correct. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Algodones, I have prepared a gift for you so that you will always remember those Americans who helped you rebuild your mill. I had some wonderful help from Mr. Olivaras, the Carpenter who works for Chilean Nitrates here."
He drew the cloth from the framed drawing and continued, "Mr. Olivaras made this beautiful frame to hold my drawing."
He turned to Sr. Algodones, handing the large framed drawing to him and said, "Sir, this is my gift to you and all the employees who work here, that they might remember an American Boy from Australia, who lived among you for a short time."
Sr. Algodones was stunned at the quality of the gift, he hugged Sammy and said, "Son, we will remember you every time we see your drawing, it will be hung at the entrance to our offices so that everyone will know of your generosity and your skill."
Chapter 3 - PROJECT DONE!
Best Son's employees spent the next month training the plant workers in the use of the new production machinery and its maintenance. Like all new machinery, it had to be adjusted and "tweaked" for optimum performance.
The office staff had to scramble to obtain sufficient SeaVans to ship the increased production. The company salesmen had taken the word about increased production literally, and had presold nearly the entire first year's production!
The demand was so great they had to put on a third shift to supply the orders!
Those who had been fearful of losing their job were fervently praying that the third shift would take up the slack in a hurry.
The teachers at the American School were sad to see Sammy and Corbin leave, they were genuinely liked by all their fellow students and the teachers enjoyed teaching any class they were in. They had graduated to the Junior Class with all A's on their report card. The principal wrote a letter for them to carry to their school in America when they returned, telling of their high grades and classroom performance.
It was with heavy hearts that the boys packed their belongings; they had enjoyed their stay and the excitement of living in a "foreign" country. They loved the mountains of Dati Cho's boyhood and they vowed they would return someday.
They sent half the work crew home first and the rest followed three days later. When they landed in Los Angeles, there was a message from Danny that the four of them should change their tickets and come to San Francisco.
Concho was happy to be seeing his own Dati.
When they landed, Danny was there waiting for them, all the tension and anxiety that Concho had kept bottled up in Chile suddenly evaporated as he hugged Danny.
They all went out to Fisherman's Wharf for supper, before driving home to Fairfield. While the boys slept in, Concho and Thomas gave Danny a full report on the job in Chile.
The contract had been very profitable to Best Son's and Danny was delighted.
They spent several days getting reacquainted with those who worked out of the Fairfield Office; Thomas had never met Singh 'Tal or Jason.
A week later, they arrived back in Hilo, weary but happy to be home.
TBC
This ends the story of Chilean Nitrates, SA, but there will be more adventures for all the members of this talented Family Best.