Chocolate Milk and Doughnuts

My mind has been on chocolate milk and doughnuts and on tractors working this week. I had chocolate milk the other day but I don't think they have my favorite cinnamon sugar doughnuts here.

Sometimes we come across things that transcend time and culture. Some events, some phenomena are more human than anything else. They do not belong to countries; they recognize no borders. At times they seem few and far between. At other times, nothing could be closer or more real.
One of these phenomena is this: If there are people working (with or without tractors), there will be other people— not working— standing around watching them work.

Some of you need no further description. You knew me when I was little and liked nothing more than to watch tractors working. You know others who are fascinated by any project in motion. But for the rest of you let me elaborate.

For the last two weeks Nandasmo has been abuzz. First they were replacing the water line, which happens to run right under the main (read: only) road. This involved a small army of men prying up the individual paving stones in the road and digging a massive ditch. It also involved a slightly larger army of towns-people, mostly older men, sitting on their porches all day watching the work progress.
Now, they are in the process of replacing the whole road. Even I have to stop and contemplate their progress everyday as they work to fit thousands of vaguely hexagonal blocks together on a gentle down-slope. It is especially remarkable when you take into consideration that they're positioning each block by hand and using tools like two 2x4's connected to a large cinder-block as a tamper.
The details, I guess, are different. But the details aren't what's important, what unites us. It is the idea that transcends so many differences... that no matter where we come from, no matter what our job is, what language we speak, how much money we make, whether we've ever driven a car or seen snow, we love to sit around and watch other people work on stuff.