When we arrived, three of us were asked to go up to the site where the second home will be built. The rest of the group went to the next site to begin moving sand. At our site, we spent the first two hours trying to remove a very large boulder with a large sledge hammer and two steel pickets. We broke half of the rock and removed it but we This is Michael, one of our team members. were unsuccessful at getting the large piece of it out so we re-grouped and moved the spot for the house slightly forward. The problem with that is now the house sits literally about 12 inches from the edge of the rock ledge.
The rest of the team came back long enough to get the wall panels up to the work site and then Steve Paschall and myself along with a local construction team of 4 men set about to erect the house. Now in the US we would pour the foundation and then erect the walls but that is exactly opposite of what is done here. The walls and roof were in place and then the concrete was delivered (by hand in buckets) into the house and poured onto the prepared ground.
I mentioned that the concrete was brought up in buckets. The process for mixing the concrete was amazing. The concrete was mixed on the ground. The sand that we brought up in bags was mixed with the cement and formed a large pile on the ground. then the workers made a concave indention in the center of the pile and poured water (That is another story) into the center of it. Then we simply waited...and waited....and waited. Finally after more than 30 minutes of just watching this man-made pond the workers began to mix the concrete. Once mixed, to shovels-full of concrete were place in 5-gallon buckets and we did the bucket brigade thing again to get it up and into the house. One man was inside pouring and spreading the concrete and sending the empty buckets back down the hill. We repeated this process over and over until the floor was completely poured.
I mentioned the water story. There is no running water in most of these homes. There is, however, a community spigot and it was located about two hundred yards from this work site. The lady for whom the home was being built had a very large reel of water hose. Her granddaughter and I took one end of the hose and walked down the hill and around a corner to the spigot. There was no threads on the hose...nor on the spigot just a piece of pipe sticking out of the wall. I pressed the hose onto the pipe as tight as I could and then turned the handle of the spigot and I turned to leave. The hose immediately came off the pipe and a large stream of water hit me in the back lower half of my jeans. Needless to say, I turned around and turned off the water but I was very wet. The granddaughter was mortified at first but when she saw I wasn't mad, then she began to laugh uncontrollably. Shortly a neighbor came out with a piece of rubber bicycle inner tube and a strip of rubber. She placed the inner tube piece around the pipe and tied it off with the rubber strip. The water was, once again turned on and this time no inadvertent spray. My "accident" provided great comedy relief as the granddaughter related the incident to her mother and grandmother. It was good to see them laugh. It was worth it. After work, Steve and I reflected on the fact that much was accomplished toward gaining credibility with these people and the ability to laugh at yourself helps to make you human.
Every chance I get I try to let the people of the village know that we are here, "In el nombre de Jesus" "In the name of Jesus." Please pray that our actions and attitude will match our purpose for being here. Pray also for Ophelia, the grandmother who will move into her new home in three days. Pray for healing for her and for her salvation. Pray for our team as we continue to show the love of Christ in all that we do. Thank you for praying for me.
What a blessing it is to see how God is using the team thus far. Is exciting to read. You are all in our continued prayers!!
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