I'm going to try to write this as the days goes on, so I will be caught us as we go. Remember, if you comment and you are not signed in, please sign your name so we know who you are!
We got electricity back last night in time for supper. I swear I am getting fat. I'm really not hungry for potatoes anymore... they love sliced potatoes aka "fries." We eat tons of rice, fried chicken (which is good, except for the foot that they throw in.) We also usually have small T-bone steaks similar to beef jerky, spaghetti noodles, and a potato and carrot salad.
After we ate, a group played some rowdy spoons and our Mzungu friend, Sydney showed up with cinnamon bread she had baked. Yum... we devoured it in minutes.
The crew turned in early except for some who were practicing for the BTCV Idol talent show that will take place Thursday evening at the lodge... more details on that later!
It got down to about 40 degrees last night and we awoke to... guess what... yep, no electricity! Grant and Jimi were cooking french toast over an open flame as they had promised Mark, David and Stevie the morning off from cooking, to be our guests. They work at the lodge and fix our morning and evening meals, often starting at 4:30am.
We all ate and loaded up for the build site and arrived to several happy little kid faces on site. The kids are out of school so the hundreds that encircled us the first morning are spread out across several villages. The group this morning included one little guy named Sam in a wheel chair. Someone had gotten him a good chair but it was sad to see what he probably had to go through living in a dirt road village. He was happy to see the library had a ramp so he could get into it too. I think only one of the other classrooms had a ramp when I looked around.
As we worked shoveling and spreading gravel, some of the contractor's crew worked on pointing more of the exterior brick and we took time to play with the kids... soccer, hop scotch... all the good stuff! :)
Some of the kids started a soccer game beside the build. Jimi grabbed Sam in him wheel chair and jumped in the game pushing the wheelchair so Sam could hit the ball with his hands. I took some video that I will post when we get home. It was hard to stand there and watch the laughing and expressions on Sam's face as Jimi wore himself out running everywhere around that soccer field. I guarantee it is a day that Sam will probably remember the rest of his life... somebody took the time to show him the love, to let him get in a soccer game. It was awesome.
Grant and I took some homemade saw horses over to the village and part of the crew went over there to do some painting at the Invest Resource Center in the village. Megan was going to use her mad artistic skill to paint the name on the building.
Lawrence hauled Grant, Cristi and me over to the lodge where we prayed the electricity would be back on. We were lucky and got the rest of our boards cut so the shelves can be hauled over to the library and assembled.
I got a chance to run to the internet cafe to post a few pictures that were on my phone but the computer kept locking up and the internet was intermittent.... but I did get some pictures added.
Once again, excuse the typos and poor structure of some of these posts. The keyboard on the phone is horrible and the screen is too small to successfully proof read these posts. Spell check somehow makes up its own mind when it wants too. One project of mind when I get home will be to fix the blog, add pictures and video and make it more readable!
I'm posting this early this evening because I am doing it from the computer... take care be safe, keep the prayers coming and have your conversations with God. He has really never been so evident in my life.
We got electricity back last night in time for supper. I swear I am getting fat. I'm really not hungry for potatoes anymore... they love sliced potatoes aka "fries." We eat tons of rice, fried chicken (which is good, except for the foot that they throw in.) We also usually have small T-bone steaks similar to beef jerky, spaghetti noodles, and a potato and carrot salad.
After we ate, a group played some rowdy spoons and our Mzungu friend, Sydney showed up with cinnamon bread she had baked. Yum... we devoured it in minutes.
The crew turned in early except for some who were practicing for the BTCV Idol talent show that will take place Thursday evening at the lodge... more details on that later!
It got down to about 40 degrees last night and we awoke to... guess what... yep, no electricity! Grant and Jimi were cooking french toast over an open flame as they had promised Mark, David and Stevie the morning off from cooking, to be our guests. They work at the lodge and fix our morning and evening meals, often starting at 4:30am.
We all ate and loaded up for the build site and arrived to several happy little kid faces on site. The kids are out of school so the hundreds that encircled us the first morning are spread out across several villages. The group this morning included one little guy named Sam in a wheel chair. Someone had gotten him a good chair but it was sad to see what he probably had to go through living in a dirt road village. He was happy to see the library had a ramp so he could get into it too. I think only one of the other classrooms had a ramp when I looked around.
As we worked shoveling and spreading gravel, some of the contractor's crew worked on pointing more of the exterior brick and we took time to play with the kids... soccer, hop scotch... all the good stuff! :)
Jimi and Sam doing the hop scotch...
Janet helped with some laundry for the teachers
Abbi... the hop scotch expert.
Some of the kids started a soccer game beside the build. Jimi grabbed Sam in him wheel chair and jumped in the game pushing the wheelchair so Sam could hit the ball with his hands. I took some video that I will post when we get home. It was hard to stand there and watch the laughing and expressions on Sam's face as Jimi wore himself out running everywhere around that soccer field. I guarantee it is a day that Sam will probably remember the rest of his life... somebody took the time to show him the love, to let him get in a soccer game. It was awesome.
Sam
Grant and I took some homemade saw horses over to the village and part of the crew went over there to do some painting at the Invest Resource Center in the village. Megan was going to use her mad artistic skill to paint the name on the building.
Lawrence hauled Grant, Cristi and me over to the lodge where we prayed the electricity would be back on. We were lucky and got the rest of our boards cut so the shelves can be hauled over to the library and assembled.
I got a chance to run to the internet cafe to post a few pictures that were on my phone but the computer kept locking up and the internet was intermittent.... but I did get some pictures added.
Once again, excuse the typos and poor structure of some of these posts. The keyboard on the phone is horrible and the screen is too small to successfully proof read these posts. Spell check somehow makes up its own mind when it wants too. One project of mind when I get home will be to fix the blog, add pictures and video and make it more readable!
I'm posting this early this evening because I am doing it from the computer... take care be safe, keep the prayers coming and have your conversations with God. He has really never been so evident in my life.
