Friday at Bere

Friday, November 17, 2006

We started out the morning with seven men we hired locally. Steve, Graham and Jamie got the mixer running and we set about pouring concrete. While Jamie was putting in the underground plumbing in kitchen, we had the men mix the concrete and pour the first bedroom. They finished the concrete in that bedroom and they started in the kitchen.

The way the men work is from seven until 12, take a 2 hour lunch break and then they come back and work from 2 - 4 p.m. So that being the case, they got all the concrete in the kitchen but left before the concrete was finished. It was wet, I had to go over to the house and finish the concrete in the dark.

The method for mixing the concrete: The men bring in 100 lb cement bag to the mixer and then we mix the rock, sand and water with the cement. We use wheelbarrows to get the concrete into the building.

- Rick

I spent the day working in the kitchen with Solomon and then went into town with him to get some cloth from Market for a native dress. The children started to gather at the edge of town and followed me all over the market. The children are all so curious and wonderful with beautiful infectious grins, you can't help but smile back.

- Kelli

One day morphs into the next here. Time zips by so quickly it's hard to keep track anymore. By the time I realized it was Friday, the day was almost over. I'm certainly put outside of my comfort zone here on a daily basis. It was amusing to have an audience of three to four people when I did a simple rewire in the morning. Later, I tried my hand at "masonry," using only bricks and basic mud to make a fire pit/incinerator. We'll see on Sunday if it works or not.

God is blessing us greatly here. We are finding many things in place that will make the solar installation easier; things that no one could have planned. There's just too much to tell in a couple of paragraphs, but suffice it to say that it's amazing to see God working every day. I can't wait to see what he has planned next!

-Peter