Mud Sweat and....More mud

Here are some impressions of our day today:

4:00 am – rooster crows robustly.  4:12 am - rooster crows again.  4:27 am – rooster again.  You get the point.  What happened to the pleasant farmyard rooster who crows only once at a decent hour to wake up smiling country folk?

On the way out this morning we picked up some tin for the roof.  As that was being tied on the roof of our mini van, a motorcycle whizzes by with several 20 foot lengths of rebar tied to the back just dragging along the road.

Off to work we go, to the house we started yesterday – well – it was after 9:00 am before we got going, but whatever.  It was fun today – finishing the framing on the house, the tin roof going up, and then mud, mud and more mud.  The mud for the first and second wall layer is from the earth surrounding the house. (the third coat is a different mud that will be lighter in colour and very smooth) So – that meant a ton of hard work hauling water who knows how far to the site, using a special hoe to chop up the ground, and then the fun of stomping around in it to make a nice gooey texture.

This is gathered into soccer ball sized chunks which we brought over to the new house and dumped it in a pile inside with a satisfyingly squishy plop sound, kind of like…you get the picture.

Joseph, the father of the family, his teenage son, and for that matter all the kids we see are so strong – solid muscle and work like tanks.

Lunch break – picture 22 people packed in van meant for 12 on the way back to Omwabini.  OK – 15 of them were orphanage kids on their way back after spending time working in their farm land, but squishy nonetheless.

After a very muddy day – our feet are washed in a basin by Julius, one of Omwabini’s workers.  Sounds very Biblical, doesn’t it!

We don’t let Redempta (the woman who makes our food and helps with our laundry) do our dishes anymore.  How and where to get warm water to the kitchen sink (which only has a trickle of cold water)?  Ken stands under the shower with a pot on his head collecting warm water.  This is because the water is heated by an electric heater built right into the shower head and is our only source of warm water.

And we’re just lucky that we have a shower!! It is actually located right in the middle of the toilet stall – you just squeegee the water and soap into the drain on the floor when you are done!

How do you make a divided road here?  Just place a bunch a boulders down the middle of the road to prevent traffic from crossing over.  Sounds simple and is effective?  That’s on a good road where you could actually get out of first gear.  The rest of the roads are equally road and pot holes.

Stomping the mud with the mama from the house

Here's the house with the walls half up

Nothing like playing in mud!

Then there are the crickets.  All fine and dandy for them to be chirping merrily outside,  but they are also hiding in the wooden frames of every door and jump out of the open hole leading to the attic of the house.  Yeah for our OFF, we think we’ve chased out most of the hiding ones and stomped on them!