Building the health clinic is underway! As we were waiting outside the hardware store for the supplies to get purchased and loaded into the truck, I put my trusty first aid kit Lara put together to use and attempted to heal Mallory's infected mosquito bite.
Some of the supplies included 100+ pound bags of concrete in which Alexis and I are carrying. It was so heavy even though it might not look like it.
Henry and I carried this tin stuff they used to roof the school on the mile footpath to the village.
About halfway to the village we found some people from the community expanding the footpath to get a brick machine to the village. This man is cutting a tree to build a bridge for the machine to get across a part of the path that wasn't big enough. It was like Bridge to Terabithia status.
Widening the footpath.
How many men does it take to get a brick machine up to a village?
14 African men and 1 American man.
They did it!!!
The next day a majority of the team (excluding me and a couple others) carried the 100 pound concrete bags up to the village. Myself and 3 others interviewed some people from the village for our upcoming project I briefly mentioned a couple posts back. When the concrete got to the village they mixed it with dirt and we had to scoop it in these yellow buckets and put it in the brick machine to make some bricks!
Just carrying some bricks.
We stored them in the school because they need a day to set before you can stack them to start building. Meanwhile, the roof of the school got finished!
Yeah, I carried one of those tin metal sheets to the village. So basically this roof would have been incomplete without my help.
When leaving the village, one of the men in charge of the project was saying goodbye to us and wanted some one on one time with Josh. Hand holding is actually quite common among African men. In America we would consider this as a sign of gayness. However, in Africa it's not a sign of gay affection rather a sign of friendship if you will.
I was seriously laughing so hard. Slowly but surely this health clinic is coming along!!
This blog made me both laugh and cry! The people and soo sweet. I love how happy they were to get the brick machine up there. And, you are amazing! Carrying all that heavy stuff!Who needs "Insanity" when you have tin roofing and 100lb cement bags! Wow, I love it! xo Mommy
ReplyDeleteOMG ~ Lar and I think EXACTLY the same (is that a surprise?) I logged on to tell you that after this trip, you will be way studlier than you would be with INSANITY! So proud of you Melty! And I LOVE how the men hold hands in the African culture. I wish American men were not so inhibited. I'm going to make Richard and Steve start holding hands! Love you!
ReplyDeleteLOL hahahaha -Lar
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