The day started with a breakfast of toast, peanut butter, jam, Nutella, maple syrup from Quebec (brought by us!), with sliced cucumbers as our fruit. Terry and Fred spent a chunk of the morning with the plumber (trying to get repairs done so that the Tech School washrooms work properly) and the electrician (to see why the 3 phase power is not working in the Tech School classrooms).
After some delay due to the extra time it took to deal with the Tech School problems, Katie, Zach, Anson, and Simeon the Guest House manager, went to the hut build to help with the work there. Connie stayed back to assist with the ambulance transfer to the hospital of Sarah, the first mud hut recipient, who is receiving palliative care. Once the transfer was completed, she spent the rest of her day visiting the Leper Ward and the Children’s Ward.
Fred and Terry stopped by Juma Hardware to order more materials for Tech School repairs, and then paid our huge bill by cash which was finally procured by Terry on Monday. Plans were for this to happen a week earlier but a variety of circumstances worked against this happening. Despite not being paid, Mr. Juma was gracious and trusting of us (with Fred) and allowed our tab to balloon until today when we were able to clean it up. Then they picked up a larger lorry (truck) that could handle a larger payload, put two empty plastic water tanks on it and then filled them both with water to take to the hut build to use to make the mud. Needless to say, the ride to the job site was quite interesting, especially since Terry and Fred had to ride on the back with the tanks that did not have lids on them! With the rough roads and open top tanks, both of the guys got a good soaking.
Arriving at the site, the early crew was just finishing a snack and rest break from tying the horizontal mud supports to the poles. Terry and Fred joined in and within a half hour the mudding began. Assisted by the widow who we were building the hut for, and several others including Grace Chacha from Mama Maisha, Kaeecee, the Otieno’s driver, and several others, we were able to finish the mudding by 6:15. We had hoped to do a Mt. Oboke climb to celebrate Zach’s birthday but everyone was beat, and we arrived back to the Guesthouse just in time for a quick shower and supper. Okumo Migire, the current Director of Community Development, surprised Zach with a birthday cake to share with all of us.
Closing the night out with a few games of UNO, everyone then headed to bed. It is hard to believe that there is only one more day left to try and finish up all of our projects.
After some delay due to the extra time it took to deal with the Tech School problems, Katie, Zach, Anson, and Simeon the Guest House manager, went to the hut build to help with the work there. Connie stayed back to assist with the ambulance transfer to the hospital of Sarah, the first mud hut recipient, who is receiving palliative care. Once the transfer was completed, she spent the rest of her day visiting the Leper Ward and the Children’s Ward.
Fred and Terry stopped by Juma Hardware to order more materials for Tech School repairs, and then paid our huge bill by cash which was finally procured by Terry on Monday. Plans were for this to happen a week earlier but a variety of circumstances worked against this happening. Despite not being paid, Mr. Juma was gracious and trusting of us (with Fred) and allowed our tab to balloon until today when we were able to clean it up. Then they picked up a larger lorry (truck) that could handle a larger payload, put two empty plastic water tanks on it and then filled them both with water to take to the hut build to use to make the mud. Needless to say, the ride to the job site was quite interesting, especially since Terry and Fred had to ride on the back with the tanks that did not have lids on them! With the rough roads and open top tanks, both of the guys got a good soaking.
Arriving at the site, the early crew was just finishing a snack and rest break from tying the horizontal mud supports to the poles. Terry and Fred joined in and within a half hour the mudding began. Assisted by the widow who we were building the hut for, and several others including Grace Chacha from Mama Maisha, Kaeecee, the Otieno’s driver, and several others, we were able to finish the mudding by 6:15. We had hoped to do a Mt. Oboke climb to celebrate Zach’s birthday but everyone was beat, and we arrived back to the Guesthouse just in time for a quick shower and supper. Okumo Migire, the current Director of Community Development, surprised Zach with a birthday cake to share with all of us.
Closing the night out with a few games of UNO, everyone then headed to bed. It is hard to believe that there is only one more day left to try and finish up all of our projects.