Post from the team

Week 2 began with a church service at the building site.  It was an outdoor service as the old church building is temporarily being used as a storeroom for cement and building supplies.  It was Youth Sunday and the young people led the service.  With the women’s dancing and singing, I couldn’t help but marvel  at the joy they exuded considering the hardships they face in day to day living.  After the service, Dave and Leah treated us to a trip to the beach, about 20 miles from Macia.

Construction continues with the floor crews pouring and screeting two 10 by 10 ft. squares a day.  Eighteen squares are now done with about 25 more to go.  All the windows and door frames are in and the masons have all the block work done up  to the top of the windows.  Several lentils and part of the ring beam have already been poured. Setting up the heavy metal forms is proving to be slow and a bit difficult but the beams have come out looking good.  Thurs. afternoon, the truck from Maputo bringing the roofing sheets and truss parts ran into trouble.  It got stuck in the sand a quarter mile from the work site.  A tractor was not successful in pulling it out but was able to find a trailer and with the help of a dozen school boys, was able to get the materials transferred to the site.  The 30 ft. metal roofing sheets were too long for the trailer and had to be carried on the heads of women.  It took 3 women to carry each sheet and there were 92 of them.  With about 18 women, you don’t have to do the math to realize they had to work late into the night to get all the sheets to the site.  I believe I already mentioned hardships in this blog, just add one more. 

We had a cool spell for a while with temperature dipping to 39 one night.  Many on the team had associated Africa with heat, not cold.  But by 10 am. Most of us were down to shirt sleeves.  We do have nice showers with good hot water though.  I had originally planned on changing my clothes every two days but with the accumulation of cement dust, sweat, and sun block, I was afraid I would turn into a cement statue.  At the end of 2 weeks it was time to bid farewell to 4 team members.  Katie, Danielle, and Heather had became quite proficient in turning out floor slabs.  Linda’s knowledge of Portuguese made a hit with the women and helped with translation.  They worked very hard and are already missed. 

Bob Kraft