Week 3 look back

Showing how to assemble the trusses

 

This week we have had less American volunteers, but our Mozambique brothers and sisters have been very helpful this week. There have even been days where we had more people than we had work for.

The supplies for the trusses

Sand delivered everyday 

A lady helping out on her way to a woman's meeting

Loading tools back into to "tool box"

The ladies singing at church

At the market buying produce

Trusses getting ready to go up

John and Penny pouring the ring-beams

The wonderful work crew

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

Progress from week 2

John pouring a column

 Another week has passed and the progress is coming along great. The first group of people have left this week and more will be coming in a few weeks. This week has been filled with typical anecdotes, our supply truck broke down 1/2 a mile away from the site (something similar happened on the 2001 project).

Please pray for us this week as we are down in numbers.

The church ladies carrying dirt to the massa pit

Moving the massa to the site.

Leah and her traveling office for SIL

 A lot of progress has been made this week, everything from columns to doors. It was wonderful to worship with the church members today.

The ladies heading to church today

Worshiping outside with the community

Penny with the women of the church

The supply truck that broke down

The progress from the outside of the church.

The women pouring the floors

Heather learning how to level off the floor

Leah making cradles for the steel columns and ring beams

The door frames going in

Getting the columns to set

The girls and Dave buildings walls.

School children that we pass every day.

Praise God for Mozambican and American church volunteers

The week in photographic retrospect

A picture taken on the first day of the project.

As the first week comes to a close on the Macia project it is good to take a look back and see the progress that has been made.















This week has been filled with building the pillars,

Leah working on the pillars

cutting rods, and working on the floors. 

No Project would be complete without a little Massa (cement) to hold the walls together

Heather, Ed, and Danielle pouring the floors

Katie, Danielle, and Ed finishing the floors

Putting in the first door frame.

Linda Millar from Charlotte

 The project has been coming along faster and better than expected. One week done with no major problems. Pray for God's continued blessing for the project.

Four day

We are now on day four of the project.  The walls are going up and the first square of the floor is being  done as I write this.  We are still working out how we are get on the Internet and so far it is slow so it may be awhile before we work out how to send pictures. We arrive at the church building at 7:30 each morning and work until 5:00 pm.  Then we head back to camp, cook, shower, eat and then head to bed.  When we arrive in the morning he local church members who are working with us are here to welcome us, we start with some singing and prayer and then get to work.  On the average we have 30 to 50 people a day who show up to work. Dave had to go to Maputo yesterday, when he arrived at the site this morning he was happy to see how much work we were able to do without him.  However, we are all happy that Dave is back on the job today.

Time for me to get back to work with everyone else.  We will post more later.  Leah

The journy has just begun

Hello from Mozambique! This is the 3rd day we have been working on the project and we have already gotten so much done! We've gotten the columns partially done and some of the walls are already a few levels high. The frames for the floors are being laid out so we can start pouring in the next day or two. We have many people from the church helping daily and they have a scheduled rotation for volunteers with a few people who come every day. Some of the girls have spent a lot of time cutting wire of all different sizes using hack saws and a bolt cutter. The saws got exhausting so the bolt cutter was a very exciting addition! The rods were so thick they had to throw their body weight to get it to cut.

Every day we start out with the locals singing their worship songs. It's absolutely beautiful! We have a prayer and a meeting and then get to work. It's chilly in the mornings but it warms up in the afternoon. It's very pleasant. Not too hot, not to cold. When the wind picks up it blows the sand around so we all have to block our eyes from becoming sand paper.

For lunch we have been eating sandwiches or leftovers from the previous dinner and for supper Leah cooks excellent meals of stir fry or stew or whatever else she comes up with. There are always helpers ready to cut and chop. We lucked out and have electricity from 6-10 pm and hot showers as long as there is a fire heating up the tank. What a luxury! The roosters crowing all night is definitely not a luxury though. Some people were lucky enough to have brought ear plugs and don't have to listen to them all night. There are all sorts of animals running around the camp making things much more fun! They are making good replacement pets for those of us who are missing our own furry babies! We have 4 dogs, a bunch of white geese, chickens and chicks of all ages and sizes and those darn roosters!

Overall we are having a really great time and are so excited to be part of something much bigger than ourselves!

Visit to Macia church July 6, 2012

Digging the dirt for the foundation

Dave went to Maputo this week to continue lining up things for the Macia Church project.  He ordered building materials for the church. While he was there he also visited the Church to encourage them as they prepare for our arrival in a few weeks. The Church members have been preparing the foundation so that it will be ready for us to build the walls and start pouring floors when we arrive the week of July 30.

The ladies carrying the dirt for the foundation

Leveling the floor

The men  who have helped  make this possible Pastor Pickett, Pastor Vilanculos and Pastor Salimo