Advent calendar days 6-10

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 Advent calendar day 6

Last March we had the inside of the kitchen and dining room plastered with cement plaster. They pound the floors and put a thin layer of cement over the top of them. Today Juergen will start to tile these floors. They also put concrete plaster on the inside walls. We need money to plaster the outside of the building. We had hoped to paint the bricks. These bricks unfortunately are not of high enough quality. They will deteriorate over time if not plastered. Next time we build we need to use better bricks.
There is a saying in Africa...how do you eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time. A lesson we are learning is to not assume your builder means the same thing you mean when you agree on stuff. Our idea of finished and theirs are not the same thing. They finish...and then require more money to finish more...and more and more. It's been eating an elephant. But we have been learning. I don't think Juergen has time to 100% finish the building. He will make progress. But the outside and the porch are still going to need additional work.





Advent calendar day 7
In April they began to harvest from seeds planted in January. They harvested kale and spinach. The beans and corn and pumpkins and tomatoes all grew well! It was so exciting to see the plants growing up. Everything grows so quickly there. It's right on the equator. The light is extremely bright. The women are really good at gardening. I am super proud of them!








Advent calendar day 8 Last April things seemed very dark. I looked back at the blog. The war in Ukraine had started. Everyone in the world was rightfully concerned about the millions of people losing their homes. But every NGO in the world will also tell you that Ukraine sucked up all the oxygen in the room. It caused our funds to evaporate. I know organizations that support children. They lost hundreds of sponsorship families. I heard the story of one group having to tell over 200 parents we can no longer send their children to school. It was a hard time. We sent our women out to look at the local job market. There is a giant Chinese factory. Nantongo Sylvia looked there. The people have to work 40-plus hours a week. They must provide their own food. The conditions are not nice. And they get paid 60 USD a month. Not 60 a day...or 60 a week. That is pennies an hour. I wanted to throw up when I learned this. Rent is more. You would need the income of two people to rent one room. No hope of paying for school. April was a sobering month. Our center is a very bright spot in a very dark and desperate place. The one thing that keeps me going is God's will. It's his idea to deliver hope, opportunity, and dignity to these people. They put solar lights on the path in April. Most people in the area literally sit in darkness.



Advent calendar day 9
In May they began to build the toilets. As most of you know we are off the grid. The challenge with toilets is safety, smell, no water, and making sure they don't contaminate the water table. We opted for a pit latrine that has no concrete at the bottom. They add sawdust to soak up the urine. And worms can compost the waste. It's very deep. It should last years before they have to dig out the waste. And at that point, most of it should be very rich compost. We also used special pans to protect the seats. These have a trap on them. No one can fall into the pit. Flys can not get in to cause sickness. It reduces the smell.
They also have a shower room. It has a gray water pit that collects dirty water. If you ever had to think of doing sanitation without the convenience of being part of a grid you would understand how big this was.




Advent calendar day 10
It was the rainy season in May. I found out that our people were using mosquito nets to stay warm. They were sleeping on rags on the floor. I honestly didn't know. I was humbled. There were a lot of things that made me weep in May. The rain was heavy. It caused a mud wall to fall on some children in the area. It killed two kids. One child in the area died of starvation. And our kids were sleeping on rags and using mosquito nets as blankets. I can't control everything, but we could at least buy some mattresses and blankets. So we did. But the need to build with strong bricks and food security jumped up on my radar. It's in my thoughts. I am not going to stop considering what we can do to help change the situation in this community.
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