The morning was going great. Three slabs done and priming up for the fourth. Then started the 3:00 PM rain at 1:30 which shut down cement mixing. Turns out it wouldn't have mattered. We didn't have enough bags of cement to make all the batches for the final pour we wanted to do. We had 100 bags expected but it had not arrived. Long story short (can you tell the mud road is coming into play again?) at about 5:00 the truck was stuck halfway down the road. So...15 or so of us walked out with shovels and such and worked for an hour on getting the truck out. Turns out, he only had 20 of our bags on board. The balance of his load was for another customer.
Well, there may have been some math working against us. Like a few tons of cement and truck. Some guys in bare feet and others only in sandals (it's all they have - or don't have). If you think that lacked traction, the tires on the truck are bald! At one point we lightened the load by taking our 20 bags off. Of coarse that means walking them on your backs down the mud road that you can hardly walk on without slipping. Did I mention that each bag weighed 110 lbs!
Here's where this is left for now~ the driver may be sleeping in the truck tonight until he reaches his company for further assistance (I gave him two granola bars as we parted at dusk). Even with the 20 bags we rescued, it may not be enough to do all the remaining work we intended for today and Saturday. This would be very disappointing. Adam is going to look into having some areas of the road rebuilt before suppliers all refuse to deliver to the site. The road just can't be driven on when it rains every day (and hard).
But there is some good news. Building one is totally cleaned out of all construction materials and only needs to be swept. Yep. That's it assuming interior doors and window glass will follow soon. These are not critical to getting the kids moved in out of the mud tool shed. Frankly, with no glass in the windows we get better air circulation curing the concrete.
AND, you should have heard the noise of the kids today in building two. Imagine the sound at an indoor pool with 100 kids yelling about with the echos. That is what it sounded like when 6-8 kids were cleaning floors at the other end of the building this morning. Talk about excitement and joy filling the building.
In our trivia thoughts for the day it is interesting to note that 74% of households in Kenya have radios and 63% have cell phones. Only 28 percent have TVs. Now the big note -- 6 million Kenyans are young enough to require diapers. Now there's a fact.
A closing thought in the rain~~~I normally take about 15 minutes to eat a sandwich each day as my lunch break. Today I took a full hour because the downpour halted our production. As I sat on the floor I looked up in amazement at all that was before me. Walls straight and true nicely plastered resting upon footers now missing the eye's detection. The sturdy steel roof and trussing amplifying the rain pelting the panels and of course there's the flat, level and smooth floors beneath me. Then the thought ~ only 10 weeks ago I would have been sitting in an open field surounded by corn fields. By the grace of God, is it not a wonder what He has had us develop before our eyes and with our hands? Is it not wonderful to be an answer to a prayer?
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