Drying out in LIchinga.

Things here in Lichinga are very good. We are starting to see signs that the rainy season is almost over. We went for two weeks without rain but got a pretty good down pour Saturday. Normally by the time we are into April we don't see much more rain. It is amazing to see how much everything can grow in a few short months with rain. The grass all around our property is over six feet tall and will grow another foot or so before it is finished. Everything will remain green now for another month and a half before it starts showing sign of lack of rain as we enter the dry season which will go till October or November. Six to seven months with zero rain, it gets dry alright.

A typical Portuguese fried chicken meal, at a local restaurant.

The week before last I made a couple of beds. This one is for Howard you may remember me talking about him. In February of last year my friend Rudy and I helped a few others put a new grass roof on his house. He is a quadriplegic, so we try to help him out in different ways that we can. His old bed was made from bamboo and is was quite broken and his "mattress" was sacks sewn together and filled with grass. The grass was rotting and the rats were taking up residents in it.

Many of the village children crowded at Howard's "gate" to watch us put his bed together and put it into his house.

Peering through the gate.

His new bed, now with a foam mattress and all made and ready to be slept in.

We have been blessed with some more finances to continue with the school construction. All the walls are up to the tops of the windows and doors and all the steel reinforcement bars for the concrete beam are placed on top of the wall.

I am so blessed to have James to work with. He and I make a great team.

The forms all ready to pour the concrete ring beam.

Pouring the ring beam.