The School Moves Along

I figured it was time to show that we are still working on the school. This week we made some good progress since we finished pouring the ring beam last week.

My first ever attempt at making trusses. By Tuesday afternoon James and I had the three of them up and they seem like they just might work. lol

It was nice to see that all the peaks lined up. Hopefully will make for a nice straight roof line in the end.

The two smaller trusses have a 7.6 meter span and the one across the corners is almost 11 meters. We built them on top of the wall rather then trying to lift them up already made. That made it possible for the two of us to be able to do it by ourselves.

The wood is black because we have painted it with used engine oil to protect it from Termites.

I thought I should get one picture in here to make it look like I am doing some work on the school and that I am not just the photographer. I am sure some of you were wondering:)

A couple gables up to match the roof line of the trusses.

There will be a veranda all the way across the front of the school. The roof won't stick out as far as the truss tails but I just left them long and will cut them all in the end to have about a 50cm over hang.

We have a very nice view to enjoy as well as we are up work on the roof.

We have laid 2,757 blocks and we only have 80 more to go. Yippe We have one more course of blocks to lay across this end wall and across the back wall.

In one week we went from looking like this minus the truss.

To looking like this. Thank You Lord.

I will be switching hats for the next week or two from a mason to a carpenter. Since making part of the kitchen in the Admin building about a year and a half ago I have been trying to find wood to make the cupboard doors. This week I finally have some and Praise the Lord it is already quite dry. It is hard to find good wood and nearly impossible to find dry wood ready to use. Thankfully all things are possible with God.

This is the kitchen I will be finishing Lord willing in the next two weeks.

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.