A Little Change in Plans

In my last post I was talking about going ahead on the school and hoping to be well on the way with it by now. Unfortunately our rainy season has been quite dry up until the last few days. That meant that we didn't have any extra water for me to be able to use for mixing concrete for the school. I had to kind of set that aside for a while.

I have been helping Kevin lay some blocks for his house. He and Katherine are going back to the states they are leaving middle of this month for a few months and they want to have the blocks all done before they leave so I am trying to help them when I can with that.

They also want to get the Admin building finished before I go on to the school. It needs a little work on the roof and windows and doors installed and some work in the bathroom.

A couple of days this past week I helped with some kid sitting for several SIM missionary families who were in town for a conference. There we about 12 children ranging in ages 3 to 17. I had a lot of fun with them, playing hide and seek, cops and robbers, doing crafts and eating snacks. Here are few pictures of the kids.

Making Bird Houses and colouring them.

Painting Bird Houses.

Some were more into computer games then making Bird Houses:)

This past week I went out for a walk around our property. It is such a beautiful time of year right now as the rains are coming and everything is turning green after having been brown for several months. The insects all come alive and the frog chirrup all night. It is amazing how God has made the different seasons. Also all the brilliant coloured flowers are beginning to bloom. This is a little taste of what it is starting to look like here. Sorry I don't have names for any of the flowers or insects.

Construction Has Started on the School

The school is the next project on the list to be built. Last Monday I got it stacked out and level lines all strung ready to start digging the foundation, as you can see below. This school will have two classrooms, a storage room and an office.

The school is in the shape of an "L" and it is roughly 70' by 36'.

I started the digging last Tuesday by myself and I nearly died. I am so thankful that there have been three other guys that have helped for varying amounts of time.

James and I taking a break. James has put in the most time digging out of all of us.

Just over 250' of trench in total and we finished it this past Monday morning.

Sergio(In the trench) and James what a blessing they have been.

This will give you an idea of what the school will look like when it is finished. The two classrooms will be on the right, the storage room in the corner and the office on the left.

Now the digging is all finished and we are ready to start pouring the concrete footings. We have all the sand and we are just waiting on the gravel. The goal is to have the footings all poured by Christmas and start laying the block foundation after Christmas.

I have been doing a few small projects lately as well. I have spent sometime working on the engine of Peter Wilcox's Honda motorbike. We have had to take the engine out a couple of times and take it apart. It has been a good learning experience for me. I have also made three mirrors.

This one is in the girls bathroom in the orphanage.

This one is for the Tia's(Aunties)

The third one was Rachel and Melissa's idea to make one for Annelisa's birthday which was last month. It was a belated Birthday gift, she just got it today. Rachel did some excellent painting on the frame and put on Annelisa's favourite verse Deut 33:27.

Last Wednesday or Thursday we had a big wind and rain storm come through and it blew down the grass building, the church met in, in the village of Assumane. You can see a building in the background which is partially completed. That will be the new building for the church to meet in. There is now a little more urgency to get it finished.

This past Sunday we met in the partially finished building. It rained on us a little and then the sun scorched us while we were there for three hours. It will be nice once there is a roof on the building but until then we won't let that stop us from meeting to Worship the Lord. As you can see there aren't many people there we think that many people thought we wouldn't be meeting because the old building blew down.

The Playground is Finished

Here are the final pictures of the playground. It has been so much fun to build but it is nice to have it finished and be able to move onto other projects. Lord willing the school will be the next project I start.

Who says a Seesaw is for two people??

The Giant Swing, I didn't realize how much harder it would be to get swinging with these long chains, it is a real work out getting going, but it nice once you get up there.

I needed some smaller rocks for making the concrete floor for the play house since we only had big rocks you know what I got to do:)

I think I might try to get a job crushing rocks this is so fun.LOL Maybe if I could actually do it this fast. This is how all gravel is made here in Mozambique, crushed by hand. Now I know why they charge so much for it. I will never take three quarter crushed gravel for granted again.

The Play House. It makes a nice shady place for taking a Siesta in the middle of the day. They wanted it very open, so that someone can always see what is going on in there.

The final thing to finish the playground. The Tire swing has been a big hit, but the kids have been finding that they get feeling sick quickly if they spine for too long.

A walk through the Playground.

Playground Pictures

Here is visual update on the progress of the playground.

The structure on the right will be the world's largest swing set. Maybe not quite the largest, but it's big anyways.

Fire pole and a bit of a climbing wall.

It has been a lot of fun to make and it is being enjoyed each and everyday by all the children here. This coming week I hope to get a small playhouse and a tire swing built which will pretty much finish the playground off.

One evening I was reading in my house and I heard something fall on top of my guitar case and I went to see what it was and this not so small grasshopper was sitting there. He/she is almost five inches from its front leg to its back leg. I just never know who will come to join me for the night. LOL