Wednesday May 27, 2009Work was not scheduled to continue until Thursday but once I awoke I got a call at 6:15am stating that the workers were free today to continue. I got dressed and hurried out, expecting to see the site in place for the opening ceremony where a small “groundbreaking” will occur. In that palm wine will be shared and spilled on the ground, a prayer blessing the site and the foundation will be laid.
We waited around for an hour waiting for all the “responsables” to arrive. Since the original date was Thursday and the rest of the people had not yet arrived we decided to put our attention on other necessities. We also decided to hold the opening ceremony to tomorrow as originally planned, this way all the materials would be in place to quickly lay the foundation. The masons found that they needed to attend to work elsewhere and asked to be excused. Since the workers are there contributing for the participation of the community, it is best to respect their work schedule with paid clients.
The use of a car in Africa..its more about the goods than passengers
We were able to find some ready-made bricks to assist in the construction and therefore continued to gather the materials. Again, since I am in charge of reporting on the project and am available to assist in any way possible, I got down to the nitty gritty again. The bricks were located 1K from the site so we had to rent a car to load and unload the bricks into. There was no other way since the weight of bricks on a wooden pushcart in mountainous terrain would be a danger to anyone near. So after 5 trips and strength training that gave me the dirtiest hands I have had here yet, all of the materials were now in place. Now it’s time to get some rest for the work continues at 6am sharp tomorrow.
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