Today we were able to work on the school. Brick laying, hauling bricks, mixed a lot cement. This mixture of cement consisted of sand, cement powder, quartz rock, and maji (water) which was super tough to mix. Jerry and Marty were the mixers and Michael was the cement truck driver. Pete was our mortor master, mixing and delivering! It was a super-hot day and by lunch time we cooled in the rain! “We felt the rain down in Africa” what Michael thinks Toto sang!! It was too cold for some of the locals but very nice for us!
Later in the afternoon we were able to visit a village of 220 near the work site. Which is quite large, most can be as small as 15 people. Usually consisting of families. We watched a lady preparing her kitchen for the rainy season. Martha Stewart says that if you mix dirt and water it makes a nifty homemade plaster to protect your kitchen. They welcomed us in the traditional way by allowing the women to sit on a mat and the men were offered stools. We talked and asked questions back and forth to learn about each other’s lifestyles. It was not only interesting to learn about their ways of life but also to hear their questions about ours.
After all was said and done we were quite exhausted when we got back to the compound, especially because our bus wasn’t working in the morning so we had to use a much smaller one to get us to and from the school. This ride would typically take and hour but it took almost 2, the washboard didn’t help either! I think we were all in bed by 9pm!
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