Fixing Clothes Lines

I woke up today feeling more excited than the last few days. My dreams have been intense since the day I got here. If I dream about something good, then I usually wake up in a good mood. This is surprising because last night I was in a bad mood going to sleep. As I was trying to sleep, the church, with no thought of the neighbors, had its speakers up all the way again. They were rehearsing, or practicing or something. I was hearing the same thing, over... and over... and over; it was terrible. I saw one of the kids that work at the church; he came to the orphanage today. I asked him if they were practicing last night or something, and he said no, they were in prayer. “We are now fasting”, he said. I asked him why they are fasting, and he told me that they are about to begin a program so they are fasting for the program. All this prayer and fasting equals really loud, repetitive music, all night. I am so excited to lay in my bed and listen to it tonight. 

I show an illustration of this all the time, I know.
I am just proud of my work, that is all. 

Henry always comes in with a smile on his face in the mornings. Today, he told me that he was in prayer until very late last night, and he gave a bag of cement to God as an offering to begin the construction of the church. When he told me this, I wondered, “Did he take one of our bags and give it to his church?” Later I went up to him and said, “Henry, so the bag of cement that you gave to God. Did you go and buy it with your own money?” 

“Yes! You know, when you give to God he takes care of you. That is why I always want to give to God, because every day he takes care of me.” I was accusing him in my head before I even spoke to him. I felt bad, but I had to know the truth. He has impressed me as I have been working with him. He does many things that make sense to Americans, and he takes care of tools that you give him. 

One of the girls came out of her house today, talking to someone, or something. I looked at her in a very curious way and said, “Are you talking to me?” She looked at me, smiled, laughed, and said, “No, it is this!” She held up a little information booklet that read “Watchtower”. I looked at the book and back at her, and I said, “Do you know what you are reading?” She said that she was reading good material, and then I told her all about Jehova’s Whitness. There is a little Jehova’s Whitness church just down the road that has been giving the children pamphlets to read and because it seems to be very Christian in character, they think it is good. I began to tell them about demons masquerading as angels, and how even the devil himself was once an angel. Many will call God’s name saying, “Lord, Lord!” and he will tell them he never knew them. I then told them to be careful what they read, and ALWAYS refer back to scripture. Mum Christine, was looking at me like she was looking at a ghost, as she took the pamphlet and tore it to sheds. 

One end of clothes line with it's killer angle. 

I strung up one wire for my clothes line poles and gave it a little tug. I think I was a little aggressive on my distance between the poles. I had made 4 poles originally, and only installed 2 of them, so I placed the other two in between the two outer poles making space for 3 sections; each 21 feet apart. I dug two more holes, getting more blisters on my hands. I dig all the way to the rock, and only seem to get about 1 or 1.5 feet down before I hit it, so I have to get creative the way I reinforce the posts. Tomorrow I will string some more wire, but I may have to go in to town, since the wire that I purchased  seemed to disappear when all the workers came asking for tie wire. They told me that they only needed a little, so I replied by telling them to bring back to me what you do not use. Of course, I never got anything back. 

I worked on my little retaining wall project today as well. Now I can go collect all kinds of dirt and dump it between House 3 and the wall. It will create a nice shaded, level, comfortable place to be in the evenings. It will also catch rain water with the grass that I am going to plant there. I noticed today that someone had decided to poop right there where we were working last night. I really hope at some point they start to use the bathrooms. I can see the burden in running all the way to the bathrooms in the middle of the night, but seriously. Children; please poop in the toilette, and not where everyone has to walk every day. 

The rain has come back tonight. I think the rainy season is now here. The clouds usually roll in in the afternoon, and the rain comes at dusk. I think it will be nicer for me, but the children all complain about being too cold. I have to chuckle when I see them all bundled up in their coats. I still have a small desire to take my shirt off. When it rains, I think the temperature here is perfect. 

You can see the water filling the hole. 

The corner of the wall that was started in the wetlands was built upon today. The workers dug a trench that connected the base of the wall to the giant hole that I dug yesterday, so the water that is between the “Hard Core” is flowing out the lowest point. We have started to get our water from here to wet the bricks and mortar. Walter and Bonny, two of the boys at the orphanage here have been on the crew for the last 3 or 4 weeks, so I purchased trowels for them and set them up as apprentices. I think it will do them good to have some experience with bricks. Walter seems to be picking it up very fast; Henry is excited to use him on future projects. “He will listen to you when you speak, and learns very easily. I like that kind of person to work for me”, he said. 

I have made the rounds around the orphanage; lock the chicken coop, turn off the pump, lock the pump house, lock the Rhino, and lock the main gate. Now all that remains is to go to sleep.