Rain cloud over Lira

Last night I had a nice little update planned, but something “very technical” happened, and I lost my work. With the wind out of my sails I went to bed. So this morning, I am going to try and recap what happened yesterday. 

We continued excavation to the property line; completing the green wall. I am calling it the green wall because that is what I indicated it as on a previous picture that I posted. Masons were tying reinforcing steel all morning, and moving it into place. As the masons moved down the wall with their steel, some of the laborers came in and started to mix concrete; pouring behind the masons. We completed the concrete from the corner at the pump house to the corner in the wetlands, so today, the masons can begin doing some actual mason work. Now that we are to this point, visibly, the work will progress much faster. 

The old gate that once stood at the entrance was demolished, and Henry is going to repair it. We will place it at the back of the wetlands as a way for the Mums, and the children to go out into the other areas of the wetland to garden. 

We had a massive rain storm yesterday as well. Just as workers started to get on their bikes to leave, God pushed the “Rain cloud over Lira” button, and the massive dark cloud pushed out the sun. I don’t usually look at the clouds when I am home and think anything other than, “...hmmm, more rain.” but here my feeling was a little different. It was almost excitement, but mostly concern for all the loose dirt around the place. God did flash a tiny little rainbow, to remind me that He isn’t going to flood the earth. I ended up doing damage control inside my house as water was coming in under the metal roof panels. I learned how to mop the way they do, and even took the broom and was sweeping water out the front door. The roofs are terrible in a downpour.

Every night, when I ask the kids how they are doing, so many of them tell me they are not good. They have pain in their stomach, and in their head. 80% of the time the kids tell me that they have headaches, but I never see anyone drinking water. I think there is a severe lack of children drinking water. When they do drink water, they drink from the city water tap, because the filtered water from the tank is used without concern for everything, bathing, cleaning floors, cooking, even washing clothes. all of which could come from the tap. The tank provides good water pressure, and the city water tap pressure is pathetic. Instead of waiting in line for the slow city water, many will just go to the tank and fill their bucket, basin, or jerry-can in a very small fraction of the time that it takes to do it with the city water tap. Back to the headaches; I think the medicine that gives them a temporary relief of the pain is nice, but I am afraid that they will drink even less water than they did before. Now that there is this little pill they can take that removes the headache, why drink more water? They either do not understand, or simply ignore what I tell them.

During the day there are many things I could complain about, for example the workers laziness. I see 75% of them sitting every time I walk around a corner. I see them sitting, watching while 1 man performs a 2 or 3 man job. It severely annoys me. However, they are making at most $4.50 per day, and it is hot, and none of them have water bottles. At the end of the day, I can lay in my bed and feel good about what was accomplished. And know that I got a really good deal for the labor. Compare the 10 something dollars per hour minimum wage at home (in oregon) with the maybe .60 per hour here. We pay more for everything, but here, they can work an entire day, and not have enough to pay for 1 meal at a restaurant. We can pay for 1 restaurant meal every hour, or every two hours at home.