Still, the thieves come.

Last night I heard some movement outside my window. There was what sounded like a gate latch, and sliding metal across the ground. The old gate has been leaning against the wall right across from my window since we removed it. I thought as I listened, perhaps a child is trying to go out of the main gate, but the sound was too strong. Even if it were, the child would be doing this against the rules. I pulled the mosquito net back, snuck to the window, pulled the curtain, and looked out the open window to see a very dark figure sticking up over the wall, looking down the road. He was using the gate as a ladder to watch for something or someone. As I looked at him and waited for him to move, I thought to myself, “he’s wanting to steal the gate.” Then I spoke to him in a tone that said I was accusing him of something and said, “Hey!” They boy moved in the darkness, and turned to see my face looking at him through the window. There was a pause as he processed what was happening before he very quickly fumbled his way down the gate and ran towards the back of the orphanage where the wall is unfinished. I thought to myself as I stood in the dark, “that had to be a thief.” Still feeling tired, I got back into my bed. It is a good thing that the gate is so close to my window, but still; I should have gone out to see if the thief had stolen anything. This morning as I went to see what was there, the gates remained, but the poles that set the hinges were gone. The clanking that I heard was the boy tossing the poles over the wall and looking for the truck that was coming to fetch the gate. Not only are orphanages in Uganda required by law to have a wall, but they are also required to have an armed guard. To think that that boy risked being shot to steal a piece of damaged metal...

Rita eating her beans and posho

It makes me happy to see our new chickens around. As I mentioned before, Dr. Peter had been keeping some of them until it was safe to bring them to the orphanage. There were 3 hens, and 3 chicks. Dr. Peter had told me there were more, but they had been killed and eaten by animals in the area. it makes me happy to see them scavenging around the orphanage showing their chicks where to find food. 

We ran very low on materials today, so this spurred on another big purchase. I took measurements of the portion of the wall that is still unfinished, and based on previous consumptions of brick, estimated the cost. I ended up handing Felix and envelope of 3.9 million shillings. We are getting 10 loads of brick, 1 rock, 5 sand, and 40 bags of cement. The 10 trips of brick should bring us very close to the end, and the cement about half. We have yet to purchase the razor wire for the top of the wall. Trucks were delivering brick all day, there were six in all, so 4 are remaining of brick. I did not see any sand or aggregate. 

The foundation extending
down to the wetlands. 

Henry brought the poles for putting up the clothes lines. I spent some time digging post holes; with no post hole digger, there is a lot of bending down and scooping out dirt with my hand. The dirt is ridiculously compact here. I fought for every inch. After digging the holes, I placed two of the poles and set them so that they lean back at an extreme angle rather than at a 90 degree angle, this way the tension in the lines will not put as much strain on the poles causing them to bend.. They are not the thickest of gauge. Also, I went back and checked the concrete maybe 4 hours after I poured it and shoved my thumb in up to the knuckle; it was probably the worst batch I have seen yet. Concrete is not supposed to be brown. 

I went down to where all the builders were and spoke to Henry. He was commenting on how the moisture in the ground is too great, and they will have to place another moisture barrier in the wall. I think that is fine, although water just makes cement stronger. If this were a house, then I would be a little more concerned because of mold. 

The wetlands corner as of 3/17

Henry and I have been talking about digging a big hole outside the wall so that we can use the ground water for construction rather than the tank water that is to be used for drinking. Today many of the children were home, which surprised me, and were complaining about not having any water. I did what I could to get them drinking water, but as soon as there is water in the tank, the construction workers suck it up and use it for concrete and mortar. The system works well when the children are at school. Turns out they were chased away from school by the teachers because their school fees were unpaid. I went and complained to Tabitha about this, because many of us in the US pay for their school fees. Seeing them annoyed me very much. So tomorrow I will be talking to Betty to see what the issue is. Back to the Water; I took the opportunity to start digging my hole. I worked digging for nearly an hour before I my head was below ground level, but i dug into so much clay and sand, that the water was not seeping in. Tomorrow we will extend the walls so the ground water that is flowing under the wall into  our hole. 

Lazy Sunday

When we came to build up the wall, the old fence that was here was removed, and slowly, the posts were dug up by the children and chopped into pieces to use as firewood. The barbed wire was removed and placed in a pile that is impossible to untangle. I have been trying to place it into concrete pours so that it might add a little strength, yet the pile remains. This barbed wire was actually used as clothes line before we removed it, so now that it is gone, the mums and children have been laying out their clothes in the grass to dry. Realizing this, I purchased some thick gauge tie wire and tied it between the poles on the houses to give them a place to hang their clothes. Though this is a nice thing for them, it is still not adequate for all the clothing that they wash on the weekend. I spoke to Henry and asked him for a quote to make me some posts that would support a series of clothes lines. As usual, he brought me the quote and it was way more than I was expecting. The word “Scrap” does not translate, unfortunately. I talked him out of the expensive material, and settled on a price that I could justify. They will come tomorrow so that will be a nice project for me. 

I decided to re-draw the model that I had previously drawn to illustrate what is happening here. The model that I drew before was completely from memory, so being here I can actually go and measure to get things close. 

Today was a day of rest for me. I felt as if it were a burden for my neck to support my head. I justified sleeping in to 7:30, but it really is impossible to go much past that. There are mums that come into the store and make noise, and children that start clanking on things near my window. around 9:00 I made a decision that I would try to take a nap, so I went and laid down in my room. By 9:00 the sun is still on the other side of the house, so the room remains somewhat cool, despite the neck sweat that comes almost immediately when I lay down. I had a thought to take my shirt off, and from that moment on, it was all I could think about, so removing my shirt, I fell back asleep. I did not sleep long; perhaps 40 minutes. Enough so that the children realize that I am not functioning and start to disappear. The problem is that I left all the doors open, so it tells people outside that I am here, and I get people showing up calling my name. Allan, a worker that Henry removed, seems to come every few days and just talk what sounds like beating around the bush in my ear to get things. He wanted me to give him a contract for work today. I have told him several times that he needs to talk to Henry if he wants to work here, but so far he has not paid attention to that. 

After I was awake, one of the girls from Mum Lydia’s house came to get me, the papaya that Henry purchased as a gift for me the other day was needing to be eaten. I swear it was the largest one I have seen yet. It was so ready to be eaten that it was borderline rotten. I had some, and so did the rest of that house. 

Dr Peter came tonight and took me to his house, where he was keeping chickens. 3 hens and 2 chicks, which belonged to the orphanage. He wanted to keep them while it was dangerous for them to be at the orphanage, and now that the wall is up, his home has become the more dangerous place to keep the chickens. Ogang Kenneth, Dr. Douglas’s sponsored boy rode with us to his house to pick up the chickens. On our way we discussed the importance of keeping a schedule, and the reasons why Uganda is so poor is because there is no one who knows how to keep time. 

Waist-high wall

I feel like a housewife in a house with no one in it, but needs to be cleaned every day. Every time the sun touches something, it shows the layer of dust that has accumulated since the previous day. I am torn between amazement, frustration, and intrigue as I try to figure out a way to cut down the volume that settles. It gets into everything. 

There have been a few items on my internal list, which I never seem to write down, that my little team decided would be good ideas. I got the chalk board paint out and put a nice stripe above all the doors of the homes that I can now go back after it cures, and write the names of the homes. We were thinking besides the numbers, this would be helpful for teams that come to know which house is which. I took the opportunity to create a new black board inside the Store House as well. I made one a few weeks ago when Bruce, Julie, and Susan were here, but I ran out of room fast...  so now I have a newer; bigger one. I had Aceng Sharon help me paint just a little bit. 

The pump is always on my mind. Just before Bruce and Julie left, they stopped by the store in Kampala that sells replacement filters and sent them up on the bus. Mum Tabitha went to the bus station today and picked them up. So very soon, the children and mums will have delicious and clean drinking water. I will wait until a few days before I leave so that I can shock the system one more time before I install them. I don't see a reason to install them now since we are using most of the water for construction. It is still suitable for drinking, but the city tap simply does not have the flow to keep up with the rate at which our mortar and concrete consumes it. I decided to also adjust the spigot on the water tower to be slightly more tamper-proof. We will see how long it lasts. 

I could have sworn that i was bitten my some insect that carries a sleeping sickness. Just after lunch I started to doze... big time. I was trying my hardest to keep working; painting, collecting garbage, whatever, but i could not resist. A few of the kids that were with me finally told me that I needed to lay down and take a nap. I went back into my room, laid down, and woke up probably 10 minutes later to sweat dripping down my neck. I then came in the main room and laid down on the slightly cooler, much harder concrete floor and closed my eyes with no success. There were children outside that started swinging wire at the metal posts of the house, and on the concrete floor. 

A few kids showed me some more wounds today. It is funny to me how when one comes, there are 5 or 6 that start to crowd; all with wounds. It almost seems like they are back behind some house cutting themselves, or deliberately falling just so they can have a trip to the “Wound cleaning guy”. I have to remember, that there are many of them, and they play rough in a world that is not as child-safe as the USA. 

Today is the end of our work week. There were a few different circumstances that muddied the water this time when we went to pay them. The problem was that there was a miscommunication between Henry and I. I thought he had let some workers go because they were performing poorly, or because they came too late.. turns out they just wanted to be paid in advance. so what I counted as a day’s wage was not that at all. Also, Henry had labeled some of the workers as helpers, and not masons, which always makes for a nice surprise. I have become more involved in paying the workers than I was before. I actually calculate their wages now, which used to be done by the foreman only. We are much more of a team. Once we settled all the issues, I sat in the House making corrections to my books for the next 15 minutes then it was off to dinner at Mum Lydia’s house next door. We payed over 1 million shillings in wages this week, which is a little high.  

The workers built up the wall that is down in the corner of the pump house. This is the corner of the property that is opposite the octagonal building on the map. They also worked on the footings for the green wall that comes in to the front porch of Home 9. 

I am going to bed early. 

New Pull String

Mum Lydia came into the house this morning as I was trying to remember what happened yesterday. She was holding a string in her hand with a puzzling look on her face. It was the pull string of the light that is in her room. The fixture broke as she was pulling to turn off the light. I was trying to think of how to fix it.. but whatever I did, I was going to have to go to the store to buy some new parts. I have been meaning to head into town with George for some errands. I had made a list the other day, and now was adding to it, which is a good thing; rather than having already gone, and having to make another trip. 

George showed up at the gate to the orphanage and parked under the shade of the palm tree outside the gate. He called my cell phone and told me that he was here, and was ready to go when I was available. I had a few things that I was doing, so after finishing, I ran up to where he was parked and found the van empty. He had walked over to the neighbor’s house, who had lost her boyfriend/husband but not married, to complications with Malaria a few weeks ago. I took the opportunity to jump in, turn it on, and drive it over to her house so we could head into town. As I drove up to the house, he met me in outside and shouted an interesting acronym “DMC”. I jumped out and got into the passenger’s side, and when he got in, I looked at him and asked, “DMC?” He said, “Yerrrrs Dearrr, Dangerous Mechanical Condition. Vehicles in Uganda are all DMC.” I had to laugh.. I wish you could hear his accent. We went to the bank to get small bills with which to pay wages, to the hardware store, and to the Electrical store to replace Mum Lydia’s broken fixture. 

While I was at the orphanage today, I was down assisting the masons start to build the wall in the wetlands. I stand on the outside of the wall and clean up the mortar as they lay their bricks. One thing that they do, is they align all of the bricks on one side of the wall so that it is smooth and plumb. In doing this, the other side ends up being jagged and un-smooth, because all of the bricks are different lengths. They don't bother too much with that side of the wall, and leave considerable gaps of mortar missing. The bricks are typically unsupported, making a weaker, and more unsightly wall. I stand there with my trowel, and fling mortar into the voids and make the transitions from brick to brick smooth. It makes me feel a lot better about the strength of the wall, and it looks better. 

My water was heating up all day. After work is typically when I like to bathe; especially when it is a cool afternoon. This way I dont sweat before I go to bed. I got all that I needed to bathe, and walked down to the bathroom when my phone rang. It was Urs Klauser from the orphanage across the wetlands, “God Helps Uganda”. I had forgot about accepting an invitation to eat at their house for dinner, and I was a half hour late. As quickly as I could, I ran back to the house, put my things inside, and jumped on the bike and rode to his house. I sat down to a nice dinner of Pizza and salad. Then frozen banana ice cream with Chocolate and coffee... We spoke about many things, he told me that he would love to have someone like me that could stay at the orphanage and monitor construction of his wall. I think it would be very fun if I could help him, and it would give me friends in switzerland, but then.. I have already made friends with people in switzerland. They are a very nice couple.

Coming back home, I finally got to bathe.

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.

Save the Mango Tree

Lots of good progress today; at least for me. I had some idea that we would get the reinforcing steel tied and in place in the morning, then begin pouring the footing that will extend along the back wall in the afternoon. Also, while this was happening, we would excavate the footings for a different portion of the wall. There has been a pattern where work is done not in any way to anticipate what will happen next, but simply to accomplish something. They will spend a whole day on digging a place for the foundations, then a whole day on mixing concrete, then a whole few days laying brick. I would love to see them excavate a portion of the dirt, then mix concrete, so the next day the masons can have something to do other than charge a lot of money and sit in the shade. This way they could excavate the following day while the masons begin their wall. 

The path of the wall lines up perfectly with a young mango tree, so i took it upon myself to find a location in the orphanage that could use a little shade, and transplant the tree. Either way the tree had to move, so if it dies, it dies, but at least we tried. I did find a nice little place for it. The Feng Shui is good. I got my hoe swinging in for the day. 

I had bible study tonight, there is a boy there who is very excited that I am around. His prayer request was that God would give him a friend. He said that so many times some of the boys here his age want to be his friend, but in the end they all just end up wanting something from him because he is white. I don’t really know what I should feel about it. I don’t want to pity him, but I do feel bad for him, and can only imagine being a missionary kid where no one around you speaks your language, or understands the culture that you are used to. 

The day goes by so fast. I fear that I get few things accomplished, but in reality, I set things that I want to do aside when there is something that I need to do, and it happens so many times throughout the day that when someone asks me what I did today, I have a hard time recalling. I remember the fun things, but forget the necessary things. I made many adjustments to my books, and paid for more material. I fetched tools that Henry needed, pumped water, cleaned garbage, talked to workers, directed workers, took pictures, and even joined in on the work. Seems like the moments that stick in my mind are not the moments that I am digging, or crunching numbers. They are the moments when I am by myself, and I happen to glance up and see a beautiful sunrise, or hear the children singing, or feel a cool breeze. I think of good things. 

What we accomplished on the project:

The excavation is nearly complete. I say that with respect to the entire project, we are 1 day away from having excavation finished off. Our grade beam forms got a little more shallow than I was expecting. Henry reduced the height to about 8 inches, which is less than I was hoping for. We purchased reinforcing steel to tie up and place in between the stones that are acting as forms, this is what the masons spent the entire day doing; “Very technical work”. I marked out the path of the wall down by Home #9. It comes ridiculously close to the veranda. In fact, we will probably, at some point, extend the veranda to the wall. I am actually starting to get excited about the wall smashing the two houses that are on someone else's property. The wall gives them unique and private spaces that will be well shaded during most of the day. We had additional deliveries of steel and “Hard Core”, and tonight we have Abraham as a night guard to watch the steel so that it does not grow legs and walk off. 

I am propped up in my bed flicking mosquitos and other interesting insects. now that the weather is changing, new bugs have recently started clinging to my mosquito net. I draw them in by my monitor light, and carbon dioxide, then give them a full sized upper-cut to the belly with my middle finger (flicking). Somehow they always find their way back... 

Grade Beam

I heard a truck drive in this morning before I was up. The gate makes sure that everyone who is sleeping wakes up due to its abundance of squeaks and bangs. The trucks also drive right next to my window.

We have been receiving deliveries of brick, sand, and Hard core throughout the day. Abraham, one of our workers that I have really come to like, has been doing light duty; sanding and painting the front gate. He crushed his thumb the other day when the gate fell on it. The root of the nail is actually starting to come out.. He asked me the other day if I had a bottle that he could go and fill up with water, so he didn't have to go back and forth to the water tower to get a drink, I told him I would give him a water bottle that was unopened, so that he didn't even have to go to the tower to fill it. He gave me a warm response; “God blesses hands that work hard, so I will credit it as a blessing from God.” We have had a few visitors drive by checking out the progress. Our friends from Sweden, and also the family from Texas, whom I ate dinner with the other night. 

I spent most of the day in the Pump House. I originally went down to charge my iPad, and ended up getting tired of the mouse poop all over the place and did another deep clean. Oh, and by the way, that little mouse from the other night; chewed his way out of the box. I knew better...  should have finished the job when I had the chance. As revenge, he poops all over the place. 

I cleaned up all the tools, made a new charging station for the mums, fastened a new power strip to the wall, and I even installed a guard over the high voltage fuses that were sitting out in the open, beckoning to be touched. I could only think of my Grandpa when I was doing all these things. I have tools hanging, and I have seemingly done everything with some tie wire that we bought early on in the trip. I remember there was a closet under the stairs in my grandparent’s house. When you went in, every tool was hanging on something that was fastened to the wall. Nothing was uniform, everything was McGyver’d, however, each tool had it’s place and it was organized in his fashion.

The workers today have been setting forms for a grade beam that will distribute the load of the wall evenly over all of the “Hard Core” that was placed into the ditch. Once the grade beam is in place, the work will go quite fast. They will probably have that entire wall up within a week. 

The last couple of nights I have done my bucket bathing have not been as bad as I thought. I have done it before this trip, but I get used to my showers in a legitimate shower. Today I thought ahead and made myself a little solar water heater. I simply filled my little jug up with water, placed it in a black plastic bag, and set it out in the sun. It has heated up nicely. I am actually excited to bathe tonight.

It was super windy tonight. Some very dark clouds brought an early close to the day as the children gathered in one place to be lectured by Mum Tabitha. I didn't understand anything that was going on, so I went to continue what I had been doing. When I turned the corner the children began singing praises to God. It makes me pause and smile as I think about how sweet that sound is in God’s ears.