The Guys’ Trip

Last week, the guys on our team and a missions pastor from a local church here took off to the village with Katie’s and my house plans, a model of our house, cement for our foundation, and lumber for our lintels.  It was a trip mainly to get the construction started on our house.  They knew it would be a lot of work, and work they did!

They showed the people our plans and the model we built.  They showed them which walls corresponded to the drawing, explained the rooms and the windows, doors, …. EVERYTHING.

After a little bit of answering questions, I think the people understand our plans!  Hopefully!?!!  This is probably the first time they have ever seen drawings for a building on paper.  I think it’ll come out okay.

They treated the lumber for our lintels with chemicals that termite don’t like. 🙂  Hopefully that way they’ll last a lot longer!

They chose the exact location of our house.   We had decided on the general area, but they picked the precise location, measured out our walls, put down stakes and string, squared them up, and then marked out the walls with lime.

Then, they made 14 trips to a location about 30 minutes away from the village to haul rock for our foundation!

It was back-breaking work.  We owe them.  They said a nice steak dinner should about cover it!  Maybe with a cheesecake thrown in.  You deserve it, we’ll see what we can do!

That wasn’t the end of the heavy work.  They hauled sand from the creek to use to make the cement for our foundation.  The sand was wet, too, so it made it all the more heavy!

Lots of sand!

Then, they consolidated the many piles of bricks around the village into one big pile next to our house-site for easy access.

It took 3 days for the guys to get everything together.  The very next morning, the people started working – digging down 50 centimeters to put in a strong foundation.

The people said they should have it all done within 3 weeks.  So, next time we go out, we’ll have a house!  Well, a foundation and walls, at least!

Our house is on it’s way!