Day 5

We've had trouble getting internet, so this post is a few days late. 

On Thursday we formed more of the walls and put in the "windows".  Rather than mix the concrete in the street, we haul the sand to the house and sift the sand into finer grains and then mix on the floor.  The larger clods of sand are as hard as rocks and are used as fillers inside the cinder blocks and will be used in mixing the concrete for pouring the cross-beams and vertical corners.  Mixing the concrete is extremely taxing, adding sand, mix, and water and shoveling like crazy to stir the heavy material.
 

Ric shovels sand into a sifter

Two workers mix the concrete with shovels

Windows in this house are decorative blocks with holes in them for air flow.  Back on Monday when the foundation was laid, there was a little space left between the blocks and the walls of the adjacent houses.  So when the walls went in, there was space for airflow and a little cushion to reduce noise between houses. 

Our skilled mason waits for more concrete mix

The back part of the house will not go to the same height because the wall there actually belongs to the large house behind, so we can't build on top of it (yellow wall in the background).  Instead, this will be where the bathroom and the kitchen will go, with a wall between and a slanting roof overhead.

A couple local boys looking on.

 

Some of the neighbors keep an eye on us, too.

Today we'd thought we show you some more of the orphanage.  A couple interesting sites are pictured below.

Some of the boys hangin' with one of the house "dads"

 Here is a rare sighting of the rarely seen "garbage truck". Surprisingly this picture is clear as most sightings are grainy long-distance shots similar to those we see of "sasquatch."  Only three people came to meet this one, each carrying a bag about the size of a Taco Bell bag with one taco in it.  We're told it comes twice a week, but since it rained yesterday, not much to collect.



This is the "adopted" dog.  It has no name but is seen quite often around the compound, though it's trail is easily found on the concrete floors and in the driveway.

 Tomorrow we should finish the front window, the rest of the main walls, and start to build the cross-beams that will hold the roof.  We don't think we'll get the whole house done, but it will be good to put every bit of help we can in getting close.  Pastor Ronel has promised a tour of the city, and the missionaries Andy and Jutta (pronounced like the state, Utah) have offered to take us up to the CBF house up in the hills for a debrief dinner.  It's been an amazing week, hard to believe we're ramping down.