It's all part of the adventure!: First work day

Last night was our first night in Koutiala, and I believe most of us got a good night's rest...except maybe Steve. Apparently, we had heavy rain and lightning last night. No one else in the house heard this, so we are pretty certain his malaria medication is causing him to have some interesting dreams. I guess he even got up and shut his window -- probably made for a warm night. Poor Chris (his roommate...and son). :)

Today was our first work day. We woke to crowing roosters. Actually, we hear crowing roosters all the time. My cell phone alarm has been set to the sound of crowing roosters for about a year, so I find it funny that I wake to the real thing. We left at 7am and went to the Women and Children's Hospital to go to devotionals and load all our building materials. Devotionals was a neat experience. They were led in French, but the administrator of the hospital, Craig, translated for us. They honored and prayed for our team at devotionals.

We loaded up all our materials and went to Bethel Bible College to start our work. Bill was scratched by a nail during the loading of materials, which showed us all the reason for the tetanus booster! Thankfully, Jon is an expert builder, so he was able to take charge of building scaffolding around the water tower. Bill and Chris worked with him on this project. They weren't quite finished at the end of the day, and I think it's safe to say their project wouldn't be OSHA approved, but it works!

Andy, Steve, Jason and Adam took off the roof of one of the classrooms and its framing. Apparently some of the iron frame was held up by wires, so when Jason cut the last wires, the frame completely fell. Fortunately, he was on the inside of an opening in the grid so it didn't hit his head, but part of it landed on his foot. Also, thankfully no one else was in the room at the time. God was definitely looking after them.

Rachel and I spent a good amount of time pulling weeds in a garden of corn. Then, we were given the project of digging a trench so that Anco can change the way the water piping and electricity is laid out. Anco's wife, Ewien, helped us. We were given two shovels and a pickaxe. I started using the pickaxe, and it was quickly pointed out that I was using the wrong end! We did well in the morning with digging holes to find the piping. Then, in the afternoon we continued our task, and we accidentally put a hole in both the water pipe and the conduit. Actually, Ewien was using the pickaxe when it happened, but we all three took the blame. It would have happened to whomever was using the pickaxe at that moment because we all thought the pipes were deeper. The water had to be shut off at the water tower, which shut off water to half of the college. We are here to try and improve access to water, and unfortunately, I think we made the problem temporarily worse. Anco just smiled and shook his head. He told us to stop using the pickaxe and only use the shovels (we sort of ignored this command and decided to be extra careful instead). As he walked away, Ewien said "I think he knows it was me" although she continued to blame Jon for the rest of the trip! Afterall, we have a picture of Jon trying to plug the hole, so that's pretty good proof for us to use! :) We have a lot more digging to do. I wouldn't call myself lazy at all, but I realize after today that I've been very sheltered....I think this was the hardest work I've ever done. I haven't had much experience in hard labor. However, Ewien said that people in Mali are completing a project where they have to dig a trench from Koutiala to another town, and all they can use is the same equipment we are using! We actually saw the trench one day, and it's much deeper than ours! This type of work really makes us appreciate what we have in the U.S. in terms of tools.

Larry, unfortunately, still did not feel well today and had some pains, so he wasn't able to do much work. Steve did take him to the hospital to make certain everything is ok. He checked out well, but was told to take it easy today. Pray that he feels better soon!!

While working, Ewien told us about the people in Mali. She said the people in Mali are some of the very nicest. I asked her about South Africa because I know people who have visited South Africa, and she said it's much more modernized than Mali. For example, Rachel and I have to wear long dresses or skirts everyday here, and that's not the case in South Africa.

Also, we asked about wildlife in Mali (like elephants and lions), and Ewien said that Mali doesn't have any wildlife because they have all been eaten. All we see are donkeys, sheep, goats, chickens and some dogs. Most of the sheep, goats and chickens will also be eaten!

Speaking of food, we had dinner with all the missionaries tonight. They were having a pot luck, and dinner consisted of spaghetti. I'm pretty sure I'm going to gain weight during this trip (Steve warned us about this possibility). While we haven't had a traditional Malian meal yet, I'm happy that all the food has been so good. I am, however, looking forward to trying some traditional Malian food.

Please continue to pray for our health, safety, and that we minister to people in Koutiala through our actions. Pray for Larry's recovery.

Headed to the hospital to get the materials we needed for Bethel

Doug followed us to the hospital

Lizards crawling on a building at the hospital. We saw these lizards everywhere, including in our guest house. I think Rachel even found one under her bed.

The water tank we are adding to the water tower is behind us.

Anco is ahead of us and those are all of our materials and our impressive loading job :)

Some of the tools we had to work with

Anco giving the plan for the classrooms

This is a Malian restroom. We asked Anco where to go to the restroom at Bethel and this was it. I don't think so!! I was very careful to drink enough to not get dehydrated, but not so much that I'd have to go to the restroom before lunch time or end of the day!