It's all part of the adventure!: Work Day 6

Today Andy and Bill started strengthening the foundation of the water tower by setting the bricks. The bricks were made by some Malian men last week. They consist of sand and cement and likely contain far less cement than required/ideal. Jon and Adam made another ladder and painted both ladders for the tower. Adam also did more welding. The second tank has a few leaks that Adam needs to weld shut. Unfortunately, he put another hole in the tank (oops!) so he has an extra one to fix! Adam actually crawled into the second tank to try and weld, but the welder wouldn't work.

Andy, Jason, Rachel, Ewien and I finished our last trench (or at least we hope it is the last...you never know with Anco - plans change!). We started laying the pipes. Rachel and I had a difficult time pushing the electrical through a pipe. Anco finally came to help and said "this is crazy!" so that made us feel a little better about our difficulty! We also started filling in holes. A youth camp began today at Bethel, and one of the college-age men took the shovel from me when I was filling a hole. Anco was nearby and said that the Malian men may not let us work because it's against their nature to see women do the work we were doing, especially when they aren't working. Anco then smiled at me and said "it's not against my nature though." On the same subject, Samuel told Ewien that he thought she, Rachel and I should have time off because we are working too hard! Ha! Samuel also brought all of us some Malian donuts (or at least we called them donuts) this morning. His mother makes them everyday to sell.

Larry continued to work on removing the tree. Bill helped him with it this morning too. We finally hooked the chain around it again, and the tree came down. Larry, Rachel and I removed the branches from the tree with hand saws. We then had to figure out how to get the root ball out of the hole because it was covering part of our trench. Ewien was able to get four Malian men from the camp to help remove it.

Steve and Chris continued working on removing the roof of the classrooms. I forgot to mention the other day that Steve removed one ceiling tile and a rat came scurrying out! Yuck!

Also, I forgot to mention that there was a recent case of rabies at the hospital. It sounds like these cases are rare, and the person who acquired rabies was bit by a dog. Ewien is thinking about getting some rabies vaccinations and is being very leary of dogs. There are dogs everywhere, so it's a little scary.

We went to Doug and Angela Wenger's for dinner tonight. They are the missionaries we stayed with in Bamako, they brought us to Koutiala (they actually live in Koutiala, next door to the guest house where we are staying), and Doug has helped with a few of the projects. Angela made strombolis, oriental salad (my favorite) and apple pie. They joked that they had an entire pan of stromboli just for Andy. Adam mentioned that we should weigh Andy and see how much weight he's gained on this trip. He's definitely had a healthy appetite! He's going to starve when we get home.

Doug and Angela asked for some special memories we've had. The obvious one was when the second tank was placed on the tower. Also, Daniel's laugh was something we'll never forget. Another one is one I forgot to mention earlier. When we were leaving Bamako, we were parked at the side of the road while Doug got some air for a tire. A kid was leading a blind man in the median of the road. He saw all the "tababus" and got the largest grin on his face. He then led the blind man down the median (looking at us, smiling and waving the entire time), turned around and walked the blind man back down the median, turned around again. He continued this pattern until we left. If he ran into someone, he would get the person's attention and point to us. It was very funny. I don't know what the blind man thought....I hope he didn't think they had walked very far.

We only have two work days left, and on one of those days, we will spend a chunk of time at the hospital giving blood and getting a tour. I'm getting really sad about the thought of leaving. I'm not ready to go back to Omaha. Doug and Angela's niece is here and is training at the hospital to do anesthesia (she has no experience). Wow --- I would love to be doing what she is doing.

Please continue to pray for our health and safety. I think there were a few people who didn't feel well today (nothing major though). Pray for our impact in the mission field and pray for all the other missionaries here. They are all amazing people with huge hearts. I haven't met anyone that I haven't really liked. Also, pray for our trip home. I kind of hope our first flight (Bamako to Dakar) is delayed so that our time in Dakar is shortened.