It's all part of the adventure!: Work Days 2 and 3

I have a little catching up to do because we had no internet last night. The electricity also went out a couple times as well. I've been getting in a bit of trouble by a couple guys because they are leaving out a few details about their time here and then hearing about it later from people reading my blog. No worries --- I'll keep reporting everything :)

Larry still hasn't been feeling well. He's had a fever the last few days and has had to stay at the guest house the entire time. He says he feels better tonight .... he says that every night. We shall see... Keep him in your prayers. I know he's tired of sitting all day. In hindsight, he realizes that he's been very stressed, and this illness may be God's way of making him slow down and take it easy for a few days. I was a little sick yesterday, but am much better today. I think my body went through too much shock between time change (we start work at 2am Omaha time everyday) and hard labor.

Yesterday was a very hot day. Rachel, Ewien and I continued to dig a trench most of the day. We were able to dig about 6 inches into the ground, and then it was too hard. Jason tried to help us by taking over with the pickaxe, but he didn't get very far either. Anco arrived later in the day with a jackhammer, and that worked much better. Rachel, Andy and I also cut into the conduit pipe because the wires inside are going to be re-mapped. I'm not sure if there are technical words for all of this. Jon, Chris, Bill and Adam continued working on the scaffolding. Bill and Chris would take the iron bars from the roofing of the classroom and cut them so that they could be used for support in the scaffolding project. Adam started the welding part of the work and also helped with cutting the bars down to size. Andy, Steve and Jason continued to work on removing the roofing and ceiling from one of the classrooms.

Today (work day 3) was only a half day of work because we went to the market in the afternoon. Anco asked Jon and Adam to leave the house at 5:30am, so they could get a head start on the welding for the water tower since we were leaving at noon. I guess the gates to Bethel weren't even open at 5:30 so Anco climbed over the gate to find someone to open it. I could hear Adam frying eggs at 5am this morning (I don't sleep all that well here -- and I think Adam got the oil extra hot!).

Jason and I worked as a team on the trench this morning. Jason used the jackhammer while I shoveled. Rachel and Ewien worked on pulling wire through the pipes. Andy and Steve removed a large part of roofing on another classroom. Andy also started breaking up the concrete wall that holds the roof while Steve removed parts of the ceiling. Jon, Adam, Bill and Chris continued the scaffolding project. They are getting close to being able to add the second water tank. I'm not sure if it will happen tomorrow or Saturday.

Market day was interesting. People were everywhere and the kids would point and say "tubabus (sp?)," which means "white people." They would shake our hands and grin all over. They also enjoyed getting their picture taken and then viewing it on the camera screen after. We all bought fabric and went to the tailor to get some clothes made. This is how most people in Mali buy their clothes. You don't see a lot of stores with clothes to buy like we are used to in the U.S. While we were picking out patterns at the tailor, there were some Malians doing the same thing. Buying fabric and having something made by the tailor costs approximately $10 (U.S.). I'm labeled the shopper of the group. Considering this group consists of 8 men, I'm not all that surprised that I'm the big shopper. We went to a mud cloth store after leaving the market and I purchased a lot of mud cloth and also asked to have a special-made blanket/sheet. Actually, Adam asked for the same thing, so he and I went together and got a better deal. We should receive them early next week.

We had rice and peanut sauce for dinner tonight, which was more of a traditional Malian meal. We had meat and potatoes yesterday because Larry mentioned it was his favorite, so Ewien asked that it be made for dinner since he wasn't feeling well. I think we are invited to dinner at different places on Sat, Sun, Mon, and Tues. Ewien has slowly discovered our food issues. She asked on the first day if there were any allergies, and we said no. She slowly found out that Jon doesn't like onions (and they are on everything), someone doesn't like mushrooms, Jason shouldn't eat cheese, Rachel doesn't like tomatoes and admits to being a picky eater, Larry doesn't like anything too unusual, I don't like anything I've seen breathing (you'll find out more about this later) and Andy will eat anything and everything. Ewien said that the difference between Europeans and Americans is that Europeans would have had no problem immediately expressing to her their likes and dislikes on day one.

Please continue to pray for our health, safety and the work we are doing. Also, please pray for rain to cool the temperatures here and make the ground soft for digging. We haven't seen much rain so far, especially since it's the rainy season.