The houses

Let me tell you a little about the homes we built. If you read my blog while I was gone, you know that after the first day, we only had 1/2 of a house built. The math doesn't work out if you try to finish 5 houses in 5 days if you are averaging 1/2 a house a day. We didn't have 10 days to complete this, so we hoped that the lessons learned on day one translated into a bigger number completed in days 2 thru 5. I'm happy to report that day 2 was a 2 1/2 house day. We were able the first house we had started, plus 2 more, giving us 3 days to finish the remaining 2 houses. We didn't chance that we could slow down and still get them done, so we had all 5 houses done by 3pm on Wed. I can't tell you how happy we were that the actual construction was done. The last 2 days were spent cleaning, finishing the rock work and then the dedication. Here are a few picks: Delivery of the houses.


Day one of the work.


First completed house.

All 5 houses done.

The dedication.

Inside of a finished house.




The construction of the houses was pretty easy, in design, but we had to use pop rivets to hold it together. The tool you use to apply the rivets hurts your hand after a couple of hundred, so my hands were aching after day one and we still had a long way to go. You can see, what I call the spines, arrived assembled and the crew from the manufacturer put them in place. When we arrived, we bolted them together and then bolted them to the ground. If you have ever bolted something together that had pre-drilled holes, you know that rarely goes smoothly. These, however, bolted together with almost no effort. There were a few we had to persuade into working, but not much trouble. We then bolted them to the ground, which I have a lot of experience in. In Mexico, we bolt the house we build to the concrete, so I've drilled hundreds of holes over the past 5 years. After that, we cut the shipping braces out and started the outside panels. You start at the top and try to get the first piece centered as best you can. Chad and Brad from our group figured out that if you measured the beam going across the front of the house, found the middle, then dropped a plumb line from the top of the arch, then all you had to do was line up the center of the first sheet with that line and your good to go. That isn't exactly how we started this, but we figured it out by house 3, so it went much faster. Then you just add layer upon layer of the sheets, drilling holes through the metal sheeting and steel spine and riveting it all together. Once we got the hang of it, we flew through the process. Like I said in an earlier post, if you have 7 people working on a house, you can have it done in 3 hours, maybe a bit more depending on bit breakage and supplies. It took us a bit more than 3 hours because people were being pulled away for other projects. Not a bad thing, just perspective.

Here is a picture of an impromptu concert givin by the kids.


And finally, the most important picture we took all week. These are some of the kids that will be living in the homes.


May God bless them and keep them safe!

The animals

Here is something I wrote last Saturday, but never posted. Not the most exciting, but it shows what the day was like.

What can I say about today, Saturday. We started off with a 4 hour walk up and down the mountain, several times. Chad spotted a zebra on the opposite mountain, so we spent a lot of time watching him, then a kudu showed up. Something made a sound that echoed down the valley that had Chad and I wondering just how fast we needed to run to stay ahead of it. Luckily we didn't get chased. We talked to a couple that said they had seen the cape buffalo just an hour earlier where we had just been. There are two of them on the farm, but they are rarely seen, that would have been huge to have seen them. We then went to Entabeni, which is a game preserve, that has the big 5 African animals, lion, elephant, rhino, cape buffalo and leopard. The drive into the park had zebra right next to the road
a herd of empala in the road
and a group of about 15 wildebeast about 10 feet from our car. We hadn't even started the official game drive and we had all ready seen about 50 animals. When we arrived at the starting point, the staff of Entabeni greeted us with a glass of apple juice. After a few minutes in the gift shop, we loaded up the vehicles and headed out. The first 20 minutes were spent with our guide tracking a lion, so we could see it. He gave up and said we would look for the rest of the pride instead of trying to find just the one. We saw some of the old standby's, wildebeast, empala and birds, but most of us were ready to try and find the lions or elephants. We pulled up to a little pond and there were 10 giraffe drinking and eating.
It was amazing to see that many animals all together in one place. We watched them for quite awhile, drove around the pond and got right in the mix of them. We even had a younger one walk right in front of our vehicle. We continued on until our driver stopped to give us a poop lesson. He picked up a piece of elephant poop to show us what it looked like. He said it was probably 3 days old, so I was ready for him to drop the poop and move on. A few minutes later, we drove up on a black backed jackyl. We didn't stay there long because our guide got a radio call about some elephants, so we took off to find them. As we came around a corner, we spotted a rhino and a baby rhino, so we stopped to take pictures. Some of our crew spotted something in the weeds behind us, so our guide backed up just in time to see two lionesses jump up and chase a warthog. It's hard to see, but that black area in front of the lion is the warthog. I tried to get the chase on video, but wasn't able to find it on the view finder, since I was really trying to watch it with one eye. We didn't see the end of the chase, so I can't tell you the outcome, but that was cool. We thought our lion action was over, so we turned our focus on two more rhino a bit further down the road. As we were watching them, two more lionesses came out of some trees and started walking towards the rhino.
They passed the first group of rhino, so we knew they were after the baby.
We actually got to see them stalk this baby rhino, plus we saw how the mother rhino defenede her young.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the male lion showed up as well.
This may just have been the coolest thing I have ever seen. The ride ended with a cup of hot chocolate provided by the staff and a ride home. Just when you think you have seen everything, you step out of the car, look up and see more stars than you ever have in your life. We could even see the milky way, which I have never seen before. Crystal clear and breath taking. God has created something so beautiful, it is amazing. If you ever get the chance to go, I would highly reccomend it.

I'm home!

In case anyone is watching this blog, I'm home safe and sound. I'm trying to get back in the groove of life and hope to start posting stories soon. Here are a few pictures of the Abod homes and some of the children to tie you over. Thanks again for making this trip possible, I saw how God changed lives and you helped change them.

It's a go!

I've heard from Michele in Africa and now from or missions people at Hope, the Abod homes are a go in South Africa. That is good news for the orphans of the area, there will be 5 new houses for some of them to live in, Praise God! Of course, this could all change or fall through, but for now, it looks good. I feel like we need to work as hard as we can and figure this Abod thing out so that they can continue the program. I know God will show us the way, if we listen to him, and hopefully someday, there will be hundreds, no thousands of these homes. Then I can look back and be thankful that I was apart of the start of a great mission.

Update

I had an informational meeting last night for my South Africa mission. Other than the news that we might not get to build, the meeting was great. A received little new information on the trip, like that we get to serve food to the kids through the Kids Against Hunger program, which will be awesome (You might remember me writing about that awhile back, here is the link to the Des Moines chapter http://www.kidsagainsthungerdsm.org/). It will be nice to see the program at its destination, since I have only been involved in the production part of it. Now I will see it doing the good I've only heard about. I still can't believe I get to do this, thanks to all of you who were able to donate to my trip, I hope I represent you well. On the build front, Dr. Blessman said the organization that was supposed to manufacture the pre-fab houses, backed out of the deal 3 weeks ago. He is scrambling to find a new manufacturer, and may have found one in a South Africa. He is supposed to know by Friday if our Abod houses are a go, or if we have to go to plan B. Plan B is to construct pre-fab houses that this same SA company all ready makes. Plan C is we do the optical mission and give glasses to kids. I'm not really comfortable with the optical mission, but you know what? My first trip to Mexico I was so uncomfortable, and now it is a part of my life. God will put in front of us the need he feels needs attention, and I will serve the people of SA in that need. I'm really getting excited about the trip, even though I'll a bit nervous as well. That is a looooong way from home. We discussed the flights last night and it appears it's DM to Atlanta, which is a couple of hours if I remember right from the time I flew there for work. Then, its off to Dakar, Senegal, which is 8 hours and 50 minutes away. There, we sit on the runway for 2 hours as the plane is inspected and refueled, we can't get off the plane. The last leg is to Johannesburg, and looks like it is another 9 hours. If ever there was a time to go crazy, this might be it. In summary, that is 20 hours of flight time, 2 hours of runway sitting, followed up by a 3 hour ride to the farm, and you know what, I can't wait. Where we will work is 1.5 hours from the farm, so we will have 3 hours of commuting each day, just like being back in Washington, DC. I lived there for 5 years and the drive from DC to Springfield, VA, where I actually lived, at 5:30 at night, wasn't much different. I'm guessing the scenery will be much better, not very likely you would see an elephant running down highway 95 on the outskirts of DC.

Thank You!

Not sure if anyone is reading this blog, but I wanted to update, just in case. Thanks to everyone who contributed, I have reached my goal. Airfare has risen recently, but I think I have enough figured into my buffer to cover it. Thanks for all the support, I'm getting both excited and nervous to go. I have a friend there now, so I'm looking forward to updates on how she thinks things are.

Why go?

Here is something I pulled off my friend Joe's blog. I'm working on him to come to South Africa with Chad and I, I think he is getting close to joining us.

News Article: Forgotten Children (by Becki Rippey with stories from Michell Ricker)
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

If you come to South Africa and work with us, you will never forget the children you encounter. One of our past trip participants shared her experience with us: I will never forget the children’s faces.

Faces like 16 year old Almon from the Mpumalanga providence. His shoulders were drooped with weariness when he sat down in front of me. His school uniform had holes worn through it and his frame was too thin. He had never known his father and his mother had died of AIDS the previous year. He was trying to hold the family together living in the family’s old shack. He had two younger brothers, ages 12 and 7, and a sister age 10. He was going to school during the day and working for an uncle in the evenings, cutting and delivering firewood, to try and make ends meet. His prayer requests were for food, a school uniform for his brother and that he could hold the family together.

Faces like thin beautiful Joyce, a 15 year old orphan. Her parents both died of AIDS and she lives with an aunt and uncle. Through her tears, as I asked her about her usual day, she said, “No one loves me and I don’t know why.” She told of her aunt and uncle putting the food on the table for supper each night for them and their 5 children. Everyone comes to the table except her. She is made to sit and watch from the living room. If there is food left over after all the family leaves the table, she can eat. Many nights there is nothing left. Her prayer request was for food and that someone would love her.

Faces like 11 year old Nelly from the Free State providence. Her father had died when she was very young. Her mother had died in 2004, probably of AIDS. She told me she lived with her grandmother. I asked her if she treated her well and she said, “Yes, my grandmother loves me very much.” Then she began to sob. Her grandmother was sick and she didn’t know where she and her sister would go if her grandmother died. Her grandmother has an open wound on her lower leg that is getting worse. It had started from a garden hoe accident. Grandma could no longer walk or fix meals. They could not afford to go to the doctor. We cried together as we prayed that her grandmother would be healed and recover.

Faces like 10 year old Thabiso. His mother had died the previous Saturday of AIDS. He didn’t have a father. The grief was very fresh but he tried to be manly and not cry. He lost that battle when he told of his mother’s pain getting worse, her going to the hospital and not coming home. He and his brothers were living with their grandmother. His prayer request was that he wouldn’t die of AIDS and that his grandmother would be able to feed him and his brothers.

Faces like beautiful 16 year old beautiful Sabelo who had been an orphan for 3 years. She lived with her grandmother and sisters. Her friend had been raped walking home from her house two months ago. She knew how AIDS was spread and she knew her parents had died of AIDS. She was a virgin and wanted to stay that way until her wedding night. She cried for her friend and wanted to know how her friend could get an AIDS test. Her plan for protecting herself was to never go outside alone after dark - not even in her own neighborhood of tin shacks. Her prayer request was for her friend not to get AIDS and that she could remain a virgin until her wedding night.

Faces like 11 year old Mocso whose shoulders were stooped and whose eyes were downcast. No amount of coaxing resulted in a smile. An orphan, he lived with his aunt and uncle. His skin was pasty. He was the size of a 7 or 8 year old. His clothes were dirty and had holes in them. He had no socks and his shoes were too small with one sole loose. His face was thin and pointed, just skin over bones. When I took his hands to pray his boney fingers told the story of too many days without eating. His prayer request was for food. I cried as he walked away. I won’t stop praying for these precious children whom the world has forgotten.

Update

I know I haven't posted in a long time on this blog, but I was waiting to get a little time under my belt and let the mission I'm working towards really sink in. I will say, that as of today, I'm half way to reaching my goal regarding my financial part of the mission. People have been incredibly generous, and I thank all of you who have contributed. Without out you, this dream wouldn't be possible. I now know that a long flight on a plane does not bode well for my knees. On our flight to Kauai, my knees were pretty sore by the time we landed. I know I will recover after the flight to South Africa and it would never stop me from going, but I now know I need to work on some solutions. Thanks again for your support, and spread the word.