Nearing Milestones

Today Garrett left and the Children's Village project made a temporary shift onto James' capable shoulders, though being new to this construction style he didn't sleep much last night between being anxious and the apparently massive symphony of snoring coming out of the men's dorm.  Fortunately I sleep well and am too far to hear it so I sleep like a baby...  With many mentors and good instructions from Garret the Children's Village is coming along, then Roy and Chris picking up where Garrett left off, we're all looking to do what's required to move the project along. Excavation is nearing completion and final levelling and rebar tying underway we'll enter the next phase shortly.

Ferrying back and forth to the South Campus, I had the opportunity to try out a motorbike, and did fairly well although I did mistake the gas for brake and dumped it lightly turning through the Children's Village gate.  Later, Marc's main concern was whether anybody saw me, because apparently the Haitians love to laugh at the blancos wiping out, and come to think of it, I did hear a few chuckles shortly thereafter.  More practice is required, though with "news" spreading like wildfire here I'm not sure who will lend me their bike next....

My main project for the day was smashing a hole through the outer wall and installing the first of 3 doors to the outside.  First thing this morning the jack-hammer was clattering away and daylight quickly shone through to the outside world.  After a few hours of cutting, scrapping, chipping and sawing the pre-welded door finally fit well enough to screw it into position, weld on a few stray bars to imbed in the new concrete filling the gap from the demolition and concrete the whole thing into place.  Looks great, and in a few days of curing we'll give it the acid test of regular opening and closing.  This was a team effort and all concerned should be very proud, especially our welder, Jim from Crossroads in Red Deer who designed and built it from scratch, with assistance from Jean Philippe here.

Another major clinic project taking shape is the reception area sun shelter, and the team of carpenters made a lot of progress getting the framing into place as it takes shape.  With another couple of days that should be done too.

On the electrical front, many of the little details are done, and the inverter trench completed though not finished as we still don't have the right wire.  I think we finally figured out what that is and during a trip to PAP later this week we should be able to find it and finish the trench work.  Once the battery shelf and a doorway are completed the only thing remaining on that project will be actually buying the batteries and installing the inverter.

As far as the Technical School goes, Roy was able to get a couple hours into that today (between being pulled everywhere else) and the first major bay's beams are nearly framed and boxed and ready to pour, which should happen later in the week or early next week.  That's the first major step to getting a second floor on and one eagerly anticipated.

On the women's front this week is special too.  Since its Carnavale this week the schools are out for 4 days and most of the shops closed, so the women are doing a bunch of special events here.  Tuesday they are doing the whole Tuesday evening church service, and Marc promises to keep quiet the whole evening... we'll see how that goes!  Right now there's 50 ladies doing a craft next door (twice expected) so the ladies are scrambling to expand the supplies to be able to keep them all busy.  Meantime, as announced on Sunday the husbands are supposed to be home cooking for the ladies and their kids tonight to bless them.  Should be interesting!

Finally, Wayne's returned and he's back to helping wherever he can which is a great blessing to all.  After finishing the forming with Roy, he's going to fine-tune some woodworking at the clinic while all the while reworking tools and minor repairs in his spare time.   We really appreciate him!

Finally a few thought about systems.  We've been having problems with the water.  There's a huge 1000 gallon tank on the roof for use in emergencies, or when the pump isn't on, but it seems to be draining through the check valve which we'll have to replace.  Now its just a matter of orchestrating various valves on and off and filling the tank during generator on times.  Not a problem but something else to do to make things work.  

As for the generator we finally got staff here to revise systems to always make sure we've got a full barrel of diesel for back-ups we're not caught short in the middle of the evening, but last night we got caught running dry and having to gather the bobcat, truck (for lighting) and a few people running around in the rain looking for the right tools to transfer the full reserve barrels into the tank.  It worked, and I did get a good exercise workout, though it was pretty much right arm only.  It's a start, as are the system updates, but there's still TONS to do...

The last item is one we're eagerly waiting on, the garden planting to burst forth.  Upon close examination today it appeared the early seeds might already be up but I'll wait a few more days before starting any early weeding... don't want to pull any new veggies.