There’s an old children’s song that said, “Give me gas in my Ford, keep me running for the Lord.” Well we felt like singing, “Give us power, oh, this hour so that we can push on forward”. We have been operating these past days with no power so that means no phones,computer, internet, or lights. So we tried to use a candle in the shower but when it went out and it was pitch dark, who cared where the soap went! But worst then that was Maureen who could not complete her Gr.8 homework. The result? – caning. Some things are so hard for us to understand and take. We just know that caning is not apart of our school here. We have welcomed Jasmyn into our group as Cathy has returned back home.
We gathered all the children on Monday and Pastor Martin Oboya spoke of his brother Sieg whom he had worked with to the children and then he prayed with us all. Over the days that followed, the older children were all contacted and expressed their sadness at the loose of a man they had grown to love.
Meanwhile, we have received our 3 BioSand filters and are putting the water though them so that they are ready after 20 days of running water though. They will yield us 40-60 L each per day so that will give us lots of water. They will be able to run for the next 10 years with just a bit of attention – just stirring the top sand.
Meanwhile, behind that pile of mud is a 5′ x 5′ x 10′ deep hole that we will fill with large boulders and make into our “septic field” with other pipe being buried underground to continue taking the waste liquid out of the latrine. After consultation with the head teacher of the Construction Dept. at the local College, we were advised that this is what we should do. So John and Vincent, Billy and Felix have been digging and lifting up the mud pail by pail. It then has to be wheelbarrelled out to where the “ditch” is. We will make the ditch higher on our side so as to stop the water from coming onto the property less in the rainy season.
Emmanual (known as “Jr” by his childhood friends) are having a bit of lunch with Jasmyn. They have been busy putting gutters around the house to help to reduce the amount of rain that sits around the house in the wet season. Today we are also getting the water tank that we had previously in the old house and will make a platform for it so to collect water as it rains.