Tuesday - August 12

- Posted by Josh -
Today was our first day of work. Chris, Curtis (Chris's dad), Shawn, and I (and Jakie off and on) spent most of the day moving cement blocks from one place to another. It was hard work, 3 blocks to a wheelbarrow, and then stacking them in a row 50'x10'. My back was getting pretty sore. Then half way through the afternoon, I was mercifully drafted to help cut boards for the rafters or joists. That was kind of fun once I got the hang for it. The wood was kind of hard to work with b/c it was so roughly sawn. The general size was a 2x4, but that could vary up to 3x6 or so. That made it kind of hard to cut identical shapes.
Joe and John (OoYoung) spent the whole day working on ceiling joists. They were measuring and cutting wood and then nailing it together in the appropriate places. We will should finish the joists and start putting them into position tomorrow.
The ladies (and sometimes John) spend the day painting. First, they painted very long facia boards. Then, they sanded and painted some metal fences and gates. The paint was reddish orange, so when they finished, they looked like they had been in a war.
We had lots of fun, though. Once, while moving blocks, I accidentally cut the tail off a 14 inch long lizard (we later measured him). I brought the tail to SoYoung, and she jumped about 10 feet. Later, we found the same lizard (missing his tail), and I caught him - amazing colors: green body, red head, blue front legs. This time I warned the guys what I was going to do, and then I walked into the room where the girls were painting. Lots of screams!
Just before lunch, we found a snake in the blocks, and with the help of Ernest (one of our African coworkes) I killed it and picked it up with a stick. That was fun. Joe said he thought it looked like a pignosed snake - very poisonous. I’ve been searching google to try to identify the snake, and actually, I think it might have been a black mamba - not actually black. Maybe tomorrow I can dig it out of the compost pile and check its mouth for identification. They sure sign of a black mamba is a black mouth. The actual body can be a wide variety of colors. However, I saw several pictures that looked just like our snake. If ours was a mamba, it was just a teenager – about 1 meter long. Full grown mambas are 2-3 meters – yikes!
Still later in the afternoon, Ernest found two more baby snakes (apparently of a different variety) and 2 snake eggs. These blocks are quite the nesting place b/c of all the bugs that make their homes down there. We'll have to be careful with the bottom layer of blocks. I think Ernest will be taking care of most of those!
Tonight we ate a Tanzanian stew -kind of a cross between chili and vegetable beef stew. It was so good, I ate way too much!
I talked a lot with Chris today while stacking blocks, and some with his dad. I really like his dad. He is very encouraging and laughs a lot. George, the foreman in training, remembered Curtis from last year and called him "Fraha" - or happy guy. It's a well-fitting name for him.
Jackie and Evie (one of the team coordinators) got sick today. They seem to have the stomach flu or something - lots of throwing up and an upset stomach. Please pray for them.
Over all, though, this was a great first day!