Sunday, October 30, 2011

Mission trip in Namibia Africa: Day 7

So Friday has arrived, GOOD MORNING AFRICA !!!!!!!!!!!
We had a rocky meeting last night, The ladies were addressed, We understand our situation isn't normal in the American sense But we have to get with the more go with the flow attitude, Were in Africa, one bathroom, no real showers or water, when we say were leaving at a certain time were leaving, So This morning 8am is the time to shoot for, It's currently 7:20 and half are up moving eating breakfast, I have been up since 6, bucket showered, semi clean clothes, meditation/prayer and morning video blog, It has been humorous sitting back watching them all trying to scurry around trying to get ready for the 7:30 load time, In fact I hear a song playing in my head, maybe you know it, Beastie Boyz "body moving, get your body moving" If you know it you will be singing it all day now, Well I must Thank the
LORD for another great day alive, we will do our best to serve you and continue bringing other along with us
This morning our crew really did the split, most went to the church building site, I went with the Shalleys to get supplies, First stop for me was the building material supply house, They had everything you would need to build a modern African house/hut, But not what we needed, so we traveled to another, Second stop had our steel roofing material, bolts, nuts, and washers, One sheet of corrugated steel was $147.49ran (I love that number)Pretty decent price, that's like 20 bucks American, we then traveled to the tire store, they spell TIRE "TYRE", two flats so far, the roads here are rough, Also they have all the normal stuff like any American tire place, Just no 20's and low profile, mostly aggressive tread truck stuff, Glad for this stop, you see I have been hand pumping them up for a few days, No air tools either, all the old way brute force, lug wrench and scroll lack, got to love it, Grocery store next, got bread meat, ice, milk, butter and more snacks, The milk here is funny, it comes in a carton like soy milk and says long life on it, No refrigeration needed, All ready to go out to the village, I'm riding in the bed to hold down the steel, we don't need no OSHA or Safety police, We got GOD on our side.

Once at the village it was time to roof the church, Since I just brought that they were waiting on me, so I better get moving, get my body moving, This is going to be a day of adaption to our African construction condition's, Adaptation that is a great skill to have in life, In fact I think it's a key to life success, Especially here in Namibia Africa,,, You see no jack lifts, or multi-level scaffolding with built in ladders, no cordless drills, impact guns, Just standard skill brand drills with nut drivers and ladders that don't reach the peak of the roof,,, So here we go again throwing all the OSHA rules out the huge window, Step one put a ladder in a pickup truck, send the tall man up it, He then pulls him self up on top of the peak, Step 2 move the truck and send another man up it to a lower spot, and step 3 you set the make shift scaffolding up for a third man, the final step is for all who's left to pass up the steel, sliding it up to the peak and let the screwing begin, Can you guess who the tall man was ??? You guessed it the plumber, Here in the states RULE #1 when you start as The plumber 's your feet never leave the ground unless your standing on a scissor lift, So I climbed up there like a nimble little spider monkey, using self taping screws with rubber washers, sliding backwards sheet by sheet, one side complete, Lunch time came.

Today they slaughtered a goat just for us, so the meat it fresh off the bone, The liver has to be eaten first, it's an honor thing, It tasted good, although I thought it was overcooked, we also had hoagie rolls with hot dogs and potato chip mix, It was all good especially since or with the hard work, once break time was over it was time to climb again, We needed a new plan, The spider monkey's plumbing needed a re-prev, Since he enjoys being intimate with his lovely wife someday again, besides I felt we were pushing our luck and faith with the risks we were taking, new plan,,,

One man on the scaffolding standing on a box, the other 2 men each on a ladder in the pickup, opposing each other, short side tall side, tying of to the perlins, Great plan and we began rocking and rolling, sheet by sheet,pickup moved down scaffolding moved, and so on, Roof complete, Now it will be time for dedication,,, (to be continued)

2 comments:

  1. being a plumber also requires much patience. you need to know what you do and love what you do.

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  2. Forever I have taught the apprentice plumber that once you learn the trade you can find gainful employment anywhere in the world. What an adventure!!

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