Thursday night after dinner the sky was so dark and there were no clouds. A group of us wanted to walk down to the open field and see the stars. We have two talented photographers on this trip and they were both wanting to get some pictures. Phil and Taylor went down with their cameras first and then a while later Lauren, Jack, Kyle and I came down. As Lauren and I walked we had one of the dogs with us who lives here on the property. She was out in front and Lauren and I followed her. Along the way the dog stopped and then began walking backwards. This isn’t something you see everyday so I stopped. Lauren started to get worried because i stopped. I just said if the dog is backing up we should listen to that and just wait a min. Now we have Lauren freaked out 🙂 nothing to worry about though and soon the dog went on and so did we. The stars were gorgeous! Well worth the dark and scary walk 🙂 we stayed there for a good while talking about stars and planets and watching the guys take pictures. It was getting COLD though and time for bed. We walked back and called it a night.
And then there was Friday…..
A scheduled volunteer day so we were all up early. This group is full of early risers so no matter what time you get up someone is always up having coffee and the rest of the team usually quickly follows.
After breakfast we gathered our backpacks and headed off down the road for Adziwa. Sherry and Jan have been walking with us or home with us each day. They have decided one way a day is all they want to tackle. It is a long walk and although it’s a great walk it can be a challenge. There are uneven roads the bridge and the uphill climb. As they walked Friday morning the building crew drove past them and they decided to hop in with them. That meant Sai and the ladies arrived at almost exactly the same time as the rest of us! It was perfect and they thought it was funny that they had managed to “beat us”
Everyone got right to work. Sherry and Jan headed for the daycare and began working with caregivers and Tovia. The rest of us began collecting our tools and preparing to finish the brick bench we decided to build on the playground. David was helping with mortar for bricks and a few went to load one more truck load of bricks and bring them back around to the playground site. Today was the day we wanted to build the market stall and the car for four. Once the brick laying was done we would need all of our wood and nails for the last 2 projects.
I had ordered the wood about 3 weeks ago. Each day there had been some delay or another and it had never made it to our job site. That was okay though because today was the day we needed it and it was supposed to have arrived after we left Thursday. I went looking for the wood and was told it still hadn’t arrived. Sai and I began making calls and trying to work it out. The rest of the group finished the bricks and now had nothing to do. I told my dad he could take a few people down to the welders and check on the baby swing we were having him make. That took care of a few of the team and gave Sai and I time to hopefully get the wood there.
The group all met up around noon and sat under the shade of our new building and ate lunch. Sherry and Jan come down a few times a day to the site to check our progress and eat lunch. We get to hear what they have been up to and they get to hear what problems we are having 🙂
Soon a truck did arrive (finally) with “the wood”. I walked to meet the truck and found that my wood order was one piece of paper thin plywood strapped to the top of a truck. This wasn’t what I ordered and was ONE piece of wood! What the heck could we do with that!?!?!
To make a long story short the wood just wasn’t happening. There was confusion and miscommunication and after waiting three weeks I had finally had it. I don’t like to get upset because I understand where we are and know things take time. At this point though my patience had run out and I could feel myself getting mad. We have a goal for these two weeks and without wood we just can’t get there. After a small tantrum and a few phone calls we did end up having the wood arrive.
Luckily we have a builder guy (my brother Kyle) on this team. He went right to work cutting the pieces we needed and everyone chipped in to hammer some nails. We got quite a lot done before we packed it in for the day.
It has been hot during the days and we were all ready to go. I was especially ready to get out of there because it had been a frustrating day. Sherry and Jan got a ride back and the rest of us walked. A few of the volunteers (Jack, Lauren and Taylor) have all told me that the walk is one of their favorite parts of the trip. They love seeing all the people in the surrounding villages and they love seeing the kids running and joining us for parts of the walk. The kids along our walk are staring to learn some of our names and I know that makes the team happy. It makes for a great way to start the day and great way to end it.
We all got back to our little huts and were dirty, hot and tired. Everyone took showers and just relaxed.
Dinner was scheduled at 7, which is a bit late for this group. We did know though that Saturday would not be a work day so we could all sleep in a while. We all sat talking and laughing and listening to music until it was time to eat.