Day 11 began with a surprise. Last evening we lost all power, which was why I could not post the Day 10 Blog until today. Power was not restored until around noon today long after we had left for the work site. At any rate, breakfast with "our" kids was great and we were at the site by 8AM. Today was a day focused on moving boulders for the building foundation. And did we move boulders!!!! We praise the Lord for Ibuprofen! We really spent almost the whole day moving boulders. Again, they ranged in weight from 20-300 pounds!
In the afternoon, the kids came to the site as they had a half-day of school for teacher inservice. In Rwanda, most people simply walk to their destination and the kids walked the three miles from their home to the work site, future home of the Urukundo Home, and the basketball court. Anyhow, it was a hard work day and we all felt the stress on our bodies!
More importantly, here are the reflections of Sister Sandy:
We hit the work site early, and worked extremely hard moving boulders from about 7 to 1030. Many of us tried the Rwandan way of moving these boulders by “using our heads”. About 1100 the “in charge” man, Emmanuel, decided that we had worked too hard out in the sun and brought us in. We then started moving the “mud”. This is the concrete mixture that is used to plaster the walls inside and lay the bricks. During the morning we also had the treat of watching the thatched roof being put on the small memorial building. It is just amazing to see the resourcefulness of the Rwandan people. They do so much with so little, they do not have the hand tools that most of us are used to using and they certainly have no power tools. They work continuously at a slower pace than what we do, however they generally do not take breaks, they do not drink water. Their stamina is absolutely remarkable. After lunch we started back into the rock moving business and this continued until about 3 pm. Once again we were outworked by the Rwanda work crew. Paul’s devotions yesterday were centered on humility and arrogance, and we found that there was plenty of humbling experiences to be had.
As I reflect on today’s activities and the amount of work that we had done, I feel that we were perhaps trying to work out some of the shock from yesterday’s hospital visit. All of us were deeply effected by that visit and tour. Certainly a different health system than we are used to having available to us.
This country has so much beauty which is contrasted by sadness and despair that it is hard to comprehend. Sally used the devotion this morning on the way to the work site to point out all the beauty that we are surrounds us. And for that we thank her. About 3 pm we were joined by the children and we had all started to tire of working, so a rousing game of basketball started at one end of the court and a rousing game of monkey in the middle started at the other end. That was ended by a storm, which chased all of us under the little canopy that was constructed for Arlene. At this time we were huddled under this little 8 by 10 canopy and had rain blowing in on us from time to time. Most of the members of the team were under that canopy and so were many of the children. We sang many songs and waited for about a half hour for the rain to stop. We then came back to the guest house and had a little shopping treat from the group that were here last week. Their goods are beautiful and very reasonable. Another example of their amazing resourcefulness.
Betty spent her afternoon having a tea party for all the female workers at the Home and it was just a huge success. We are very grateful for all the wonderful care they are taking of us.
As I reflect on today’s activities and the amount of work that we had done, I feel that we were perhaps trying to work out some of the shock from yesterday’s hospital visit. All of us were deeply effected by that visit and tour. Certainly a different health system than we are used to having available to us.
This country has so much beauty which is contrasted by sadness and despair that it is hard to comprehend. Sally used the devotion this morning on the way to the work site to point out all the beauty that we are surrounds us. And for that we thank her. About 3 pm we were joined by the children and we had all started to tire of working, so a rousing game of basketball started at one end of the court and a rousing game of monkey in the middle started at the other end. That was ended by a storm, which chased all of us under the little canopy that was constructed for Arlene. At this time we were huddled under this little 8 by 10 canopy and had rain blowing in on us from time to time. Most of the members of the team were under that canopy and so were many of the children. We sang many songs and waited for about a half hour for the rain to stop. We then came back to the guest house and had a little shopping treat from the group that were here last week. Their goods are beautiful and very reasonable. Another example of their amazing resourcefulness.
Betty spent her afternoon having a tea party for all the female workers at the Home and it was just a huge success. We are very grateful for all the wonderful care they are taking of us.
Sandy can be seen in the Blog pictures carrying a boulder on her head, too! She is phenomenal!
In the pictures you will see: A basketball game with all the kids, including Nate, the huddled team in the sun shelter during the massive storm, two beautiful boys (Bosco and Kofi), the goat (aka "Beef...it's what's for dinner"), Paul and his Rwandan Boulder partner, basketball after the storm, the boulder pile, the foundation coming together, carrying boulders on the head, the new "prayer" center getting it's thatched roof, Fred carrying boulders, Sandy carrying boulders, and Leslie carrying boulders!
