The following account is about my recent trip to Guinea and is written by Jody who is one of the two ladies moving into the Konyagui work. She starts our story a few days after I arrived in Guinea.
>>>After we returned to our mission center from Conakry, we loaded as much as we could into the construction truck and trailer. Brian, Chantal, Benjamin (construction personnel) and I headed to the Konyagui village.
Our trip took 13 hours because our load kept coming untied. We lost my wheel borrow off the trailer somewhere along the way…finders keepers! Also some furniture fell off but we saw it in time to recover it.
We arrived in the village late and had to wake up the guard at our house to let us in. Because it is so hot this time of year, we set up air mattresses outside like the guard and his family.
The next morning we started to clean enough space in the house to unload our stuff and set up a temporary kitchen. The guys got to work on installing some batteries to run a few lights and the fridge which greatly elevated our comfort level. We were spoiled to have cool water the whole time we were there.
We employed a local plumber and mason to help with the work. Because our house was built ‘Guinean’ style there were quite a few changes to make. Guineans usually don’t cook inside so the indoor kitchen was microscopic. We knocked out a few walls so now we can fit the stove and fridge in the kitchen as well as some more counters.
The Guinean bathrooms are totally different as well, but we won’t go there. They are much more operational now that we’ve modified them.
Another difference is that each room in the house only has one window. Since Guineans spend little time indoors they don’t care if sun or the breeze makes it in the house. Dark and stuffy is fine. Since we enjoy airflow and sunlight, we added a number of windows around the house.
After nearly two weeks we had accomplished many of the jobs on our list. We were also exhausted and getting sick. It was difficult to get sufficient sleep with the heat and the bugs. We agreed it was time to head back to our mission center for a while.
We left the Konyagui village in the afternoon, after getting the brakes on the truck fixed and the roof rack welded back together. It would be a quick trip back, we hoped, without a load to pull.
However, at dusk one of the leaf springs on front axle of the trailer broke and put the tires at an angle where they both were shredded on the metal of the trailer. The men took the tires off and tied up the axle and off we went.
Several hours down the road, another strange noise…a leaf spring had broken on the second axle. It was good and dark by then. Lightning was flashing all around us and rain was just waiting to fall.
We had two good leaf springs left so the men worked hard to take off one axle and put the two springs on the remaining one. Benjamin was quite sick so that left a lot of the grunt work to Brian. Chantal and I were so glad to have men there who could handle the repairs.
Eventually we were on the road again. About two hours (30 miles) from mission center the truck overheated. We were all struggling to stay awake at this point. The men refilled the radiator and said we could all rest for 5 minutes while the engine cooled.
Three hours later we all woke up to sunlight streaming in the windows. It’s a wonder how we slept so soundly. In the daylight, the men noticed that the radiator hose had come off and they were able to easily reattach it.
However, we had already poured most of our water in the radiator during the night, where, unbeknownst to us, it had promptly trickled out the bottom.
Thankfully, there was a mud puddle nearby brimming with the recent rainfall. Using this water, we were able to refill the radiator and were off once again.
After 18 hours on the road we were so very happy to pull up to the mission center. PTL we were able to fix all the problems along the way.
Brian and Sherri Hofer Just another weblog 
.