NTM

Last week, the guys on our team and a missions pastor from a local church here took off to the village with Katie’s and my house plans, a model of our house, cement for our foundation, and lumber for our lintels.  It was a trip mainly to get the construction started on our house.  They knew it would be a lot of work, and work they did!

They showed the people our plans and the model we built.  They showed them which walls corresponded to the drawing, explained the rooms and the windows, doors, …. EVERYTHING.

After a little bit of answering questions, I think the people understand our plans!  Hopefully!?!!  This is probably the first time they have ever seen drawings for a building on paper.  I think it’ll come out okay.

They treated the lumber for our lintels with chemicals that termite don’t like.   Hopefully that way they’ll last a lot longer!

They chose the exact location of our house.   We had decided on the general area, but they picked the precise location, measured out our walls, put down stakes and string, squared them up, and then marked out the walls with lime.

Then, they made 14 trips to a location about 30 minutes away from the village to haul rock for our foundation!

It was back-breaking work.  We owe them.  They said a nice steak dinner should about cover it!  Maybe with a cheesecake thrown in.  You deserve it, we’ll see what we can do!

That wasn’t the end of the heavy work.  They hauled sand from the creek to use to make the cement for our foundation.  The sand was wet, too, so it made it all the more heavy!

Lots of sand!

Then, they consolidated the many piles of bricks around the village into one big pile next to our house-site for easy access.

It took 3 days for the guys to get everything together.  The very next morning, the people started working – digging down 50 centimeters to put in a strong foundation.

The people said they should have it all done within 3 weeks.  So, next time we go out, we’ll have a house!  Well, a foundation and walls, at least!

Our house is on it’s way!

Two weeks ago, when we came out of the village last time, we sat down together as a team and decided that we would build our house (Katie’s and my house) first!

I was hit with excitement -  that we were finally getting to build our house- and the realization that OUR HOUSE WAS GOING TO BE STARTED WITHIN TWO WEEKS!

So, I proceeded to lock myself in my room and hunkered over my desk redrawing house plans, tweaking wall lengths, putting in windows, and rearranging doors all the while taking into consideration how the changes would affect the sun warming & cooling our house, Katie’s desires, and the ease of construction.  As I got things figured out and drawn up, I would let myself out of my room and take my plans to my co-workers house where he would kindly let me know that “you can’t have a roof support beam over that door – you’ll have to move the door” and other very useful information.  Katie would give her two-cents about any changes.  And then I’d go back to my desk and hunker down some more and make some more changes.  Repeat several times.

Well, FINALLY, our plans are done.  They are set in stone, almost literally.  The guys left this weekend for the village with our final set of plans that hopefully have all the bugs out of them.  They took cement for our foundation and stakes and string to mark out our walls.

At this moment, they are hauling gravel/rock from a nearby area to make the cement for our foundation.

So, in the next few days, a few of the men in the village will begin to lay our foundation and then to build our walls!

We are looking for some help to finish our house and the other houses in the new year. We are looking for skilled plumbers and electricians, those skilled with cement – for our bond beam and to pour our floor, and people to help us put up our roof.  Let me know if you could and would like to help out.

So, here’s what we’ll have in a few weeks, Lord -willing:  a foundation and our main adobe walls!