WOO-HOO!! WALLS!!

1st building

The lead builder- Antoine

With one of my technicians from Porto Novo- Candide

In this photo you can see the shelter that we have almost finished, the foundation being put in, and in the left corner is the team of well diggers- don't know what they want to be called in English....

My technicians counting our cement sacks

We store our materials in a vacant room of a house next door. We will pay the family a little money at the end and they are in the meanwhile responsible for the security of all the materials we buy on a rotating basis.

Here is my 5 year old friend, Peace, who is learning to write and just loves it!

Myself with Peace and Sino

08.04.2008

Happy April! My time is consumed by the orphanage project amongst my other work. I am good, the time is flying by and I’m staying healthy and busy. My two sports I do here are pulling water and doing laundry. And the occasional jump starts pushing an old motorcycle. Whats that movie im thinking of? Sunshine something? Yet the way one sweats here just walking five minutes at 8 in the morning in this awful humidity, I feel like I am constantly shedding pounds (although I’m not). The rains are coming soon, will bring some relief.

I’ve been implementing some things American into my school the past few weeks. For my English club we have a different topic each time. For music day, I played them Peter Frampton and we analyzed the lyrics. For sports day, after a passionate discussion of African soccer, I gave them each a glossy basketball trading card from home and we read the player stats together as I explained the NBA. I taught my English class with the director Hokey Pokey and they just loved that, couldn’t stop laughing.

There was an American lady visiting an NGO in Cotonou that we are in contact with, and she came over to meet our orphans. She took photos and then gave out two big boxes of school supplies that some students in US and Canada sent over with her. My kids loved it, and as a result of that meeting, we are planning to set up a letter exchange with the French speaking kids in Canada and my orphans! I returned home to notice a tranquil hen nestled in my clothes tossed in a chair who had just laid an egg in them. She must have come in through the window before I left and locked up, and I hadn’t noticed. Or she came in through the open back window. Always something crazy- I guess that makes my time here more FUN!?

Have a great day everyone. Miss you all. 6 months to go!

the long BRICKMAKING process has begun!

08.04.2008

Project update: Since I wrote last, we seem to be making progress at the site. Still waiting until the end of this week to get my big shipment of cement, but in the meantime we have found 4 tons locally and two of those have already been made into bricks. We have almost hit water digging the well; should be a few more days. We have all the workers lined up and are following budget for the most part. We have already completed a small shelter. The foundation of each building is already dug, but waiting for cement (nationwide shortage and delays, but we have an order in and it’s promised to arrived end of this week). Sand and gravel shipments are reliable.