"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands..." Psalm 90:17

Yesterday we spent most of the day organizing items left in the car port at Setanga, and searching for items to complete our cottage kitchen. What a wonderful surprise to find two plastic bins lovingly packed by our team, complete with notes and all the essentials we would need. Thank you team! Your love notes on the duct tape were especially appreciated. And so begins the latest challenge of preparing meals at the cottage. We have a pot to heat water in, but the plug is not compatible with any outlets or any converters we have. Apparently the oven does not operate, but the burners do...sort of. Only forty-five minutes to heat a cup of water! Maybe we'll try cooking over an open fire instead. We are so spoiled! So far we have managed to cook two dinners and breakfast - we're on a roll!
Today was a day full of errands and details. Ron left early to pick up Philemon on the way to retrieve the last two loads of stone needed at the building site. Since each load takes only about four hours to pick up and deliver, that consumed their day. Interesting to hear about their delays though - waiting for the truck at the front of the line at the scales that could only go in reverse, being run off the road by a semi, and the bicyclist who lost control on the bad road and was swerving in and out of traffic. All in all, an uneventful day for Ron and Philemon!
Meanwhile, Foster and I spent the day fixing our second flat tire, delivering milk to George School, banking, purchased food at the markets for Gift, Tammy, and Piet, met with Mr. Chiti of the Rotary and Pyramid Brushware which will construct the furniture for the home under construction, post office, etc. I just love the children at George, they are always happy to see us and always so polite and repsectful. When I walked into the classroom this morning, all the children stood up and said "Good morning madame," then huge smiles from everyone (especially Piet). Our last round for the day was the delivery to Gift, Tammy and Piet's home at Twapia. Home here takes on a whole new meaning, as they have shelter, but there are no amenities there. Gift is so very tall now, and looking like quite the young man with a most beautiful smile. This was the first I have met their mother, Florence. She greeted us warmly, and made sure there were seats for Foster, Ms. Masumba and myself. She turned over a tin wash tub and covered it with a shetange for me to sit on, Ms. Masumba sat on the edge of a tire covered with cloth, and Foster on a make-shift stool. She was very gracious, has the same beautiful smile as the boys, and was younger than I expected.
This evening Foster left via public transport for Kitwe, to retrieve the other OMNI car which has been being repaired. It was getting late, so he ended up driving in a round-about way to the bus depot. We waited to make sure he was able to find a bus to Kitwe. It was comical to see Foster hanging out the window of the bus, yelling "I'm OK Ron, I'm on the bus!" as the bus went flying past. Only problem was that then we had to find our way back to Setanga. Foster's instructions were to just keep going left. Well, we went left one too many times, but made it back safely. We did witness a terrible tragedy this evening, as there was an accident involving a pedestrian which appeared to be fatal. Life is so very fragile here.