There is a whirlwind which they say appears at the same time every day at the project site. It is a wind which furiously whips the dusty ground into a small funnel that travels down the pathway in our gated area, and then disappears beyond the building. There is one worker who is known in the village to practice witchcraft. It is their belief that the small whirlwind each day is the result of witchcraft. Now they are sure of it. As the funnel came through the site, the only disturbance it caused was to the man known to practice witchcraft. As his shirt lie on the ground, it was caught in the fury of the whirlwind, totally disappearing along with the kwacha he had in the pocket. The men say he owed money to someone and they sent the whirlwind to retrieve it.
Today, Ron picked up most of the timbers ordered for the roof of the house. So, tomorrow the carpenter will begin that phase of construction. We believe (hope) that this work will proceed quickly, as they are worried the timbers will warp if they remain stacked on the ground. The guard house is also well under way, and they expect to have the block work completed by the end of day tomorrow. The men were really struggling with lowering the blocks into that deep septic pit (over 13 feet), lowering each brick one by one, from man to man and then down the make-shift ladder. After a brief evaluation, slip knots were tied on each end of a rope, allowing two men to continually lower the cement blocks down into the pit. They were happy to see how much easier the work was, and safer too. There is now scaffolding in the septic pit as they are quickly approaching ground level with the block work. Remember, the scaffolding is rickety planks wobbling between iron bars welded together. Today someone came to measure for the roof tiles. He looked at the building, walked around the outside, walked around the inside, and then finally came back outside. He looked at the bricklayer standing on the scaffolding, swaying to and fro a little, then looked at us and said, “If he can stand on it, so can I.” There wasn’t much confidence in his statement, but he made it to the top of the building!
Today, Ron picked up most of the timbers ordered for the roof of the house. So, tomorrow the carpenter will begin that phase of construction. We believe (hope) that this work will proceed quickly, as they are worried the timbers will warp if they remain stacked on the ground. The guard house is also well under way, and they expect to have the block work completed by the end of day tomorrow. The men were really struggling with lowering the blocks into that deep septic pit (over 13 feet), lowering each brick one by one, from man to man and then down the make-shift ladder. After a brief evaluation, slip knots were tied on each end of a rope, allowing two men to continually lower the cement blocks down into the pit. They were happy to see how much easier the work was, and safer too. There is now scaffolding in the septic pit as they are quickly approaching ground level with the block work. Remember, the scaffolding is rickety planks wobbling between iron bars welded together. Today someone came to measure for the roof tiles. He looked at the building, walked around the outside, walked around the inside, and then finally came back outside. He looked at the bricklayer standing on the scaffolding, swaying to and fro a little, then looked at us and said, “If he can stand on it, so can I.” There wasn’t much confidence in his statement, but he made it to the top of the building!
1 comment:
I think the whirlwind is God's approval of our project. He is chasing the witchcraft away.
Rick
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