Running Water

Hola familia y amigos!

A participant recently said:  "Being a missionary is not for pansies!"  He was right!

We wake up about every 2 hours needing to go to the restroom...guess we are doing a wonderful job of staying hydrated!  The rooster crows around the clock so who ever wrote that this animal crows at sunrise was certainly misinformed!  Around 4:30am the roosters, chickens, ducks, and turkey´s begin to get quite vocal.  Then at 5am the church members unlock the gate and park their vehicles outside our rooms in the courtyard.  They, like the Samoan church, sing without microphones and make a very joyful noise.  After about a 1/2 hour prayer meeting they end with more singing. 

By 5:30am the kitchen crew is up and in starting breakfast.  The participants stumble out of their sleeping bags and start getting ready for their day on the jobsite.  People quietly sit and read or pray in the meeting room while breakfast cooks.

Running water....it has taken on a new meaning for us.  There is a well in the kitchen and the city turns on the water supply once a day for a 1/2 hour to (hopefully) fill the well.  We also have a large trash can outside the kitchen that we fill with this water.  We fill buckets from the well or the garbage can and "run" to the bathroom to flush the toilets.  We have many new team mottos and to conserve water one is:  If it´s yellow let it mellow.  It´s brown send it down.  We have sinks and a shower in each of the 2 bathroom, but no running water....except for the person running in with a bucket. 

Like in other countries, the toilet tissue cannot be put down the toilet.  It is put in a bucket beside the toilet instead.  A person quickly learns this new habit or they have to fish it out.  Blech!  I do remember that after I returned from a mission trip to Ecuador that I forgot the tissue could go down and instead threw it on the floor beside the toilet. 

We have a 15 minute devotional after breakfast and by 8am the workers are heading to the jobsite.  The road to Penitas is rutted and very muddy.  The drivers weave back and forth down the road to avoid the biggest potholes...and each other.  We cross the dam after stopping to talk with the military personnel (the carry very BIG guns).  So far we haven´t been searched and the first couple days they looked all of us over and requested some ID.  Most of the time they just wave us on now.

After the dam we start the journey into the ranching community traveling along a 2 lane winding road with a washout or two.  People here seem to fancy themselves as race car drivers and it is not unusual to encounter a vehicle (car, truck, or motorcycle) in your lane as you go around corners.  It can be a teeth gritting, knuckle whitening, nauseating commute.

The kitchen crew delivers lunch to the workers around noon and stays to take pics and eat some lunch.  Then we pack up again and head back to start on the next meal.  The kitchen staff works from about 5:45am to 8 or 9pm.  We were getting exhausted so James rotated some workers to help us.  Ben, from Australia, has become part of the kitchen staff and we are very grateful for his help.  He has been a wonderful addition to our team.

Lynda