Day 5
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Ngodzi
We woke to a beautiful sunrise over Lake Malawi. Janet led devotions this morning on caring for the poor. She cited Bono on “to be close to God is to be close to the poor because he commands us to love the poor”. The day started out very hot and there was no breeze. We were overwhelmed by the amount of children that showed up to work. A simple empty plastic water bottle is invaluable to them and this caused some chaos as we passed them out for a job well done on hauling bricks. The Headmaster from the local school arrived and told the children to go home as there were too many children around the worksite to be safe. Some of the women noticed that many of the children were not healthy with anemia and chronic coughs.
We made excellent progress on day two. At the end of the work day the three windows on the back wall were installed, the west wall was almost finished with two of the three breeze block windows near completion. Most of the trusses have been constructed for the roof and the east wall is well on its way up. We are waiting for the doors to arrive so that we can complete the south wall and west wall.
Instead of waiting for transport back to the compound some of us decided to walk back the 800 meters through the village. Along the route green leaves were laid out across the road to indicate a funeral was taking place for the 2nd Chief. Anyone entering this area on bike had to dismount and walk quietly past the funeral hut. Any vehicles that passed had to slow done and make as little noise as possible. Those that were walking kept their voices down.
Janet spoke to Pastor MacDuff regarding who would be interested in learning how to play the guitar and pursuing it for worship during church service. He was overwhelmed with the offer and stated that he would like to learn and use it in his church for worship. The food has been more than excellent. Supper tonight was fish that came out of Lake Malawi.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Ngodzi
We woke to a beautiful sunrise over Lake Malawi. Janet led devotions this morning on caring for the poor. She cited Bono on “to be close to God is to be close to the poor because he commands us to love the poor”. The day started out very hot and there was no breeze. We were overwhelmed by the amount of children that showed up to work. A simple empty plastic water bottle is invaluable to them and this caused some chaos as we passed them out for a job well done on hauling bricks. The Headmaster from the local school arrived and told the children to go home as there were too many children around the worksite to be safe. Some of the women noticed that many of the children were not healthy with anemia and chronic coughs.
We made excellent progress on day two. At the end of the work day the three windows on the back wall were installed, the west wall was almost finished with two of the three breeze block windows near completion. Most of the trusses have been constructed for the roof and the east wall is well on its way up. We are waiting for the doors to arrive so that we can complete the south wall and west wall.
Instead of waiting for transport back to the compound some of us decided to walk back the 800 meters through the village. Along the route green leaves were laid out across the road to indicate a funeral was taking place for the 2nd Chief. Anyone entering this area on bike had to dismount and walk quietly past the funeral hut. Any vehicles that passed had to slow done and make as little noise as possible. Those that were walking kept their voices down.
Janet spoke to Pastor MacDuff regarding who would be interested in learning how to play the guitar and pursuing it for worship during church service. He was overwhelmed with the offer and stated that he would like to learn and use it in his church for worship. The food has been more than excellent. Supper tonight was fish that came out of Lake Malawi.
posted by Dr. Hendrik Visser at 3:45 PM
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