Doors and Windows

Here you can see the start of the door and window installation. They are all metal, and the red paint is a primer coat. We will have to sand and paint them after they are finished putting them all in. They look pretty good right now, and are very sturdy. Since the funds are close to being finished we had to come up with creative ways to get some things we need using materials we already had. The screen doors you see Tina posing next to are built with the wood planks we used as forms for the concrete roof slab. The metal was left over from the veranda roof, so it sort of matches. I am hoping we can make some desks and other furniture out of the rest of the wood planks. We will see…

Water Proof

The terrace has a coat of tar on it and you can see the contractor, Laurent Gomis, rolling out the water proofing. The rolls of the waterproofing have a surface like a typical asphalt roof shingle. Gomis is heating up the underside of the roll with a torch so it becomes sticky and tar like and then he rolls it out. Each of the layers overlaps each other and it will turn up all the vertical surfaces about a foot. During the rainy season it can pour for days so it is important the roof is water tight.

The Wall

Right now the wall is about two thirds done. Once we complete this, the entire site will be free of wandering farm animals. That is good news because then we can plant some fruit trees, without the wall the goats would eat them. The wall is really only about 5 feet tall so people can easily see what is going on inside and we can still see the other neighbors. We did not want to build this huge compound wall and shut everyone out ; the visual connection is important. We have already started making friends with most of the people that live around us, and hopefully we can invite them all to our dedication feast for the center.

God on our side

Last week I shared with the folks at UCF an urgent prayer request. The mayor came to the site and told us we had to stop building our wall. He said he wanted to put a road through our property and that he was going to take a large strip of our land for that. It was alog the nicest part of the property, the grove, with the fruit trees. Well I think we are in the clear thanks to God and the prayers, it seems this guy does not have the authority to do that. He normally does though, but we went through this whole permit procedure at the beginning. I wrote about that a long time ago, and how getting that document was a miracle in itself. Well it seems to have paid off, the land is officially the church property and we can finish our wall. Cool.

Voyage

Another Dakar trip is behind me. I finally went last week and was there for a few days. The city is just crazy. I am starting to get used to it though and find my way around. It is so chaotic, loud, crowed and dirty. There is a lot of excitement and you have to stay on your toes or you could get hit by a wild taxi or a huge truck. There does not seem to be any road rules anyone follows, and pedestrians do not have the right of way. The transport didn't work out as I thought it would but it did work out. The truck we were waiting for never came through so we just went and found another one. It was not an easy task though and turned out to be pretty expensive. The real challenge was getting all the different materials I bought to one central location for the truck to take. I had to hire a bunch of different guys with chariots to cart them. The chariots are basically big carts with handles and for tires they have a car axle attached. There are armies of these guys that run around the city all day moving stuff, they are basically taking the place of a donkey in the whole donkey cart arrangement. All the materials are finally at the site though. The doors and windows look pretty good and we will start putting them in on Monday. The tile is also here though a bunch of it got broken in transit. That was a bit frustrating. I am getting better at negotiation though, and I think people understand my French pretty well now. Some other items I got there were a fridge and all the paint. So all is ok for now though we are running against the clock now. Some time ago we planned a dedication of the training center, it seemed like enough time to be finished before, but it will be close at this point. It also looks like some of our materials are running out and I am not sure what will happen with that. We need continued prayer for God's provision.

Veranda roof

The roof over the veranda is now complete. You can see the rough hewn timbers that are typical of the traditional construction here. Now most people use the corrugated, galvanised roofing sheets you see here. Many people still build mud houses with thatched roofs though. The veranda is quite comfortable and provides shade from the hot sun for most of the day.

Trench time again

Yes it is another trench. We are almost complete with digging the trench for the surrounding property wall. The wall is over 250 meters long, so as you can see, we will need many bricks. Today the men finished making all of them. Now we have a total of 4500 bricks. The mason has actually started building the wall today too. It’s all coming together.

Today

Here is the most current shot of the building. I am really happy with how the details are turning out. As you can see the windows and door are not here yet. I have still not gone to Dakar. I am hoping the transport situation will work out and I can go this week. Please continue to pray for order in this trip. After that we will really be in the home streatch so I remain excited.

Dakar

This week I am going to Dakar. I cant really say I am looking forward to the trip again, I could really use some prayers. It is pretty taxing, and stressful. I thought I would have been there already, but there has been some difficulty setting up the transport of our stuff. I will have to change some money as well, so lets hope I can get a good exchange rate. I am encouraged by the progress lately. The stair is finished and looks great. The workers are finishing up the parging on some last parts of the building. Today the plumber finally came and installed all the piping, so we can progress with the shower and bathroom. Also there are two guys working on the roof over the veranda; and hopefully they will finish in a few days. I will try to post some pictures soon, but I dont know when or how long I will be in Dakar. The other big news is that today we started digging for the enclosure wall. So there is a lot going on right now. I really searched and got some guys to build the wall for a good price. I am thrilled about this. It seems we had a litte more money come in, and I was able to make it work so we coud build the wall. We will see... it is going to be close. God continues to come through in everything.