Although I think it’s less than a hundred miles from Bujumbura out to Sister Connection near Gitega, in Africa it’s a tiresome drive. After they returned to HAU, Michael prepared to head home and Miguel’s family began to settle in. Michael is now back in the states applying the information from HAU for application by the next several teams of this install. Meanwhile, Miguel is working with Gaspard, developing the solar field and preparing for Desire, a welder and possible helper who are coming from Kibuye Hope Hospital. Nora is setting up and organizing a kitchen for support for the larger teams that will arrive later in September and October.
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| The girls help papa set flags for the solar array and have some fun with papa. |
Here are some recent updates from them.
Miguel:
Yesterday with the help of 24 guys, we broke ground and started digging postholes. By the end of the day, half the holes were completed. Praise GOD!!! Gaspard, Baptiste and I met and came up with a game plan. Different tradesmen will be used for the different phases of the project, specialists in each craft to insure excellence.
The diggers have two days in the field, all to themselves. They are digging one meter cubed holes, bigger than what we need, but for a reason… The builders will start this afternoon building 2’6” boxes out of wood and we will be placing those in the oversized hole, lining them up perfectly to the measurements Michael gave us. After they are positioned and secured, we will brace the vertical posts in the center and then plumb them in line. We plan to have the boxes set by Thursday.
We requested the welder from Kibuye; Desire (dez-a-ray) to come down Wednesday to help buy the steel pipe material, and get it to the site. Desire will then return to Kibuye for the weekend and come back to HAU Monday to start the build. I will cut posts and begin setting them in.
Then we will set the outside posts to every array, concrete them in, lining up the center post the following day once the cement cures. After the vertical posts are set, Desire could start welding the east/west horizontal lengths and the north/south support braces. When this is finished, we will paint the array, and clear and level the field. Then we pray and get ready for the containers to show up!
Miguel:
End of the second day of digging! But not quite done. 18 holes left to dig and a few more to adjust. Our progress was stumped by, well, stumps!! We ran in to some big roots and stumps left behind from the tree clearing. We also ran into a sewer line that runs across the field, but overall, had a successful day.
We did have another hiccup... They started building the 30” x 30” x 36” boxes to hold the cement while it cures. Except they built the boxes 30 cm x 30 cm. Big difference! The confusion between our imperial measurements vs their metric has the potential to cause costly mistakes. We caught it early, but wasted a good half days work of couple of men. We will stay on it to avoid future frustrations!
We were hoping to have Desire here tomorrow to help us buy materials but have not been able to make this connection. Pray that we can connect and that the timing works for Desire.
Tomorrow we will finish the dig and start building and setting in the brace boxes for concrete. Blessings Hermanos!!!
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| Overview of project site |
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| Back breaking work |
Nora:
It’s only been one week but already such an amazing experience. Thanks to God!! Last week I was able to go to the big local market and that alone was something special. So many different vendors, too many to pick from. I got lots of fresh veggies, rice and beans, etc. It was very busy but the girls and I had lots of fun. I was also able to go to the butcher. They had a variety of beef, and pork. The girls saw bacon and their eyes lit up! They didn’t let me leave without getting some 😊. I also went to the UNI store. Lauren, my American/Burundian guide called it the “Mzungu” store. Mzungu or Muzungu is a central/east Africa term meaning a person of foreign descent or literally, someone who roams aimlessly. Muzungu is how they describe us westerners! UNI did not have much to pick from and it was a little pricy, but I did get butter!
Today I went to a small, local market behind HAU, only 5 min away. They have almost the same products as the big market so I don’t think we need to go all the way into town to get fresh veggies, and fruits.
Today I also started organizing and cleaning the kitchen. I want to make sure I know exactly what we have available to make everything as perfect as I can for when you all get here. Once I have everything organized and counted, I will send a list as well as pics.
We have been able to keep up with the water filter and have had more than enough water for us to use for cooking and so on. But, I realize it won’t be sufficient for a big group. We are currently trying to brainstorm as well as trying different things to see how we can provide sufficient water for the larger teams. We will send more info as we work this out.
The electric stove has not been very friendly to me, but she will become my best friend by the time I am done with her! 😊 Today I was able to bake some chocolate chip cookies by turning the oven on and baking the cookies for 2 min then turning it off and letting them cook for 6 min more with the oven off but still hot. The girls said they are not as good as Gramma Deb! La Charité is working on this for us. She will also get me some gas for the other small, apartment sized gas stove. I will try that one as soon as I am able. More to come on this as well...
Please continue to pray for us! Can’t wait to see you all! Receive lots of love from our family!
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