Installment 32

Installment 32
By now, you know that my thoughts are not linear. This may be the worst that I have put down. I know, it can’t be true, you say, thinking that I have already reached the apex of incongruous thought. Don’t pass judgment until you finish this installment….that is if you have the stomach to take the challenge. It’s been a while since I shared my scrambled thoughts….mostly because it takes energy to lift the lid on my laptop. Now I am only saying this to get sympathy from you and to make you really feel sorry for me…and I can only hope it works..
As you also know, because God had a hard time finding a competent builder, He relented and called me here to get two buildings started. Back in the good ‘ol USA, building a couple of 1800 sqft buildings wouldn’t be too much of a challenge for a long time builder…..for me, yes, a builder, no. But here I am with about 32,000 lineal feet of lumber, 800 tons of sand, 100-100kg bags if cement, 20 tons of steel, and 30,000 lf of building stones either on the property or on the way….oh yeah, and about 30 men who speak little English, with sharp instruments, all looking at me. Now if I only knew how to build the ‘Kenyan way’. But I will rely on my old friend Ron Reagan’s advice; “I don’t have to know everything, I just have to surround myself with people who do.” Well, I have the ‘don’t know’ down pat….now if I can just find the ‘who do’. Fortunately, for me, God is merciful and has provided Jackson, who does know the ‘Kenyan way’….and for some reason speaks Swahili, even tho he is African and was born here. He has proven to be competent and has the work progressing quite well. I mostly stay out of Jemba striking distance and look important with my clipboard. The last couple of days we, well they, have been mixing and pouring cement into the trenches for the column bases, which I won’t explain to you, as I haven’t a clue myself…part of the ‘Kenyan way’ I hope. Because of a problem of getting water pipe, the men are carrying 5 gal buckets of water about 150 yards for the concrete mix….which is done by machine….if you call a spade and jemba machines. All done on the ground. Today we, well they, are mixing and pouring the ‘footings’, using 4000 lbs of cement and 5 million 5 gallon buckets of water. I asked one of the men how he liked carrying water in buckets. “It sure beats using a water pipe” he says…and if I hadn’t caught a glimpse of ‘Jeff’s look’ I might have missed that he was mocking me. “I’m trying my best to have a pipe here by the end of the project” I encouraged. “Oh, that will good” he says, “I always wanted to work on a project with a water pipe.” “I’ll do my best,” I continued, “but TIA so maybe I could find a picture of a pipe and let you see it” That seemed to help, as he was strangely smiling as he sloshed off.
Back to yesterday…at least that is where my thoughts are taking me…and now you. Just when the construction crew needed water to carry, the water line that feeds the buildings broke underground and we…well someone had to shut down the water supply from the storage…and then we..well someone had to dig up the line, which as it turns out is made of the highest quality soda straws on the market. Since this is the third break since I got here, we….well I decided that we….they needed to replace the line. So after another temporary ‘fix’, we….they got the water back on and the bucket guys were ecstatic…as you can imagine. Then two of our Shamba (field) guys started digging up the line with jembas as I watched with my clipboard….just out of reach. Jeff is working on getting some better grade…maybe European straws to replace the line.
Speaking of Jeff, I haven’t seen much of him. Carla is still in the hospital with Dorcas….can’t remember if I told you, Dori got a blood infection and so is back in town….Carla is enjoying the hospital environment with her. Anyway, every morning for the last three, Jeff has sprinted (read meandered) to Toyota, tossing me the keys to the kingdom and bumped off down the ‘road’, heading for town to take Carla supplies and to forage for ‘stuff’ for this place, including food. So, while I stress over getting building supplies before we…well they can’t get trucks into the site because of rain, Jeff has been fighting the battles with the suppliers…..you know the story….Jeff: “We really need the sand delivered before the rains softens the shamba” “Yes, I will help you, it is on it’s way, in fact it is already there.” pretend ‘supplier’ says. “And will it already be there by this afternoon or tomorrow?” Jeff probes. “I hope so, but TIA” says pretend supplier. “Ok, because we needed it yesterday.” Jeff continues. “Then we will have it there yesterday…in fact, the lorrie was there already.” PS says…..knowing that it is more important to tell us what we ‘want’ to hear than to tell us what is the actual truth….and it did sound like music to my ears…..This is Jeff’s life…no lie. All this to say, that we really don’t have a lot of the materials on site, but the lorries are on the way,,,,in fact they are here…..hopefully by tomorrow. Last night after dark, which would be after light for most of you, 2 lorries came on site. One did fine in the mud with not a whole lot of trouble, but the other kept getting stuck. He was setting there spinning his wheels and going nowhere. “Is there trouble?” I shouted over the screaming diesel. “No, the lorrie is running and it is in gear and the wheels are turning.” he hollered back. “But you are not going anywhere” I replied loudly. “It’s OK, I get paid by the kilometer” he says…..I’m getting pretty good at Jeff’s look.
　
Martin Luther: "This life therefore is not righteousness, but training in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified."