Bibles and Footers

Nancy and Don preparing the column bases to go in the holes

Half of the 500 Juniors and Seniors presented with Gideon Bibles

Using a bed sheet to find the laser level "dot" after the laser stopped spinning to produce a "line"

5 of the 16 Seminary students who helped pour concrete today

The sign on the coconut tree says this is a construction site now.

Heavy but brief rain woke many of us up in the early morning. But as usual, shortly after sun up (about 6AM) the clouds broke up and made way for a partly cloudy, but mostly sunny day. The breeze was a little stronger today which really helped in the afternoon heat. And when we stay in the breeze or have a fan running it is hard to even notice the humidity. The daytime high temperatures are consistently in the mid to high 80’s with lows around 70.

First thing after breakfast and again after lunch,  when most of the crew went off to work on the gymnasium, Tim and I had the privilege of distributing Gideon testaments to the 11^th and 12^th grades who attend here on the Seminary campus. These students come from all over the area and seem to be very bright and well mannered students. In this area most schools stop after 10^th grade. So there is a demand for schools that offer the last two years of high school for the best and brightest, who wish to finish high school and especially for those who plan to attend college. These students seem to take education serious considering this is optional and they must pay tuition. The last head count I heard for the high school enrollment was 480, but the School Director told us today that the new term is just starting and she thinks the final headcount will be significantly higher. Students attend the school in shifts which is common in Africa. The early students go to school from about 7 to noon, and the afternoon students go from about noon to 5. As far as we can tell Tim and I distributed about 500 Bibles today between the two sessions, plus the Bibles we gave to the teachers and administrators. Next week we will distribute Bibles to the Seminary students.

Today marked the beginning of the concrete work. The footers were poured in 7 of the 14 holes as of 5PM  when I left the site and Calros had just arranged to pay the seminary students to work overtime to pour a few more footers before dark. So Carlos, Don and Juan stayed late to foreman this crew. Tomorrow we should finish the last of the 14 footers and hopefully pour a substantial amount of the ring beam.

The seminary students usually come to help out from 3 – 5PM, after class. Today 16 were working with us at one point. So with that much youthful energy, we old timers stood back and watched them go at it. It is great to see them excited about the project and wanting to contribute to the future of the Seminary. It has been a great way for us to get to know them as well. Many speak enough English to make for meaningful conversation and when all else fails we usually can figure out what we mean using sign language or our survival Spanish which is very similar to Portuguese in many respects.

This afternoon the ladies in the group went with Dr. Restrick to do some shopping for things we need and some scouting for our planned outing on Saturday. We will probably attend the Central Church of the Nazarene on Sunday, at least that is what most of us hope happens.

I am blogging early today because we are going to have a late Argentinean style dinner tonight prepared by the Bauza family. It has been good getting to know Calros, Sylvia and their three daughters and we are looking forward to an Argentine meal, a meat centric style meal many of us still fondly remember from our W&W trip to Pilar, Argentina back in 2005. I am sure I will have good things to report on this evening when I check in tomorrow.