Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wow!  Half way through our week already.  And, we have been very busy.  Again we have had some beautiful weather today.  No rain except a little sprinkle late this afternoon after we finished work.  It was sunny with a beautiful blue sky this morning.  But the clouds started rolling in about mid day.  All around us we can see mountains and valleys.  And we can see it raining across some of the valleys.  Right now at 5:15 it is very foggy and slightly cool.  The fog usually stays around until during the night.  Oh…..it is now beginning to sprinkle some.  But, it is the rainy season.  We are currently awaiting supper which is scheduled for 6:30.  I hope it doesn’t rain hard as we have to walk up the hill for our meal.

We finished the initial painting of all the steel today.  There are three different sizes that will comprise each truss.  By the time we finish each piece ---- moving, painting, welding and finish painting --- we have moved each one a total of 6 times.  We took a luggage scale today and weighed one small and one medium size beam and guesstimated the weight of the largest one.   Then multiplying that weight by the number of beams we figured that by carrying them just one time each we have moved 15,000 lbs or 7.5 tons of steel this week……and we will have moved each piece 6 times by the end of the week!!!  So….how many tons of steel will we have moved by the time we are finished?

There is an older gentleman who lives in a small apartment on the property.  I think his official job is as a guard or caretaker.  His name is Achilles. Every day while we are up by the kitchen and garage working on the beams he sits down the hill on the patio by our rooms watching to make sure our belongings are safe.  We lock the doors but he watches just the same.  Yesterday he came up to the work site for a bit and watched the welders.  Today his eyes are hurting so I am putting eye drops in them and checking on him occasionally.  He will tell us long stories and speaks to us as if we can understand every word he says. 

We finished work today about 4 p.m.  Since then we have showered (in cold water) and just sat on our patio visiting.

After supper tonight we hurried the cook and her family (Allen and Anna) out of the kitchen and we cleaned up.  They had a 13 year old niece who died of cancer whose funeral is tomorrow.  And, yet here they were tonight….cooking for us.   Such sacrifice and love.  We have seen much of that this week from this church family.  Allen has asked Pastor Jimmye and Pastor Ron S. to go with him to his brother’s house tonight to minister to them.  It is wonderful that we are having opportunities to minister.  Thanks to Chris, Deanna, Cheryl and Wonda for volunteering to clean up!

After supper we plan devotions at 8 p.m.  Pastor Ron M. will be giving the devotions the next 4 nights.  Pastor Jimmye was in charge the last 4 nights.  It really only lightly sprinkled this evening and has been really nice.   Hope we do get some more rain sometime before we leave here!