Monday, May 21, 2018

Our first day of work!   This morning we had electricity when we got up.  No need for candles today.  Our main project is working on the missionary kids primary school.  It was originally a house which then was then adapted to be the primary school.  It is being completely gutted inside and remodeled to look like an actual school.  Much of the preliminary work has been done but today our team tore down some walls and pulled up the wooden subfloor to expose nothing but beams.  New footings will be dug and outside a new gravel drainage system will be placed around the front of the building to keep the mud at bay during the rainy season.  We are told that for every 2x4 that is reclaimed there is a cost savings of $7.  That’s significant!  So, there is lots of work being done to remove nails.  Several nationals were hired to do this project with our few hands helping where we can.  They are receiving a good wage of 30 Kina a day.  A “haus mary” (housekeeper) has also been hired to help us out in the house with laundry, cleaning, housework and helping with some cooking.   Wonda, Steph, Brookelyn and myself joined Tim on a trip to Hagen to grocery shop for the rest of the time we are here.  Hagen is the closest place to buy food other than a few basic staples and local vegies/fruit.  We can get most of that at the Kudjip open market area.  But to buy meat, cheese, or canned goods we need to make a long drive.  We’ll only do this once because it costs about $100 to do a round trip drive into Hagen.   Charity has worked hard to plan activities for us apart from the work time.   Part of today’s activities was a visit to the local market to purchase clothes. The market is called Rot Bung, pronounced “root bung”.  In it is an area with clothes on hangers draped over strands of barbed wire strung on poles.   On the ground between those poles are clothes laid out also.  The clothes come to the area in big bundles sent from Australia so most of them are gently used and generally sell for just a few Kina.  The goal was to find something either quite nice or very interesting for no more than 15 Kina, abut 5 dollars.  After dinner there was a fashion show with silly prizes awarded.   I think we have all finally acclimated to the time as people are staying up past 8:30 now and not falling asleep during devotions.   We had beautiful weather today with lots of clouds, a nice breeze, and no rain.  Nice place to be.