Hope for Africa Vocation Training Centre

The time is going by way too quickly. We are busy and we still can’t get everything done in a day. We worked on the bike for most of the day today. We filed and filed and filed…then filed some more. My hands are wrecked…much like they were when Barr and I were in California. What I wouldn’t give for an electric sander and a vice! We have to have someone hold the bike while we use flat files to break down the layers of sisal that has hardener like a rock. We did not even finish because the work is so tedious and the equipment we are using is so crude. I really think we will want to invest in an electric sander and a study vice to help the fellows and gals who make this project become a reality. The boys (Deo and his friend Timothy) went to a camp where a team from California was doing medical mission. These are some of the really forgotten. The way they get water is they have a rock pile and they have it set up such that when it rains, they collect the water and that is how they get the water they need to cook, clean, and bathe! Can you imagine? It is so amazing what people can do when they have nothing to work with. Another thing that they do is they have found a bat cave nearby and they capture the bats and eat them. I cannot imagine the diseases they those animals carry. I am appalled by the way these people live. Heather and I have spent time in our dear friend, Molly’s home. Honestly, our pets who live outside have nicer places to sleep than she. Her place is a make-shift room of aluminum sheets and some concrete. The door is a sheet. She does all the beads in that tiny room and she lives there with her son. It is nothing that any of us have ever experienced. They use kerosene for a lamp at night and, of course, they have no toilet, no running water, and no furniture. These people sleep on the hard ground and wash their clothes in tubs. Interestingly, they are always very clean and properly dressed. I really do not know how they do it. I would love to help Molly get a better place to live. I would like that for all my friends here, but it is not a possibility. This would be an awesome place for Habitat for Humanity!!!!! There is not much more to report for the day. I am having a meeting with the first group of 20 women who will start the school next week. We will meet on Sunday. I am really excited and I believe they are, too. Peace and blessings to all