Many Hands and Still Hard Work

After slaving on the ruble filled garden for a few days we were more than happy to have extra help, in addition to the FFC boys who assist us as often as their schooling and chores allow.  On the morning of 27th of February, the year is obvious, a group of seven young men and women from our church arrived helped us clear out the a portion of the area behind the new building, still in process of being completed.

For a couple of hours we worked, removing large stones and chunks of old cement, who knows how long it has been sitting here.

Also, lumps and ditches were leveled and filled, while some sifted through the rocky soil, extracting junk and debris.

Here is a nice project that they helped us start, but we either have to find something bigger than a hatchet or dedicate a month to this project

Then, of course, nothing in life is complete without a good meal to enjoy.  Fresh homemade watermelon juice to defy the solar furry of the day, and some hot chapatis and omelets to fill the belly.  All who participated enjoyed not only the food, but the work as well.

The grand moral of the story whenever you work hard and do something nice for someone you always have a good feeling inside, sometimes right about where your stomach is.   Okay, you wont always get fed, but there is nothing like working outside in God's good nature and beautifying those area already wreck by men's "ingenious" constructions.
Oh no! David the Post Host forgot to dig a post hole...I guess you will just have to ready because you never know when he will post again.

Snakes and Ladders/Rakes

 The phone rang…jostling us from our innocent enjoyment of a quiet uneventful evening.   Even the Sun had gone to bed.  It was Peter, the contractor for our new building, and in an eager manner urged us to hasten to the rescue of his workers who were camping out in an old building on the construction site.  It appears that the men had left the women at home and they encountered a snake.  Now, let me warn you it is not uncommon to find poisonous snakes here.  In panic they had called their boss, Peter, who called Katie, who told us, Mani and I, to investigate the matter, and we told...ourselves to be calm.  Arming ourselves with a flashlight, a large sack, our new rebar rake we had made, and a machete we traveled the short distance to the site, fortunately meeting up with the wayward men returning from their little shopping trip.  We advanced to the old building where the women were waiting with the door closed in fear.  Through the grating, one lady informed us that the culprit serpent had been sitting in the front of the door like an anticipating cat purposefully waiting to pounce on any unwary passerby.  Whether because of our resolute approach or for some other cause, we may never know, but the serpent has skulked away to some hidden retreat.  Looking about we spied a sheet of metal lying unobtrusively close by.   If I were a snake, I would love to sleep under a metal sheet.  We all had the same idea and mutely and spontaneously decided to take a peek, from a distance of course.  Just like we feared, when the sheet went up the snake came out and the frenzy began.  Telling us it was poisonous and giving Mani and I no chance to act, the men took our rake and some stones and after a confused kafuffle and high paced action it was over.  Mani ended up with the rake again and had secured the snake in place while the deed was done.  All heaved a sigh of relief and Mani triumphantly lifted the rake, then bent out of any recognizable shape and brought it down victoriously by his side.  I must here tell you of the mistake I made, and that was to stand by Mani.  The rake viciously found a new victim in the form of my foot.   Pain, surprise, and the pent up emotion of the preceding few minute erupted in unintelligible ejaculations.  However, upon close examination I found I had suffered only one minor scratch on my toe.  I think because the rake was so battered my foot found a nook in which it escaped a serious rusty collision.  God was watching out for us that day.  The serpent that had disturbed us was rather big, 47 inches long and about the thickness of a baseball bat.  We have also come to the conclusion that it is probably a python and not some poisonous viper as feared.

Now with every experience comes a lesson to be learned if desired.  For me the moral of the story is never stand by Mani if he has a tool or weapon in his hands…the result can be painful.  I guess that does not apply to everyone since few have the opportunity to be in Mani’s company.  Let say that the moral is look before you strike, because you may find out the snake is not dangerous and could have been saved or that the foot really is not worth striking anyway!

I hope you enjoyed this adventure with David the “one footed” Post Host.  So if you have toes stay on them because you never know when I will post again.  Sorry there are no pictures on this one.

Post-Intermission

Hooray! We are now back in business.  The illusive internet has finally been subdued brought into service...at least for now.  Everyday holds a new surprise!
One fine day, too far back for my short term memory to recall, our internet chip suddenly and decisively failed.  Stubbornly, it resisted all pleadings and demands to work. In the end the it was decided that they would throw out the worthless troublemaker and set up the volunteers with wireless.  Sounded like the best idea yet.  People have a habit of deceiving themselves.

Impartial to our situation the earth revolved merrily as before.  First once, then twice, then thrice and so on continuously adding to the growing number of days it took to resolve the problems.  "Tomorrow, they will do it" was the habitual response to our inquiries. I have yet to live through a tomorrow. It became painfully clear that it was not about to happen soon. In order to accomplish some desired tasks I even took our laptop to the office which has wireless internet, but as if I had been jynxed the internet was shut of after about five minutes.  Reluctantly, I resigned myself to my fate of solitary cyber isolation. Someone, I do not know who, had the brilliant idea to buy a new internet chip.  By this time we were happy to try anything. Soon enough they gave us the chip and with high hopes we tested it...suspense...loading...authenticating...please wait...Sorry, the remote computer is not responding.  Thus is the sad saga of our struggle.  Calling, testing, giving, taking back, hoping ensued and continued for the next few days until the 1st of March.  With the beginning of a new month, the internet service must have come back from vacation or something, because it now works properly. Hopefully this is no fleeting phantom of functioning internet, that rises for an instant and dissipates the next.
It is the obvious moral of the story that if you want internet never buy an internet chip.  If that is not good enough try this.  Do not get connected to the world, besides what happens if you loose connection...you could go crazy like us.
Wait, do not cut your internet connection just yet, because you never know when I will post again. Thanks, this is your Post Host, David.