Kingdom Hall 6 Building in the rain

The rains seemed a little late this year but they've arrived at last.  There's good and bad to the rainy season.  It's the time of year when it's very hot and the rains cool it down a little.  They also bring out the most wonderful fungi.  This was growing on one of the logs that we use as benches in the canteen.

We can work for a little while in the rain but sometimes it comes down too hard and we have to stop and wait till it's over.

But we don't get bored, Freedom is always ready with something to play.  This is a mini home made draughts.  He calls himself a play boy because he likes games.  I don't think he understands the English meaning of the word.

Haddy and Susan came prepared.






I love the way rain sits on black skin, so pretty.











After the rain Vasile dug a trench to get rid of all the water. 

This is what we're up to when it's not raining.  Terry is cutting the roof sheets.  

Ben is filing off the rough edges.

I I finally got to do some block laying.  Yama trained me.

My first block and my mornings work (top row only).  I would have done more if it hadn't been for the rain.

Laying the roof.   Is that the right word?  Laying?   Putting the roof on.  Think I'm too tired, I've forgotten how to speak English. 






















Once the roof was completed we could use the Hall as a storage room and demolish the little house we were using. Kinda sad, it was cute.

Today we started on the landscaping so hopefully we'll be completing it all very soon. 

Kingdom Hall 5

 For those of us who manage to get to site for 8am we start the day with the daily text.  Here's Anna, Terry and Ben waiting to start.



The main job this week was getting the roof on.  It feels like we're getting somewhere now.  It's amazing but the rains are really late this year, we've have virtually no rain and the little we've had hasn't affected the build at all. 

Putting the oil on the beams is a very messy business.  I had the job of painting it on but managed to stay fairly clean.  The problem was they were still a little wet when they had to move them so Ben got filthy.  The dogs found little spaces under the wood to shelter from the sun and both came out black. 

Many of the brothers and sisters are being trained to put the plaster on.  This is Victoria. 

This gorgeous Flame Tree can be seen from one of the windows.  I'll have to sit on the other side or I won't be able to concentrate.

You have to be 17 to work on the site but Joseph was allowed to spend an afternoon in the canteen in his hard hat while waiting for his parents. 



Once the roof trusses were up the brothers started working on the windows.  They put these nails on the side on odd angles then put it in the window holes (is that the right word??).  After that they put cement in the gap so the windows can't be pushed out.  Our Hall is a little unusual in West Africa as we're having glass windows.  Many others have open blocks instead.  Gambia is on the edge of the desert and we'd be knee deep in dust in no time if we couldn't close the windows.

This was something I had to record for my own memory.  A sister asked Ben to do her a favour.  He's a helpful guy so he was willing until she asked him to TIE HER SHOELACES!!   She had loosened her shoes during the afternoon as she was getting tired and hot but couldn't do them up again.  She said a boy in her compound had done them for her in the morning but she didn't know how to re do them.  I gave her a lesson in shoe tying which caused a lot of laughs from all of us (we were laughing with her, not at her).  I asked how come she couldn't tie laces and she told me she had never worn shoes with laces before.  In Africa we always wear open sandals or flip flops.  The guys might wear trainers for sport but the women don't and she had never had to tie laces in her life.  Seemed a strange thing not to be able to do.