Our jury-rigged form

We are missing our electrical panel so we had to create a form to cover the area and work around it

Claudell and his block

I'm not sure that claudell has enough mortar for his block

Michael and Glenn in matching outfits

Tent mates leading worship

The LAM flight to Beira

Our prop plane flight to Beira

Next to last day

We made very good progress today. The medical team was working at the seminary today. They saw 55 patients today. They were without power for a couple of hours so that made them run late.

We got all the way up to the 12th course today. It is always tought to do the 11th course because of the door and window headers take a while to set. We had cloud cover all day and that helped with the heat. We had about a 40 minute rain delay but that was it.

Most of the group is going to distribute beans to the church members tomorrow afternoon and then go into town. We had a few folks that wanted to stay back and finish up a couple of walls so I will stay back with them to get them done. Thanks to Mell for volunteering to be my personal shopper!!

All the rain collected on a tarp covering our eating area. We had to empty it a few times during the week. Friday night it rained so much, it collapsed alltogether - luckily, we didn't need it after that. Here are a few of the group getting the water out on Thursday

Wednesday report

We had a rainy night. It started raining about 10 last night and drizzled all night. It was a gentle rain to start the day and it was nice and cool. It was a lot easier to work because it was cool. It rained really hard twice and we had to stop and take cover.

After lunch it stopped raining and was nice and cloudy. We got quite a bit done. However, our saw blade died at about 3:30 so that really brought us to an early end. In addition, we didn't have our wood to brace up our headers so we couldn't finish our walls. We were making really good progress up till then.


Job site at the end of day 4

We all helped bag beans for us to give away on friday. That was a bit of a diversion after dinner. We are going to have Claudell lead us in a game of Mafia.

Bagging Beans

More beans - we had about 200 pounds of beans to bag!

Claudell leading out in Mafia

Meron says hello to Ivan.

Gino's team hard at work

Here is how Gino works his team!

Halfway through the week

We are halfway through the week. It was a very hot day and we had a few folks that had to sit out for a while because they were a little dehydrated. Nothing too bad though.

The medical team finished up their clinic in Dondo. They saw 76 patients today in very hot conditions.

We are only up to 8 courses and we needed to be up to 9 and starting 10 to have a chance at finishing. We have our work cut out for us!

The block continues to be a challenge as it is differing sizes and brittle. However, we are going to continue to do our best!

Another monday update

Dr dewar and team treated 46 patients on their first day. It was a good first day for them but it was pretty tough conditions

We are having our own version of wild kingdom here. We have seen a bunch of different animals. Tonight playing uno we saw a bat and a millipede! Mayra got attacked by a bug during worship.

We have spiders crickets and lizards in the block pile, so it makes it exciting to get block!

Second day on the job

We had a rough night last night. At about 12:30 am, the skies opened up and the rains came. It poured and popped a couple of tent poles. So, a bunch of people got up to help adjust the tents. We all had trouble getting back to sleep.

Once we got up, it was still sprinkling. We got a later start since food wasn't ready.

We did a little better today and got up to 6 on some walls. Still having trouble with the block--it is very brittle and has different heights.

Jobsite at the end of day 2

We have a plan to complete with goals. We will see how we do tomorrow.

We also had some excitement today. The electric went out at around 4 pm. We worked as long as we could without being able to cut block. We have a generator but it wasn't working.

We cleaned up and went to clean up. At about 5 or so, Tim, one of the drilling crew, finally figured it out and got it running! It was a good thing because we wouldn't be able to take showers otherwise. They wired it to the pump and we got to take showers!

Tim, our shower saver!

We had a lot of prayer today about no rain and to get the power on. We ended up on a good note.

We may post more later.

First Day Part I

We completed our first day on the job site. It went a little slower than we would have liked. We had a lot of block to move and some normal first day learning curve issues.

Job site as we arrived

The block line

We almost got to the third course on the block and made real good progress on the Hydra-form brick.

Progress after day 1

We will make better progress tomorrow now that we have the hang of it and know how we are going to stretch our block lines.

Getting Settled

We made it to our camp with no trouble. David Woods and his family met us at the airport and we got here quickly.

The camp is nice and everyone is settled into their tents. We had two great meals and our first worship. We have a great cook and the Woods family are wonderful hosts.

Tent Camp City

Everyone's favorite bathrooms

No words necessary

Our Shower room

The team is ready to go and anxious to start. They are getting to know each other. We had a first tonight in that we had someone able to recite back everyone's name, home and profession after only hearing it one time. Veronica Dorsey was the first I have ever seen do that.

Our dining and meeting room

We have our standard Uno game going and Claudell is already cheating.

I hope to be able to post to the Blog myself soon (Rachael is posting for me). Currently, I have been able to receive email, but not send it.

Finally Here!

We finally made it to Mozambique. We started the day early and made it to the Johannesburg airport on time. Air Mozambique (LAM) stood by their promise of allowing extra weight and we didn't have a problem.

Our prop plane to Mozambique - surprisingly comfortable and they served better meals than most US carriers

However, our flight was delayed due to the aircraft arriving late. We had a pretty tight connection in Maputo, so they said they would hold our connecting flight. Once we finally all got our luggage, we ran to the counter where there was a mad dash for the LAM reps to check us in and our bags. We all made it on the plane to Beira. Oddly enough, LAM has fed us on both flights even though they are only 1 hour long! They have been very good to us.

Once we landed in Maputo, we had to go through Passport Control. Robert Joseph had trouble because they had never heard of Antiqua! Eric Griffin had to get a Yellow Fever shot, but no one else had trouble. AND, everyone got their bags (even Dr. Dewar).

Safe at the hotel

We finally made it to the hotel in Johannesburg. We had to wait a while for the bus and it had to make a few trips as it can only hold about 6 persons

We made it though and had dinner and worship. Everyone is off to sleep as we need to be on our way to the airport by 6 am to catch our flight to Mozambique for our final leg.

Keep us in your prayers for tomorrow as it could be challenging

Waiting for the bus to the hotel

Everyone made it through security and we are waiting for our bus. Wit can only take about 8 at a time, we we go in shifts

So far so good!!

Landed in Johannesburg

We made it! Now we need to go through customs and get our luggage. A long trip to say the least

The flight crew let us know that a group of about 50 other Maranatha volunteers came the day before. We will find out where they were headed
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Landed in Senegal!

Stir Crazy on the plane




After a long flight, we are in Senegal. We unfortunately don't get off the plane. We have to sit in here while they cater and clean the plane. They will come on board with security and check our luggage.

The plane was very cold so we are glad for long sleeves.

Everyone got good sleep except for Bobby.
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Leaving Atlanta

All of our group made it here and we are boarding now for our LONG flight. We hope we can get off of the plane in Senegal to stretch our legs.
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On our way to atlanta

We are on our way to atlanta. We have made it through security and are finally on the plane. No issues so far. The plane is a few minutes delayed, but we should still have two hours to make our connection in the Atlanta airport.
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Fun with Flight Tracking!

All;

If you are interested in tracking our group as we make our way to South Africa on Thursday / Friday, you can click the link below to track our progress on our Delta flight 34 from Atlanta. You may have to mess with the flight dates as we will be traveling both Thursday and Friday (groan.....).

And before you ask, NO, we don't have flight tracking for our flights on Air Mozambique!

Share in our fun 16 hour total flight time! Pray that our group makes it safe and sound (and that we get some sleep along the way!)

Delta flight 34 Tracking