North Africa Update

We started working a little bit on a new site this last week! we were able to get the floor poured on wednesday. We actually only poured about two thirds of the floor, the rest had already been poured by the government. The government sometimes builds about half a house, if even that much for people, walls that still need a little work, holes for windows and doors, part of a ceiling and part of a floor. So the people with these houses still live in tents because they dont have the money to finish the house. There is a lot that goes into pouring a floor. We have to dig and make the ground level, then we go hunting for rocks to lay over the dirt. Usually we kick them over and hope there are no snakes underneath. Wheelbarrows full of rocks go into the house and its like a giant jigsaw puzzle without a picture trying to make it all fit as closely as possible without being too high. It was a total of a two to three day project from when we first started digging out the floor. We also got to do some other digging, behind the house to get the dirt away, and a septic. John and Derik dug a few of those at first, but this time I got a chance to be in the hole for awhile, dont worry, I've got pictures, I will make sure to post them when we get home. For the remainder of the week we were joined by a local married couple as well as a family from australia that is currently living here, they stayed at the house we are at and helped out at the first site, setting up to pour part of the roof on the half government built house on that site. Early friday morning, one group at four, and the other at seven, headed towards the capital city for a long weekend. The truck, which left at four broke down a little over halfway here, but it got fixed and we all arrived safely. We slept in and got pancakes when we woke up, usually we just have a pastry or bread and tea. So it was a treat for us. We went swimming at a nice pool and a little at the beach for much of the day, then went out to dinner. Sunday (this) morning we were able to go to a service in english, which was also a treat for us. After service we spent some time relaxing at the house, then walked through the market. After the market we got to go bowling, its a pretty new thing here, I think we all enjoyed ourselves, even though some of us, lets just say, dont bowl very well. tomorrow we will make the eight hour drive back to where we are building houses. We only have about a week and a half left there though, we start our adventure home the 17th of august.
Thank you for lifting our team up! I will try to write one more time before we return home.
Sapphire