A mysterious invasion dominated the experience of our Week 7 team.

It all began with great excitement when, finally, Kathi's container that had been at the port in Haiti since January was released. It had our scaffolding, stairs and balcony in it and we were delighted to see it all arrive on site.

Unbeknownst to us, when Kathi's staff unloaded all their items into the various rooms of where we are staying, they discovered that mice had gotten into some rice that had been stored in one of the rooms. No big deal. They removed the rice bin and took it outside for the pig.

Later that night all hell broke loose.

Apparently the mice who had been enjoying the vast stash of rice found it missing and began their search....into our rooms. Shelly and Claudia awoke to mice running all over their beds, across their pillows and even down Shelly's leg! They were yelling and chasing them, trying to get them out. They duct taped holes in the corner of the floor, stuffed towels under the door and generally had a sleepless night.

The next morning we told Kathi about the sudden onslaught of crazed mice and we were all perplexed. When I first arrived we caught a couple of mice but for weeks now, the traps we set had been undisturbed. We'd see the occasional one run by, but again, no big deal.

Later that afternoon we learned about the removed rice and it all made sense.

That was 4 days ago. We've caught 17 mice since then and the pace is slowing way down.  We should be back to the occasionally cute scurrying one again soon.

Oh yeah, and in between checking our mouse traps Barb, Claudia and Kathy installed all the window frames; Rosemary, Shelly and Kathy tied rebar on the second floor deck and we all poured concrete floors for days and days.....by buckets, up a pulley to the second floor. About 720 buckets in a day.  Tomorrow we pour the last section of the first floor, by wheelbarrow thankfully.

Ahhhh, this is the good life!
Rome