Jan 8, 2011

Week 7/8 - rain, Rain, RAIN!


Lots of Rain and Chickens Moved Into New Home!
Category:Lesotho 2010/11 
Posted by: Rome

Hello Everyone,

Wow, what a crazy time this last week has been. The holidays are over and stores are open again, although with little on the shelves because many suppliers shut down for several weeks.

Today is the first day in the last 8 in which it hasn’t rained.  And I do mean RAINED…..work stopping kind of rain.  We would start the day with heavy clouds in the sky, head out to our various tasks, and then just get dumped on!  We’d pick up tools, dash in and hang out playing Bananagrams, drinking some hot tea, trying to dry out our clothes just to head out again, when the rain stopped….over and over and over and over day after day.

You might think we didn’t get anything done, but in fact with great determination we pushed through some milestone tasks:

The shoring from under the bridge is all down, safely, and the bridge is beautiful!

The new chicken coop roof is on and there are bright lights inside.  Of course the last piece of roofing had to go on in a big downpour, because Sue, Ron and Ann just would not quit until it was done!

The first steel “C” channel has been welded up in the hall, with holes pre-drilled for the track from which the classroom partitions will hang.  Seems this indoor task would be easy in the rain, but the power goes out and the generator will run our power tools but not the welder.

3 gates for the fence have been fabricated but not quite put into concrete yet.  The remaining length of fencing to be installed is presently under water from all the rain.  On Monday we will dig a ditch to reroute the new pond of water if it hasn’t dried up.

Shelly and Tess have been madly chain sawing trees that have fallen in the recent storms and clearing branches that are in the way of the new fence.  You can guess that this is a favorite task of the students who want to learn to run the cool saw….

Shelly and the Peruvians have also been working the storm drainage pathways around the bridge abutments and it will soon be National Park quality!

Since the moment that the roof went on the chicken coop, the building of the perching racks and roosting boxes began.  Karen, Jefferson and Ann are reusing all the plywood and framing materials from the bridge shoring and concrete pour and today it got finished.

THE GANGLY LOOKING LITTLE CHICKS MOVED INTO THEIR NEW 3 STORY HOME TODAY!  It really was a great feeling to see them explore their ramps and perches. What a great way to finish our short Saturday work day.  (We moved them by herding them from the old coop into the new coop through a plywood chute 12 of us were holding in place.  Bokang got the honor of moving the first chick :)

We are in Maseru tonight instead of Ficksburg….a little variety is needed, especially since we are finally dry today.

Miss you all!

Rome

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