Just in case you wondered:

I was working on a new design for a student lounge hang out area last night. We slope the roof so that when we lay a tarp on top, rain water is funneled down to a barrel. Clean drinking water is highly prized and the water out of the boreholes apparently tastes quite bitter. We already are catching a large quantity of water and are seeing new people come every day to our homes with their jerricans to collect whatever water we have.

We were finishing the roof when one of the students, Zakki, walked up and told me there was a problem with the boat. Not unusual since our boat is made of 50 gallon drums, angle iron, and a cable. Sudan has a way of testing things to their limit. I should start a company that tests various products in Sudan. If it survives a month here, we could stamp it with a ten year guarantee for any other country. I think my body has been trying to tell me this lately.

What Zakki failed to elaborate on was that it was market day and many people were a little tipsy from the local brew, marissa, that is served each Tuesday. They then rushed onto the boat which is only capable of handling 10 passengers. When none of the 16 passengers budged from the boat, the boatman told them he was getting off because he knew the boat would flip. Sure enough, the boat got out into the current and flipped, sending money, coffee, sugar, and the days market purchases miles downstream. The boatman was then swarmed, thrown in jail, and the boat left upside down for the night in the middle of the river.

This morning we went the mile and a half down to the river, I stripped down to my boxers, much to the delight of the gathering crowd, and slipped into the rushing current. Now, you do not swim in a straight line in a river. The current is so rapid during the rainy season that we went a good 100 meters upstream in order to hit our target area across the river. A few strokes in I realized my boxers were not good swimming trunks. Let's just say the current of the river won over the elastic. Luckily the water was muddy from last night's rains and I arrived safely on the other side, no one the wiser.

We flipped our boat, retentioned the cable it runs along, and did some maintenance while were wet and had the tools out. Back in business and it was not even 10:30 am. I put my clothes back on and started hiking down the river.

This boat is not really working. I have adjusted the cable no less than 10 times as the river rises and falls according to the rains in the neighboring country. I have sliced my hand open trying to remove some grass (yes.grass!) from the cable, and we pay five people to guard and ferry people back and forth across this river.

But crossing is so necessary. 15,000 people are cut off from the clinic, market, school, airstrip, and family when the rains come. The river rises to a dangerous level for 4 months out of the year. This is hardly ideal, so that is why we work so hard on this boat.

Oh yes, I should mention that Chris Crowder and Nate Kidder went into the police station to free our boatman and to talk over some guidelines for using the boat. The police should have a heavy presence on market day from now on.

Anyway, so I am hiking downstream because I spotted an area where the river narrows. If the river is narrow, we should be able to throw a couple cables across and with a little help from an engineer who is reading this, have a pedestrian bridge that will be open all year. I hope it will free us up from maintaining and adjusting our boat all year long. The boat just isn't working in my opinion. I measured the potential areas and it came to about 240 feet across! Ouch. I thought it would be smaller than that. Well, let's see who our God provides to give the technical advice for this project.

I came home to find the kids taking their afternoon nap so I went down to check on the water-catching student lounge. It rained from 3 in the morning until 6 so I hoped the 400 Liter water tank would be full or close to it. I pulled open the cover and to my surprised found less than an inch of water in the tank. Hmm. I looked at my work and realized the building was sound but the last step was flawed. The water was dribbling off of the tarp when it needed to be guided into the barrel. I located some old roofing material, mabati for those from Kenya, and fashioned a small gutter out of it. The water should now pour nicely into the bucket and provide 35 students with the cleanest water they have ever had. All this was done with several students watching and helping. Work in progress.

Bethany made some wonderful pizzas with cheese and pepperoni from America. WOW. Pizza Hut move over. For an hour I couldn't believe I was sitting in a hut in Africa.

Tonight was game night. It was my turn to go as someone needs to stay home with the kids. The Ethiopian family, Beverly Crowder, Nate Kidder, and David-a teacher with the highschool that is starting next year- all played a rousing game of Uno.

10:30 pm and I am heading to bed. Details left out? Of course. But you'll
just have to come and see for yourself.