Wrapping up

Today was the final work day at In Step for Team 3.  Tonight the team is sorting and packing and getting ready for a 6 AM matatu to Nikaru tomorrow morning.  It has been an event filled two weeks and it certainly has gone by quickly.  Team 3 experienced many of the same delays and disappointments as Teams 1 and 2.  Nothing went quite as quickly as we had hoped and now and then the rain dampened the ground and our progress. Several team members got sick including Dan, Ashley and Carolyn who got malaria.  As Dan mentioned, yesterday morning started with an hour of sweeping water out of the building  before we could begin work. Anytime we even breath a word of disappointment Adam always says, “welcome to my world”.  He is a very patient man and living here has taught him even more patience.  I know he is here for construction but 80 percent or more of his time is spent on maintenance and not on the planned construction.  In spite of it all we can see meaningful progress forward, even if not at the rate we had hoped.  The team worked hard.  They fabricated all the steel reinforcing cages for the entire first floor ring beam.   All the columns got poured to the top of the wall and the outside ring beam is nearly all formed and has steel set ready for concrete.  The concrete stair tower to the second floor is walled in and the stairs and landing formed and poured.  For now it is a stairway to nowhere, but in time hundreds of little feet will run up and down it.   Adam does have a team of Kenyan workers who are following up behind us to complete the forming and pouring of the second floor.  The goal is to have that completed in five weeks.   Ashley, Amanda and Grace were able to sort boxes of kids cloths and organize them so they are easier to find.  It was a fantastic two weeks and the hospitality and care provided for us by the In Step was above and beyond expectations.  The accommodations were excellent, the food outstanding, the medical care exceptional.  Thank you Adam and Sean and Mer and Jeff and Carla.  We leave behind us months of work for Adam and his crew to finish.  We also leave behind an amazing group of dedicated staff who work hard daily to care for the 118 youngsters with their unique personalities and skills and potential.  We take with us awesome memories of the people we met, the things we experienced and the lives that touched us.  We will certainly think of and pray for In Step often.  We all owe them a debt of gratitude for everything they do for the kids and for everything they did for us.