Addendum to Sunday’s Blog

(I was supposed to write the entry for Sunday, but Bill beat me to it.  I am including it, mainly for the quotes.)

Team One – July 20 – Blogged by Robert Perez

A few quotes from our team members as we were waiting for our pickup to Martin Shikuku’s church service/grand opening of new Johabeto buildings:

“At the bottom of the stairs, there is one of those big beetles, but I don’t have energy to kill it.” – Carolyn Pollock

“It’s the size of a turtle, or a reptile.  I’ve never seen one that big” – Becky Roffe

“It looks like it could hurt somebody” –Melody Carlin

“Even duct tape can’t fix stupid, but it can muffle the sound” – Bill Pollock (as he was reading a text sent to him on his cellphone)

Today is Sunday and we have made much progress in various assigned tasks and duties.  We also have found time (and energy!) to keep things light-hearted and funny, as the above quotes indicate.

Although a few of us are sick, we have been very grateful for the strength and wellbeing to clean, cook, laugh, smile, lay plastic conduit, sing and play with the children, pray for each other and the staff workers, clean and polish teeth, and many other tasks.  It is good to be active and productive in the Kingdom of God, even in small matters.

End of Addendum

Team One – July 22 – Blogged by Robert Perez

The Dental Team continues to see patients, until the late hours of the evening.  Their endurance and stamina are amazing.   It appears that once the people hear there is a dentist in the area, they seem to come out of the woodwork (or cornfields!) and so far, no one has been turned away.  Bwana asifiwe for our Dental Team!  (We owe them a large sausage pizza!)

Last night we lost electricity in our buildings and in the surrounding area, for nearly 14 hours.  We have no idea for the cause but were grateful when power came back the next morning.  (The Dental Team was still working on their last patient when this occurred, but they brought out flashlights and finished with the procedure.  There was a very good picture taken of their working in the dark, so be on the lookout for a photo posting.)

There was a problem with one of the water lines feeding the main building of the orphanage this afternoon, causing a complete loss of water.  It took the efforts of Adam, Jeff, and Bill until late in the evening to resolve it, but it was successfully completed.  Tomorrow some work needs to continue on this water pipe, but as of this evening, the orphanage has running water.  (Where can you get a good roll of Teflon tape when you need it?)

We had some good news today:  our team was tested for malaria by Julia, the orphanage nurse, and not one of our members tested positive.  Mungu asifiwe!  According to Julia, we are the first team whose members have all tested negative for malaria.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our health and productivity.  Your prayers are being answered by the Father.