Please God, not Africa!

This past week, the work team from Detroit wanted to host a party for all the construction workers and their families.  They prepared games, snacks, and activities.  The plan was for the workers to stop work at 4 pm and the party would go until 6 pm.  But Africa is different, so really, the party didn't get started til about 5 pm and went til dark! There are loads of photos in this post, because there just needs to be in order to explain all the goings-on at this big bash.  Let's get started: Here come the families!  There were about 80 people in total that came. We all gathered around the "tree" (yes, singular) where there were greetings and introductions.  Every time someone spoke in English it had to be translated to French and then to the tribal language, Anufo. This is the team from Michigan.  They greeted the workers and families and introduced themselves. After the greetings and introductions, the Michigan tea...

Last Friday, we had a fufu party at our house with the construction team that came from Michigan.  Fufu is a major staple here for the locals.   It all begins with manioc, a long tuber type vegetable that is black on the outside and kinda hairy, but it's white one the inside.   It's kinda like a huge yam.   So first,  you peel 'em and boil them.  And then the fun begins. Here is Joseph, Marie, and Adzo, putting the boiled manioc into the fufu pounder thing. Joseph and Marie sorta beat the manioc up a bit for us first. And then the rhythmic pounding begins.  This is me and Jennifer working together pounding it. And here is Nolan and Zack, pounding it too.  It takes a LOT of pounding! And here is Nate and our guard, Ibraim, taking their turn.  Still pounding. And here's the fufu, the first batch is ready.  Think of it as really gluey mashed potatoes. And here is Teddy at the table ready to dive...

A team arrived here from Detroit, and they brought good news of great joy to us!  Our family had sent a care package with them for us!  So wonderful!!! Here are the two rubbermaids, all the way from home, still zip-tied and unopened: Nate is cutting them open. Opened!!  Look how beautiful they are....filled with treasures untold from the motherland: Here we are, displaying our wonderful items -- you can see parmesan cheese, corn syrup, canned soups, marshmallows...oh the joy of NORTH AMERICAN FOOD! Yes, we got a little excited: Like winning the lottery -- pancake syrup, bbq sauce, peanut butter, drink crystals: Look at how they wisely packed pudding mix with love: Who would have ever thought that molasses would be such a thing of beauty and a joy to behold! Happiness is Nestea and Chocolate Chips!!! Thank you, thank you, Mom and Dad, and Mom and Dad, and Marshy and Brady and Sandra.

This is Bullet. And this is Ruby. And this is love! Sleepy puppies! They think they're hiding from us.

Since we're actually here to help construct a hospital, it might be a good idea for me to post some photos of Nate working on site to help you visualize what it is he does in a day! This building will be the pharmacy.   This is the other corner of the same building.  It's actually three buildings in one. There's the pharmacy, triage, and another thing I can't remember right now.   This is the foundation/footings/first few courses of brick on the actual hospital building. This is a fuzzy picture of Nate with Bawa and Fusini, the two carpenters here. Nate and the carpenters are building the door and window frames here. Then a special beam called a "bond beam" gets build out of concrete along the top. On this building you can see the bond beam framed and poured with concrete. Nate's arms were pretty tired the other night from lifting buckets of concrete up to this height!  I'm pretty sure I would have been crying if I had ...