I woke up today and cooked breakfast for the men by myself because John still wasn't feeling well. He had been helping me with the eggs every morning prior. I then brooked Aden's diapers.
Once John got up, we drove to mile 91 to pick up cement and groceries. The car overheated once on the way back. John went to work on the Makelben well. I told him to take it easy. Makelben had started its #3 site. The guys decided to move to the area John had originally suggested.
The Konta well was looking in good shape. The guys put a pump on it and the people were singing and dancing in jubilation!
Here is a video of the people singing and dancing. This video is actually of the Konta well when they hit water, but apparently I forgot to put it in the blog that day. But everytime something good happened, this is what ensued:
You can see my friend Kuti dancing in the video above near the center wearing a blue skirt with flowers on it.
John moved all the Konta well workers to Makelben to try another site (the 4th site in that village!) It became a race to see who could finish the well first. John helped the #3 guys because he was hoping that area would pull through. By the end of the day, both sites had dug fairly deep but had hit rock at about the same level. We suspected that there was a layer of 'iron rock' that follows the terrain.
I finally mustered up the courage to ask my friend Kuti if "yu na belle uman" (aka "are you pregnant?") Most people in the states pretty much avoid that question due to the occasional misdiagnosis of a little belly fat. But I figured that if saying a woman is fat here is a compliment (and it is!) then it wouldn't be offensive if I asked her if she was pregnant and she wasn't. But she is! She is due at the end of April or May. Due dates here are more general. She was not showing terribly much and she was not dressing like a typical Salone pregnant woman (they often wear a lapa that covers the belly). Through a translator she also told me that her man (no husband) left her and with no $ to get any prenatal care at a nearby clinic :( She already has a 2 year old girl. I can't believe this woman was 5-6 months pregnant and has been helping us so much with the cooking and cleaningl She has been doing ALL of our men's dishes and has been carrying our water from the swamp in buckets on her head!! All while nearing her last trimester! Let me tell you what I was doing in my last trimester... RELAXING! I milked my pregnancy for all its worth in getting out of doing any kind of lifting or other labor if I could! This woman puts me to shame!
That night at the teaching Abdul taught on the Good Samaritan and had the village members act it out. Everyone laughed and thought it was funny as the two priestly characters disregarded and walked by the injured man on the road. The entire team walked to and from Makelben that night to try and encourage the Konta villagers to join us in the walk so it didn't feel like we were excluding them from the teachings.
John and Abdul singing with the people before the teaching
Although Abdul speaks Themne, he had one of the community members (Alfa) translate from Krio for the benefit of us and the well drillers who don't. Ad the kids were getting and talking during it, Alfa (a teacher during the day) walked around with a switch and kept them in line. He didn't hit them hard, but just enough to get them to quiet down.
Once John got up, we drove to mile 91 to pick up cement and groceries. The car overheated once on the way back. John went to work on the Makelben well. I told him to take it easy. Makelben had started its #3 site. The guys decided to move to the area John had originally suggested.
The Konta well was looking in good shape. The guys put a pump on it and the people were singing and dancing in jubilation!
Here is a video of the people singing and dancing. This video is actually of the Konta well when they hit water, but apparently I forgot to put it in the blog that day. But everytime something good happened, this is what ensued:
You can see my friend Kuti dancing in the video above near the center wearing a blue skirt with flowers on it.
John moved all the Konta well workers to Makelben to try another site (the 4th site in that village!) It became a race to see who could finish the well first. John helped the #3 guys because he was hoping that area would pull through. By the end of the day, both sites had dug fairly deep but had hit rock at about the same level. We suspected that there was a layer of 'iron rock' that follows the terrain.
I finally mustered up the courage to ask my friend Kuti if "yu na belle uman" (aka "are you pregnant?") Most people in the states pretty much avoid that question due to the occasional misdiagnosis of a little belly fat. But I figured that if saying a woman is fat here is a compliment (and it is!) then it wouldn't be offensive if I asked her if she was pregnant and she wasn't. But she is! She is due at the end of April or May. Due dates here are more general. She was not showing terribly much and she was not dressing like a typical Salone pregnant woman (they often wear a lapa that covers the belly). Through a translator she also told me that her man (no husband) left her and with no $ to get any prenatal care at a nearby clinic :( She already has a 2 year old girl. I can't believe this woman was 5-6 months pregnant and has been helping us so much with the cooking and cleaningl She has been doing ALL of our men's dishes and has been carrying our water from the swamp in buckets on her head!! All while nearing her last trimester! Let me tell you what I was doing in my last trimester... RELAXING! I milked my pregnancy for all its worth in getting out of doing any kind of lifting or other labor if I could! This woman puts me to shame!
That night at the teaching Abdul taught on the Good Samaritan and had the village members act it out. Everyone laughed and thought it was funny as the two priestly characters disregarded and walked by the injured man on the road. The entire team walked to and from Makelben that night to try and encourage the Konta villagers to join us in the walk so it didn't feel like we were excluding them from the teachings.
John and Abdul singing with the people before the teaching
Although Abdul speaks Themne, he had one of the community members (Alfa) translate from Krio for the benefit of us and the well drillers who don't. Ad the kids were getting and talking during it, Alfa (a teacher during the day) walked around with a switch and kept them in line. He didn't hit them hard, but just enough to get them to quiet down.
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