Week at Tanza

Hello all,

I hope that everything is going good for all of you. Things are going good over here. This past week has been an adventurous one for us. We didn’t get as much done as we had planned or hoped due to the weather but that is how things go. We were with Dave all week out at Tanza where he focuses his money and effort. Tanza is about ten miles away but it takes about 30 minutes to get there because it is in the mountains. Being in the mountains with all the rain that we have been getting, makes things interesting to get projects finished.

Monday we walked around the community and interacted with the locals and scoped out the projects that we will be doing when we are working out there. We talked with this little old lady who’s house is at the bottom of the hill so is the last stop for sewage before the drainage ditch so that doesn’t make for a good living area. Her boards are rotting out and she has holes in her wall so we are going to replace her boards and patch the holes. It was amazing seeing her face when we told her that we wanted to help her. It made all of our days just to see her reaction. We then went at looked at another lady’s house. She has eight kids but only five live with her in a house that is eight foot by sixteen feet. Everything from sleeping to cooking to everyday living is done in this one room house. Her house is situated in such a way that when it rains, she has a river running through her house. We are going to help her with this problem and therefore help with her children being sick all the time. These two projects are in addition to building a water tower so that the church will actually have running water out there. After getting a feel for what we would be doing and what we would need we set out to buy the materials so that we could get started on the water tower the next day.

Tuesday came and it brought challenges of its own. We left for Tanza early because we had to pick up some extra metal and the tank from a place here in town on our way out. We also had to pick up some gas for the torch when we got out there from a guy that we were borrowing them from. Our other material was delivered before we got there and we got a couple of local guys to help with the carrying of carrying down the path and across the river to the church. After this we found out that the torch that we borrowed was not going to work because it had a seal out of it and leaked all the gas out before it reached the tip. With not being able to cut any metal we decided that we were going to dig our holes and pour a concrete base to set the tower on so that it could cure and we could hopefully get the thing in the air the next day. It was hard to get this accomplished because of the rocky soil and the locals always wanting to help. About the time we were ready to pour concrete, Mother Nature decided that we had done enough for the day and it started to rain. It didn’t stop raining till after we went to bed that night.

Wednesday started off better because we were able to find a torch attachment that would actually work so we were able to get the cuts made that we wanted to finish up the day before. While one of us was cutting, the others cleared the water out of the holes because they were full of water and then started mixing concrete. Once again this proved to be a challenge because the locals were there willing to lend us a hand again. We poured the concrete in trash bags in the holes because of the ground being so wet and the rain in hope that it would actually cure. We managed to get this accomplished before the rain started in again for the day. Once the rain started and we got the holes covered up and finished the cuts, we went to another piece of land that they just bought to plant a church on to clear out the house that is currently on it. They wanted to leave the structure and use that for the church but we needed to do away with the platform that was in it so that it was an open area. Once again it rained the rest of the evening.

Thursday we woke up to even more rain and decided to still go out to Tanza and tear down a concrete out house that they have right outside the church there. No one uses it and it is really ugly so they wanted it destroyed. We had a sludge hammer but without the handle so we tied a rope on it and used it that way. Those of us not running the hammer were throwing large rocks at it to break the cement blocks. Once we got down a little ways, Dave and Drew took some of the blocks that were not broke and made steps coming down the hill that everyone slips on when it is muddy. These were projects that needed done but weren’t all the pressing but since it was raining we had a chance to get it done. After lunch, we went and bough some cots for the lady whose house is rotting away so that she didn’t have to sleep in water and she could get off the ground. Once again it made our day to see the look on her face when we helped her out. It made me tear up when I saw how happy she was to get such a simple gift and knowing that she wasn’t going to have to sleep in water that evening.

Friday was completely different than the rest of the week. Today we had orientation for our basketball part of the trip because most of the guys have gotten in and we had our first game tonight against some local all stars. This was a good experience seeing everyone show up to watch the Americans play basketball. At half time we all said where we were from and the local pastor gave a short testimony and then during the third quarter the ones not playing handed out tracks. It was fun getting to interact with some of the local people and get to show them God’s love.

Tomorrow we start our span of two games a day for seven days. Monday we will fly to another island and play over half our games there.

The trip is going good for me up to this point. It has been a struggle having to get used to the way of living here and the laid back culture. It has been tough dealing with people who deliver things when they get to it and have no sense of rush to anything when I am used to having things now and doing things quickly. I have leaned that I really need to work on being more patient and not worry so much about things that I don’t have control over. Like all three of us were expecting, there has been times that we have gotten annoyed with each other and especially since we all three like to be leaders and we are all working on one project. It has been tough for me to not be the one making the decisions and not being a leader. That was not something that I was planning on having to work on but I know now that it will help in the future and that God wanted to use this trip and the other two guys to help me with this. Even with us getting annoyed with each other at times I know that we have grown closer as a group and closer to the lord though those times of annoyance.

Take Care and God Bless,

Trevor