Joy played in all but one of the 6-nation women’s rugby tournament matches this season. The last was against England when she played from the start. She was said to be “the best of the ‘front five’ in the first half” by a coach. Here we see her effective jumping for the ball in the line-out. “Go it Joy!” The main coach said “Joy is a very positive person and a great addition to the team. She’s a very effective lineout jumper and is very mobile around the park”
The mechanical digger was cancelled because of budget miscalculations (we need all our funds for the actual materials). So all earth moving is by hand. Last Saturday we had 50 people on site, this Saturday 30 (half children).
It’s heavy work and the 25 ft cliff of the last corner was not shifted. There were injuries; a head had to be sutured, and several finger and foot wounds (many come in flip flops and don’t wear gloves). .
The largest rocks (5 tons and above) are broken by lighting a fire on them. Smaller ones are broken with a sledge hammer and chisel. Heavy granite boulders are rolled.
Another staff wedding was planned for last Sunday. Mohammed, one of our manual workers met formally with his girl friend’s family the previous week-end to arrange their engagement. “No need for that,” they said, “just marry her. And the dowry will be £60”. (Mohammed earns about that in a month) So he with about 10 mates from work got on the ferry Sunday morning to cross over to her home town, just by our international airport.
“The dowry is £1,000. Take it or leave it’” her family announced when Mohammed and friends arrived. “What?” he said, “No way I can find that kind of money.” So they all got back on the ferry crestfallen This story, including the fact that the bride had two children by different men (and therefore had low dowry value!) was passed round the 400 people on the ferry in no time, and many came over to sympathise, including a bunch of the President’s followers (he had been on a flight that day). They said they would go back to that family and give them a hard time for such behaviour!
Due partly to the Liverpool / M United match yesterday we only had 15 men working. The number was replaced, however by a gang of children who loaded and emptied the pickup all day with rocks, some of which weighed 20 kg. The men had fun bringing down 5 ton rocks and breaking them up. Thank God there were no injuries.
Coach and project director, Sahr James after 10 days on the project said, “Dave we must rent a mechanical digger, or the earth-moving will never get done.” “It costs £800 a day, and may increase the budget.” Dave replied “Let’s have a volunteers work-day on Saturday, and see what we can manage by hand.”
‘Incentive’ is a key word here. We came up with: • An Argentine football shirt (from Ruwi in Garvock Hotel), which I hung in the goal mouth for the ‘hardest worker of the day’. In fact the 35 men and youths all worked like Trojans, practically non stop. (they are all superb athletes in the peak of training). • Periodic snacks of peanut cakes, fried dough balls, bananas, helped, but they worked in the blazing sun without a break right through to 5 pm when there was a big bowl of tasty bean sauce and rice for the thirty workers, who continued through to the end. • A pair of football socks (from Dunfermline Athletic) for everyone • Everyone got paid 75p (up from 50p because of complaints!)
“We have never seen anyone work like this before!” said the team of four, running the project. The whole day cost £50. The guys will remember the day for the rest of their lives.
Our plan is to have another big work-day this Saturday, and then get the digger in next week for the 30 ft cliff where there are rocks the weight of motor cars.
8 hours of working in the tropical heat left me exhausted and blistered (my hands gave out after an hour, and I had to buy gloves), but the day went very well. I have to say I felt that God’s hand was over the whole thing.
