Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Greetings from the group in Lassin!
Steve here. Thought you would like to know how things are progressing from my perspective. (I sure am thankful when Carol can update the blog too)
Title: Christmas, cement, tires, and termites.
Christmas break was the time to kick off the major school improvement project. With the students out of the classrooms, we began to work in 'high gear'. At the school, Gregory began putting a concrete floor in Carol's first grade room. He was using about 6 sacks of concrete a day. I began to purchase and haul the concrete from Kumbo to Lassin.
Monday before Christmas, I bought 20 sacks of concrete and carried 10 home. The taxi that had agreed to carry the other 10 sacks became too busy with the Christmas rush and the high fares that luggage brought.
So, Tuesday I returned for the remaining 10 sacks.
It is good to know your limits, and those of your little car. You can hear it coming. I bought an extra 2 sacks, and picked up 4 boxes of sugar cubes for Shey John. This brought the load to 12 x 50kg (1320#) plus 4 x 25kg (220#). That's about 1540 lbs behind the driver's seat.
Well, it can be done, but it turns out that the small bulge in the back right tire was more significant than the moderate tread. The sidewall blew out about 30 km from Kumbo. We inflated the spare and headed down the road. The spare looked fair, but when leaving the road briefly to make room for a laden motorcycle proved too much for it. Now, to find a 3rd sacrificial tire. My riding companion, our church landlord, had an idea. He commendeered a motorcycle taxi out from under its customer. Off to Lassin. He found a car just like ours, but he did not find the owner. No problem, the spare was removed and he motored back to me. This time, the issue was a borrowed tire with bulges again. Can you imagine how gingerly I drove the last couple miles to our house?
The next day, Wednesday, I delivered the cement in two loads to the school.
Thursday, off to Kumbo by taxi to buy 4 tires. The fronts had threads showing, the spares were in shreds, and the stolen tire still had the bulges. This leaves the back right in pretty good shape. Hey, life should be exciting. In Kumbo, no used tires looked encouraging, and the new Chinese stuff looked little better. A fellow at a really nice tire shop assured me that he could get good Firestone tires for a reasonable price and have them delivered on Friday. It takes faith to live this way, but I paid him and went home.
Friday afternoon, Gerald the very responsible taxi driver pulled up with 4 of the most beautiful tires tied to his car. Sunday, Emanuel put them on. I returned the stolen spare and included the 2 badly worn tires as spare spares; Frank was grateful. I confessed and he said 'no problem'.
Since then, the little red car has kept up with the cement demands.
Classroom 2, Jessica's room is completed. Carol's room has a new floor and the inside plastering is coming.
Termites... Well, it seems that Jessica was harboring the little bugs under the front right seats. This is a problem as the dirt floor can eventually give way, leading to the loss of students and their desks.
It's hard to replace those desks. Gregory has exposed their nest and poisoned them.
Our consumption of cement is about 1/2 complete and the funds are holding out well- thank you so much!
This next Sunday we plan to mark the boundaries of the school officially and record it with the government. This is really exciting. Note- only about 1/3rd of ALL SCHOOLS in this region have their boundaries marked. Amazing.
Soon, really soon, we'll have high speed, pay as you go Internet at the house. This will allow us to send photos and perhaps short movies. We can hardly wait to show you the progress.
We're still looking for new project leaders for next year. Contact Babi at GMI if you have or have become a lead.
God bless,
Steve & Carol Rose
Title: Christmas, cement, tires, and termites.
Christmas break was the time to kick off the major school improvement project. With the students out of the classrooms, we began to work in 'high gear'. At the school, Gregory began putting a concrete floor in Carol's first grade room. He was using about 6 sacks of concrete a day. I began to purchase and haul the concrete from Kumbo to Lassin.
Monday before Christmas, I bought 20 sacks of concrete and carried 10 home. The taxi that had agreed to carry the other 10 sacks became too busy with the Christmas rush and the high fares that luggage brought.
So, Tuesday I returned for the remaining 10 sacks.
It is good to know your limits, and those of your little car. You can hear it coming. I bought an extra 2 sacks, and picked up 4 boxes of sugar cubes for Shey John. This brought the load to 12 x 50kg (1320#) plus 4 x 25kg (220#). That's about 1540 lbs behind the driver's seat.
Well, it can be done, but it turns out that the small bulge in the back right tire was more significant than the moderate tread. The sidewall blew out about 30 km from Kumbo. We inflated the spare and headed down the road. The spare looked fair, but when leaving the road briefly to make room for a laden motorcycle proved too much for it. Now, to find a 3rd sacrificial tire. My riding companion, our church landlord, had an idea. He commendeered a motorcycle taxi out from under its customer. Off to Lassin. He found a car just like ours, but he did not find the owner. No problem, the spare was removed and he motored back to me. This time, the issue was a borrowed tire with bulges again. Can you imagine how gingerly I drove the last couple miles to our house?
The next day, Wednesday, I delivered the cement in two loads to the school.
Thursday, off to Kumbo by taxi to buy 4 tires. The fronts had threads showing, the spares were in shreds, and the stolen tire still had the bulges. This leaves the back right in pretty good shape. Hey, life should be exciting. In Kumbo, no used tires looked encouraging, and the new Chinese stuff looked little better. A fellow at a really nice tire shop assured me that he could get good Firestone tires for a reasonable price and have them delivered on Friday. It takes faith to live this way, but I paid him and went home.
Friday afternoon, Gerald the very responsible taxi driver pulled up with 4 of the most beautiful tires tied to his car. Sunday, Emanuel put them on. I returned the stolen spare and included the 2 badly worn tires as spare spares; Frank was grateful. I confessed and he said 'no problem'.
Since then, the little red car has kept up with the cement demands.
Classroom 2, Jessica's room is completed. Carol's room has a new floor and the inside plastering is coming.
Termites... Well, it seems that Jessica was harboring the little bugs under the front right seats. This is a problem as the dirt floor can eventually give way, leading to the loss of students and their desks.
It's hard to replace those desks. Gregory has exposed their nest and poisoned them.
Our consumption of cement is about 1/2 complete and the funds are holding out well- thank you so much!
This next Sunday we plan to mark the boundaries of the school officially and record it with the government. This is really exciting. Note- only about 1/3rd of ALL SCHOOLS in this region have their boundaries marked. Amazing.
Soon, really soon, we'll have high speed, pay as you go Internet at the house. This will allow us to send photos and perhaps short movies. We can hardly wait to show you the progress.
We're still looking for new project leaders for next year. Contact Babi at GMI if you have or have become a lead.
God bless,
Steve & Carol Rose
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Merry Christmas from Lassin, Cameroon!
What a privilege to celebrate again how God gave us His Son! Amazing love!
It will be so good to be re-united with our heavenly family someday soon!
In the meantime we are looking forward to seeing our earthly families again soon-less than five months.
We had a very interesting day today. Since school is out for the holidays, I enjoyed sleeping in a bit. We ate a leisurely breakfast of Steve's three-grain cereal (ground corn, soy, and whole rice). OK, ok, so I don't have to tell everything! Vivian, one of our teachers, came by to say goodbye. She is from a nearby town, and she and her son were planning to travel home today. She is such a sweetheart; always thinking about others and has a very positive outlook. Anyway, as she was leaving she mentioned that she was going to condole a friend across the street from our house. We had heard that the family's 5-year-old girl had died about a week ago, but I had not visited them yet. Because I had not gone over yet, I decided to go with Vivian to visit the family. Only the mother and a small child were home, and we enjoyed talking with them in pidgin. The mother does not speak the local dialect because she is from another town called Ncambe. We gave the mother "Steps to Jesus" and a Glow tract "Does God Care When I Am Hurting." The mother said she had seen that very book in a neighbor's house and had started reading it. She was thinking about that book that very morning and was very grateful to have her own copy. She told Vivian the circumstances of her daughter's death. She herself left town to visit her village. The next day the girl complained of stomach pain, but was playing around. That night the child had diarrhea and complained of stomach pain. The father carried the child to the local Health Center, and the child died there. Life is too fragile.
Next on the day's agenda--marketing. Today is the last market day before Christmas, and the market was bustling even at 9:30 am. I went to the market to check for unusual items that might disappear quickly. I saw a couple large pineapples and tried to buy them but was told they were not for sale. I also looked for a student's mother to see if she had some corn that she had promised me (to trade for tuition). I bought 3.5 meters of school uniform fabric for one more girls' uniform shirt and two more shirts for two boys. The fabric man gave me 50 francs off since we didn't have the change. He said we are his good customers now; he doesn't mind being a bit generous. It's true, we have purchased a lot of fabric from him. Then I visited Juliana at her sales booth. She always has onions, ginger, magi seasoning, garlic, and nice fowl baskets made by Naphtali. It's funny that more people don't buy those nice baskets. Most of the time, we see women carrying a chicken tucked into their side with their hand firmly on the chicken's tied legs. I bought a bunch of bananas and some avocados from her sister-in-law beside her. As I was heading home, I spied one thing I had been looking for--green bell peppers! I know, it's not first on your list of exciting food, but these are the first we have seen this year. I'm trying to grow some, but it'll be a good while for those to come. The bell peppers made a great salad dressing later on. Steve went with me to the market later and we actually found three nice pineapples. Chances are good that we will get to eat pineapple on Christmas Day!
Later Naphtali came when Steve was burning trash. He told us that the Bofa
(subchief) who gave us the land where the school is located wanted to see us. God blessed our visit. The man was very kind and very upright. We were happy to meet him. He is very supportive of our school. He will be coming back in January with Charles to "pin" the school boundary. That will be a monumental day, a day we have been waiting for.
Somewhere in the day, I made flat bread. Instead of baking it, I fried it in the frying pan with just a little oil. It came in handy for the next day's adventures. (Steve to Kumbo for cement and me to Juliana's farm in Mbinon.)
Tonight as I write, Naphtali and Juliana just came. Naph will translate the next New Beginnings with Steve, and Juliana will practice on the keyboard here.
Love you all,
Carol (& Steve)
It will be so good to be re-united with our heavenly family someday soon!
In the meantime we are looking forward to seeing our earthly families again soon-less than five months.
We had a very interesting day today. Since school is out for the holidays, I enjoyed sleeping in a bit. We ate a leisurely breakfast of Steve's three-grain cereal (ground corn, soy, and whole rice). OK, ok, so I don't have to tell everything! Vivian, one of our teachers, came by to say goodbye. She is from a nearby town, and she and her son were planning to travel home today. She is such a sweetheart; always thinking about others and has a very positive outlook. Anyway, as she was leaving she mentioned that she was going to condole a friend across the street from our house. We had heard that the family's 5-year-old girl had died about a week ago, but I had not visited them yet. Because I had not gone over yet, I decided to go with Vivian to visit the family. Only the mother and a small child were home, and we enjoyed talking with them in pidgin. The mother does not speak the local dialect because she is from another town called Ncambe. We gave the mother "Steps to Jesus" and a Glow tract "Does God Care When I Am Hurting." The mother said she had seen that very book in a neighbor's house and had started reading it. She was thinking about that book that very morning and was very grateful to have her own copy. She told Vivian the circumstances of her daughter's death. She herself left town to visit her village. The next day the girl complained of stomach pain, but was playing around. That night the child had diarrhea and complained of stomach pain. The father carried the child to the local Health Center, and the child died there. Life is too fragile.
Next on the day's agenda--marketing. Today is the last market day before Christmas, and the market was bustling even at 9:30 am. I went to the market to check for unusual items that might disappear quickly. I saw a couple large pineapples and tried to buy them but was told they were not for sale. I also looked for a student's mother to see if she had some corn that she had promised me (to trade for tuition). I bought 3.5 meters of school uniform fabric for one more girls' uniform shirt and two more shirts for two boys. The fabric man gave me 50 francs off since we didn't have the change. He said we are his good customers now; he doesn't mind being a bit generous. It's true, we have purchased a lot of fabric from him. Then I visited Juliana at her sales booth. She always has onions, ginger, magi seasoning, garlic, and nice fowl baskets made by Naphtali. It's funny that more people don't buy those nice baskets. Most of the time, we see women carrying a chicken tucked into their side with their hand firmly on the chicken's tied legs. I bought a bunch of bananas and some avocados from her sister-in-law beside her. As I was heading home, I spied one thing I had been looking for--green bell peppers! I know, it's not first on your list of exciting food, but these are the first we have seen this year. I'm trying to grow some, but it'll be a good while for those to come. The bell peppers made a great salad dressing later on. Steve went with me to the market later and we actually found three nice pineapples. Chances are good that we will get to eat pineapple on Christmas Day!
Later Naphtali came when Steve was burning trash. He told us that the Bofa
(subchief) who gave us the land where the school is located wanted to see us. God blessed our visit. The man was very kind and very upright. We were happy to meet him. He is very supportive of our school. He will be coming back in January with Charles to "pin" the school boundary. That will be a monumental day, a day we have been waiting for.
Somewhere in the day, I made flat bread. Instead of baking it, I fried it in the frying pan with just a little oil. It came in handy for the next day's adventures. (Steve to Kumbo for cement and me to Juliana's farm in Mbinon.)
Tonight as I write, Naphtali and Juliana just came. Naph will translate the next New Beginnings with Steve, and Juliana will practice on the keyboard here.
Love you all,
Carol (& Steve)
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