Still Playground-less

Yup, unfortunately still no playground. Apparently it is in the works to have the papers signed by next Tuesday, but it will still take 4 days for the container to be released. Meaning...my husband will likely not touch this playground on African soil. Really sad. The team leader traveled to the government headquarters to see if he could get some strings pulled and get things sped up, but thus far, Tuesday is the first day anything will happen. Shame.

To be honest, I thought Rob would be really upset about this. I was really upset about this! You travel all the way to Africa to set up a playground...then there's no playground. But I'm amazed at my husband's positive attitude. He says he's in Africa and he's there to serve, and that's exactly what he's doing. Playground or no playground. I'm so impressed with him. And so proud.

On the school property they are building a halfway house for the orphans that live there (26 children actually live at the school, they are presumably orphans, but the other 500 or so attend and are fed at the school). This will be the transition house for these kids as they enter into adulthood and independence. This project has been a long time coming, and it recently came to a halt due to lack of funding. So as I understand it, the team (our team) was able to give $2000 towards the project, which got it up and running again. Amazing.

And guess what the majority of the work is? Concrete. Precisely what my husband does pretty much all day, every day, here in Canada! Amazing right? He says he feels like he just traveled for two days to go to work in Africa, because he's essentially doing the same thing...

"What do you mean this isn't how you do it in Canada?"Well, I suppose it's not exactly the "same" but close enough that he knows what he is doing, and is earning some serious cred with the Africans. "Mr. Rob, you need to slow down. Take a breath." (eg. slow down dude, you're making us look bad!). Rob says they are hauling 100lb sacks of concrete mix around, and to mix the concrete they dump the mix onto the floor of a room that's about 10'x10', then add water, and get mixing it with shovels. Then you pack the mixed concrete up to the second level. Fun, right? At a mere 42° that's buckets of fun.

I'm sure the Esso Refinery safety guys would drop dead if they happened upon this job site.
Heh. Love it. Kenyan style.

This is the rooftop view. Incredible.
So Rob is feeling purposeful, which I am so relieved about. Unfortunately for some of the other team members, they are having a hard time adjusting to the idea that they may not set up the playground at all, and understandably so. The reality is, the playground will still get set up. The team leader will likely stay until the project is done, and I'm sure there are a number of willing bodies around to do the work, I think its just hard to let go of the idea that you won't get to physically do it, especially since you were mentally preparing for this for months. But I hope that in hindsight they can see how much they contributed to the project overall, and can find purpose during their time there.

The "single" men stay at a apartment hotel a few minutes away from the school compound, and all the married couples stay in apartments on the school property. So I believe there are 4 single guys staying together, which seems to be going well (minus a few excellent snorers in the room). I haven't seen pictures, but from the description Rob gives me, he looks out from their room, and right there is the Indian Ocean. Every night they go for a swim. Rob says the water is so unbelievably warm.

As for the poverty, I know from experience (a missions trip to Haiti), it really is hard to comprehend when you first see it. Well, no, from my happy little 1st world view, it's always unbelievable, but I asked Rob, 'what are you seeing' (the first day he arrived), and he sounded shell shocked. He said, there just aren't words. So today when we talked he said that his instinct is to just throw money at it. You see adults and children begging and you just want to give them money, because you know you have so much.

I do know that you do have to be careful as people can be very manipulative, and will tell you sob stories so they can get your money. Sad. But as a friend pointed out today, "What would you do if you knew you had no food for your children? What lengths would you go to to feed them?" Very true.

I suppose I question whether money really is the answer. Look at all the money that was "thrown" at Haiti and its still in a complete state of disrepair. I think its about responsible money, and education. Education first for yourself. To walk into another culture and just start throwing money around, I think, is highly ignorant. When you don't even understand the culture, the values, the people, by throwing money at it, you just put a 1st world band aid on a 3rd world problem. And likely not a problem that will get "fixed" with a $20.

Anyway, after all that rambling, I don't think you 'figure it out' in a 2 week stay, but I do think you get a good perspective on how the other half lives, and hopefully get a better idea of their struggles and can see it for more than just about money. Because I do think its about so much more. So I'm excited to hear this process happening for Rob (and I imagine for many others on the team). I think it really does open your eyes to just how big, and beautiful, and often ugly the world really is.