Piñatas being displayed for sale in front of our neighbor’s house. (Would you call this a plethora of piñatas?)
How is it possible? It would be kind of funny if it didn’t hurt so much!
I can’t believe it, but we have been skunked again by the rain. On Monday we got the whole floor ready for an early Tuesday morning delivery of the concrete. We finished the final leveling and got the framing up for the border. We then confirmed the concrete delivery for Tuesday morning and ordered 2,000 cement blocks to be delivered to the work site for Tuesday as well. We arranged for three more guys to help us in the morning, and called it a day.
When we arrived at home on Monday night we were confident that finally, after being stymied for over a month by the rain and muddy conditions we could now finally, at long last, finish the floor so that we could begin to build the actual structure of the staff house at the Training Center so that the work of preparing missionaries could begin.
Our work crew arrived at my house to a steady drizzle in the morning. We drove out to the job site still confident that we could get the floor in without any problem as long as we didn’t get any heavier rain during the day. We set up and awaited the truck which was scheduled to arrive at around 9:00 o’clock. Shortly before the scheduled arrival time we got a call saying that they wouldn’t bring the trucks in because of the extremely bad and rutted road conditions (that part was undeniably true) because they were afraid that they might slide off of the road due to the now-slick conditions.
Honestly I think that they could have made it because the road was not yet muddy, and I would have tried. But
Theresa with the serapes that she is helping the women sew
then, I suppose that I’m not the one who would have lost over $800 dollars worth of concrete because it would have had to be dumped in the ditch beside a truck hopelessly stuck and disappearing in muck. At any rate, there was nothing to be done except to accept the inevitable and go home, praying for quick drying conditions. I was still hopeful because the forecast was pretty good beyond a midweek hiccup. After that little blip on the screen the prediction was for good, sunny weather. I was optimistic!
On Monday we had begun having problems with the van – our work horse – without which we could not get anything done. I had hoped that things would kind of resolve themselves and that we could put off servicing it for several days. But as we headed home on our soggy, dejected Tuesday afternoon it became evident that all was not well in Mudville (with, or without the mighty Casey), we were about to strike out. The van would not make it any further without service.
Decorating Christmas cookies
But we had been told that it would take a couple of days of drying time before the trucks would deliver our concrete, so this was good timing. I could confidently take the van in and get it worked on without any conflict.
I took the van in for repairs on Wednesday morning as had been arranged (it ended up being a badly plugged and messed up fuel pump, pump filter system, etc., etc. Of course, all of this is now inside the tank and not easily or quickly accessed).
At about 10:00 o’clock on Wednesday morning, just after dropping off the van, I got a call from our concrete guy to tell me that they were willing and ready to roll now – right at this minute! He only had until 1:00 o’clock to finish though. Besides, he informed me, it was supposed to start raining in the evening again. You have got to be kidding! How were we supposed to drum up a work crew immediately? Besides we didn’t have a vehicle. We would have to wait, praying that the van could be finished by the evening and that the rains would not come.
The van was finished and picked up by about 9:30 on Wednesday evening, and I arranged
Theresa and her puppet sewing students
my crew for the next morning for an early start and a good pour, confident that God would not let us be thwarted this time.
The drizzling rains began at about 10:00 pm and became a steady downpour throughout the night. The rains have lasted the whole day now, alternating from steady mist and drizzle to heavy downpours. As I sit here writing at 9:30 pm it is still raining. Of course, this all means that the “road” – actually just an access with no base other than clay and black dirt and which has been churned into soup and muck now for three months – will once again be inaccessible for several more days at a minimum before any traffic can use it. This is especially true for heavier vehicles, such as the trucks that we have been so desperately waiting for now for close to six weeks.
So God, we are skunked once again! What is going on? I am now beginning to get somewhat desperate as the gun is getting pressed closer to my temple. Christmas is only days away, as is New Years. The work team from Canada is arriving on the 24th of January to finish out the building. Their tickets are already purchased! We, for our part, are no closer to being ready for them than we were at the end of October when the rains first stopped the work.
We could use a little bit of prayer – please!
Onto a brighter note…Theresa and her sewing students enjoyed an afternoon of wrap up with a nice fiesta. There were lots of cookies, coffee, making Christmas ornaments and
Theresa’s sewing students at the wrap up party in our livingroom
decorating sugar cookies, and other “women” things. I was stuck in the house for some of the afternoon due to the rain but I cloistered myself safely in my office because there was far too much “female stuff” going on for my liking. But from all of the chattering and conversation it did sound as if they were having a good time together. Their classes have now ended until the new year.
I think that I will close off this rather discouraged blog. Like I said in the first line – it would actually be kind of funny if it didn’t hurt so much. I really can’t figure out what is going on. When we began the construction in the middle of October I though that we would have tons of time on our hands before the Canadian team arrived. Now, it will be nip and tuck just to finish at all, and it isn’t very funny anymore.
May you be blessed as you prepare for Christmas.
Your friends,
Steven and Theresa
