Updates

The EWB team, other than me, left Luanda last week and should be arriving back home about now. We had a great time and it seems strangely quiet with them gone. The little kids are doing their best to keep me entertained though. The day after the team left was a bit sad. Not only was everyone gone, but I talked to my mom on the phone and she told me my dog Maggie had passed away. She died in her sleep and my dad said that she seemed really peaceful, but I’m upset that I wasn’t there with her. I guess that's the suckiest part about not being near home. Benson’s youngest kids came over to cheer me up and sang lots of songs with me and I talked to Jimmy on the phone so that helped. I’m feeling a bit better now, but I really miss Maggie.

On a better note, the water project is finished and people keep coming to me and thanking me for bringing them water. I’m passing their thanks along to the team.

I’m going to go eat yummy millet and sorgum/cassava porridge as a snack while I work (it’s almost as tasty as raiding the extra sandwiches with you Ellie, though not quite as fun).

Building Foundations

This week has been pretty crazy. Professor Roy arrived in Luanda and we began work on the EWB water project. The day before he came, everyone in Luanda was very excited and his coming became the catalyst for work. Trenches that had been started suddenly multiplied, supplies came in, and people materialized to start the project. It was all very exciting.

During the day, I’ve started getting my hands dirty on the construction sites to make concrete foundations with the community. Monday we dug giant holes in both dirt and rock, Tuesday we filled the holes with stones and hard pack (a mix of sand, rocks, and water), Wednesday we poured cement mixed with more sand, rocks, and water into the hole that used to have dirt, and today we did the same with the hole that used to have rock. My dad was totally right about the volcanic rock though. With a chisel and this great worker whose previous job happened to be in a quarry, the rock broke apart. Tomorrow we will break apart more of the rock to finish up the trenches for the pipes. Everything is moving very quickly on the project and very fun. The work sites are a fun mix of volunteers who live in the nearby homes, hired workers, a mason, a carpenter, the water committee (a small group who sits around drinking sodas and watching the work), women who are busy harvesting corn and millet but come to great us and thank us for bringing water, and a gaggle of small children who watch the work and ask me to take their picture. The construction sites are full of activity. 

Unfortunately, this will be a short blog post because I’m exhausted and the mosquitoes really like my computer screen and think I taste delicious. Time to head under the mosquito net for bed and to get ready for tomorrow when the rest of the EWB team arrive. More to come on stories from the water project sites. Also, Roy tells the best stories about his adventures traveling around the world that I should try to share on here too. Oriti (goodbye)!