A week in the Jungle

As the fog rolled in we began our first night in the village as a family.  We already had a fun filled day of hiking and visiting with people.

We woke around 4:30 am and gathered last minute items.  At 5:30am the jeepney was here and we loaded tools, 25 pieces of plywood, food and clothes for a week and 9 people inside.  Off we went to spend a week in the jungle with the people we will spend a lifetime with, the Ga’dang people.

After a 1 hour ride, we unloaded everything and the men began to load our stuff onto 6 sleds and 2 carts that would be hauled by carabao (water buffalo).  The next day 4 more carabao came out to get what we could not take that day.  Plus the plywood was left at a house for another day to be carried in.

We then began our hike.  It was just about 7:45 am and everyone wanted to be first down the trail.  If only the kids had known what they do now about the trail.  This trail is about 10km from where we are dropped off to the village.  These are rolling hills, so that means lots of ups and downs.  Before long into the hike there is a large, muddy, slippery hill to climb.

 

Even the carabao have a hard time getting up the hill with a load on them.  In some places the mud covers almost all of the legs of the carabao.  Thankfully in some places there is a narrow trail along the side to walk on.  Problem is, it is very narrow and slippery!!!

Once at the top we took a break to catch our breath and have a drink.  Peter, who is helping build our houses in the village, left about 30 min after we did, and soon enough he caught up to us.

Charlotte was able to enjoy a ride for much of the hike.

Hala and Eli on the other hand walked the whole way into the village!!!  Good job guys!!!  Kyle hiked most of the way but was able to get a ride on a carabao for the last 1/3 of the trip.  Sophia also got a free ride!!! They all did a great job.

Right away in the village we were able to begin making friends.  Dana often makes fun of the time of day we eat supper, around 5:30pm, I realized soon enough that I would have to change our supper time.  The people tend to come and visit between 4-7 pm.  It’s hard to have supper at 3:30pm and I am too tired to eat at 7:30pm.  What are we going to do????  Many nights the kids ate at our normal time while us adults waited until later to eat; after the work was done, the men were clean and the people had gone home.  Here are some of our visitors.

It took until the last day we were in the village for Hala to decide that this girl would be her friend.  They are both 10 years old.  I think they could have a great friendship for years to come.

Sophia on the other had started making friends right away!!!  The people in the village come to see, touch, smell and listen to everything Sophia did.

 

This little girl beside Sophia is our neighbour.  They say she is almost 3 years old. (Sophia is not 2 yrs until October.) She is a very tiny girl.  Her family appears to be the poorest in the village, thus shunned a lot.

 

Kyle of course reunited with his old buddies from his last trip in there.  The day before we left he said he was going to miss them.

Now to the building part of our trip.  The purpose of this trip for Chuck, was to begin putting post up with hopes of getting beams, joists and the floor down by the time his dad comes next week.  So after a week, this is what was done.  Chuck is in there until Friday so we will have to wait and see what he gets done these next few days.

Over the last several weeks a couple of men collected sand and gravel from the river bed for making the concrete.  We also hauled in 53 bags of cement.  Each bag weighs in at 40 kilo.  They were all carried in by carabao!!!

The men worked hard mixing and mixing.  There was no lack of workers in there.  Everyday someone new was coming to ask if they could work.  It gets hard to manage to many people so we are working on trying to rotate the men so they all have a chance to make some money.

Forms were made and put in place. 

Even Chuck did some work!!!  Just kidding, Chuck did lots of work.  It is much different working in the heat of the tropics.

It was soon realized that the holes that had been dug were way too big.  We planned to actually only use 25 bags of cement on the post supports and the rest for our septic tank.  After 12 bags were used to pour just 4 out of 20 holes, a new plan was needed.  Large rocks, broken cement block and dirt were added to the sides to help fill in the holes.

After day 2, they used only 10 bags of cement for 6 holes.  In total they used 39 bags of cement to make those 20 post supports.

This is the finished product.  The posts will be bolted to the metal straps.

Then in the afternoon of the day before I left, they began to put up some of the posts.  By the end of the day 6 posts were in place.  Praise the Lord for a good productive week.

        

From what I heard last night, all 20 posts are up and they began to look at the wood that was sitting for some time for the beams.  As they cut into them they found out that the wood has become soft and rotten!  This is so sad.  We have had problem after problem with wood in there.  Lately the new wood we had cut has been great with no problems but the old wood has not been so good.  I am not sure what will happen but I think we will need to have them re-cut. Pray that it will all work out.

 

Christina’s house is coming along great too.  It is starting to look like a house she could live in now!!!  Lord willing by the time we go in again in late September, we will be all set up in Christina’s house.

Then our week was over and we were ready to head home for a hot shower and a real table to sit at and eat.  It took just 2 1/2 hrs to hike out and it was very, very muddy and slippery.  I am sore today from the hike!!!

We were so blessed with having Christina Canapp, our co-worker, go with us in there.  She knew how things were done and was a huge help with the kids.  I couldn’t have done it without her.  Thanks Ti!!!