Tet Chaje

Things have finally started to pick up. This week was spent digging and constructing the foundation for the facility to house the hens. Sounds simple enough, but of course it never is.

The first obstacle we faced was the transportation of materials to the project site. The dirt road to "Kanpech" where the land is located is swept away every time a heavy rain comes and causes the river to rise. At first our mason suggested paying 40 people to carry rocks from the river to the site over a one week period until we had what we needed. Fortunately there are several brilliant young minds in our house that suggested, "why don't we grab a shovel and fix the road ourselves?" But of course that meant, they volunteered for the job. So last Saturday at 6AM, four Americans and an Irishman piled in the landrover to head to the river. By 6:15 we were throwing pick-axes, raking dirt and carrying rocks - and by 9AM our work had paid off to support large dumptrucks passing through. Problem solved.

But it can never be that easy. Now that we can get a truck out of the river and onto the road, how do we get if off the road and onto our property? Well, because one of the neighbors had moved the property boundary in his favor and taken our access to the road to build himself a house, this was going to take some negotiation. Fortunately this neighbor also owned the land on the other end of our property, again between our door and the road. However, instead of starting a "lawsuit" (if there is such a thing around here), he agreed to give us a portion of his land on the opposite end to make a "driveway". After a few swings of the machette, setting fire to a bush filled with yellowjackets and displacing the grazing cows, we were in business.

It's hard to describe exactly why things move slowly without experiencing the situation first hand, but every step forward is in the right direction. It has started to rain every evening for the past week and while this is good for the gardens, it may cause more delay in construction. We just keep pressing on and not giving into the challenges put in front of us. I knew God made me stubborn for a reason...