If you get our email newsletters, then you know that our last newsletter focused on how God has provided for us in the past year. I know many of you missed hearing about the progress going on where construction is concerned, so I will give you an update here!
Electricity: Blu’s dad was here April-May to get us all set up with electricity on the land. The electric company, Zesco, then had to come to the land and inspect everything and let us know what changes needed to be made. They didn’t come until late July, and there were several things that needed to be fixed. For example, in some places the distance between the poles was too large so we need an additional pole in between. This seems minor, but to “get more poles” means we have to go into the forest, have the men chop down and debark trees (we got 13 additional poles), then we have to use Blu’s truck to pull them to the main road, then we have to hire a truck to take them to Mapanza. Then we have to paint them with creosote to protect against termites, drill them and put the new electrical lines on them, and then put them up. I get tired just thinking about it! A huge issue where electricity is concerned is that we purchased the wrong size transformer. We got the biggest you can get in Zambia, but apparently it’s not big enough. So now we are looking at how to get the transformer down, return it and get a refund, and find and import the larger one from South Africa.
In the meantime, we do have power on the land via 3 generators we brought from the USA. They are cool because they can be switched from 220 back to 110 power.
Blu is planning a “Zesco Week” two weeks from now, where the workers do nothing but make the changes the electric company required. The transformer will take longer, so we are assuming we will probably move into our house and be using generators for awhile.
Water: We have two boreholes that we use for all water. However, to get water inside the house, we have to purchase a 5000 liter tank, get it on a stand, run a pipe from the borehole to the stand, get a pressure pump to pump it up into the tank, and then run all of the plumbing in the house. We already have our tank purchased and ready, but the stands have been a hassle. Quotes have been about $4000 each! (we need 4 for the land) But today, Blu found a man, the one who has welded our windows, who has experience building tank stands. He agreed to build four of them, deliver them, and help us get them set up for a total of $4,400. And ours will be delivered this Friday!!
Our House: Our house is completely plastered, electrical outlets/switches are in, lights are up, and countertops are in. Here are the steps to be done to finish our house: Finish plumbing, paint the ceilings white, pour concrete floors, paint the walls, paint the floors, build pantry/laundry/closet shelves, build and install kitchen cabinets, stain kitchen countertops, move in!!
Boys Workers House: Mulenga and Kalenga (funny, I know..) are currently living in the guys house. Mulenga (age 28) is basically the overseer on the land. He is a jack of all trades and everyone likes him so he does well with the workers. Kalenga (age 50) will eventually be the cook at New Day. In the meantime, he is a servant who does whatever is needed. He will be starting a weekly Bible study on the land in the coming weeks. The poor guys have been living in a half-finished house because we got busy doing other things. But we have given them the job of finishing their house, so they have finished painting their ceiling, given the walls a second coat, and their floors were finished a couple of days ago. Now, like us, they await plumbing/tank/tank stand to get their bathroom completely done.
Girls Workers House: The girls house is done up to roof level! The man who built this house, Emanuel, is a carpenter by trade and has agreed to oversee the roofing of this house. Blu was happy to give him the job of truss-building!
First Orphan House: It is up to roof level. The man who helped start this in June quit unexpectedly, so Emanuel finally finished it up for us. He will oversee the roof on this as well. Goal is to get the roofs up by November—rainy season!
Second Orphan House: Has a slab! We may wait on the building of this one for financial reasons.
Kitchen/Dining/Laundry/Classroom: It is built up to roof level and we are very pleased with this structure! It is HUGE. It has plenty of storage for food and other items, and we know this is where the kids will spend most of their time. We are building a small stage in the dining portion where we will put a white screen behind it (movie nights/worship services) and we’ll have Blu’s guitars/drumset, etc. on the stage!
Ideally, we’d like to see these structures completely finished and live-in ready by January 1st. We’ll see if it happens! There are still bunkbeds to build, tons of painting to do, etc.! It’s going to be a busy Fall! We are putting the most energy into our house right now because we feel that once we are on the land full-time, the building will go twice as fast. It’s hard to build from 45 minutes away! As you can imagine, we are spending tons of money on building at New Day. If you have thought about giving, but haven’t yet and you would like to, let me tell you how!
You can give via paypal at www.newdayorphange.org
OR
You can mail a check to New Day Orphanage, 3112 West Avenue R, Temple, TX 76504
This should get you updated on what is happening in Mapanza for awhile! God bless!
