I thought I should take a break from making chocolate covered peanut butter balls to give you a building update on what is happening at New Day!
Transformer: The new one has arrived and is sitting on the ground at the land! We have to make some adjustments on the stand, get it up on the stand (it weighs one ton!), and do a few other things before we can call the electric company to come and switch on electricity for us!! We are praying this process can be done in the next 3 weeks!!
Our House: Is basically finished! We have one plumbing problem (guest bathroom sink), but other than that, we are down to just building shelves in the house! As soon as we have electricity, we will do the last of the packing and be living full-time in Mapanza!
Luyando House: (orphan house) Exterior is completely finished. Interior has been wired and major plumbing appliances are in. Ceiling has been put in. A lady is cleaning out the whole house and then we will be ready to paint the ceiling, paint the walls, and put down the floor.
Girls Workers House: Exterior is completely finished. Interior has been wired and major plumbing appliances are almost in. The inside is still being plastered, and the workers have just begun the ceiling on this house.
Guys Workers House: Kalenga and Mulenga have been busy making their house their home. They have given their walls another coat of paint (oil-based this time!), painted the floors a deep green, and put a black trim around the bottom. They have recently added a huge veranda outside that they love. We will soon have someone plaster the outside of their house using a mixture of Mapanza red dirt and cement, to give their house the same color as the other buildings, as opposed to the gray cinder block. They still need plumbing done on their house. (For the benefit of our summer teams who worked so hard on this house!)
Kitchen/Dining/Laundry/Pantry/Classroom: Exterior is completely finished. Interior has been wired and plumbing appliances are in. Floor has been put in. This building will go faster because we are leaving the interior the natural brick as opposed to painting. We are only putting a ceiling on parts of the building (kitchen & classroom), so we hope to have this building completely finished SOON.
Grinding Mill: We stay busy and charge WAY lower than other grinding mills in the area. Right now, we aren't quite covering the cost of diesel to run the machine, so we are going up a little on prices starting January 1st.
Store: Our store has done SO well. We make about $50 a day, which is shocking to us! Hottest commodities this Christmas season have been bread and flour!
We have a team of highly skilled men (and 3 ladies who will do an ESL class) who will be spending ten days in Mapanza with us January 17-27. They will work in teams to complete electrical work, plumbing, ceiling, and building cabinets/shelving.
We are in need of funds to finish these projects and hopefully start the next round, which will consist of the next orphan house and a guest house for US volunteers! Do you need some tax write offs for 2010? :) Give on our website: www.newdayorphanage.org
Merry Christmas!
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