May 27, 2016

What an awesome day. We went to Lungi, a 4 hour drive, and met with the military.
They have 2 buildings that they are not using that they would like us to help them
develop into a trade school. The one room is about 40 ft long and 35 feet wide, the
ceiling is open and the walls and floor are concrete. It would be perfect for one or two
trades. The other building is a very nice unused classroom. The military's idea is they
need to train the soldiers so when they leave the military they have a skill to fall back
on. They have between 500 and 1000 families associated with this base. We were told
that the women are "idle" and they want some skills taught to them as well (cooking,
soap making, hair care, manicures & pedicures, cleaning, anything so they can help
bring money into the home. I was told by the Major that they have a problem with the
women being idle and not happy with the amount of money the husband brings home
so they up and leave the husbands and "go find someone who makes more money".
This would be a wonderful project. Don asked the officers to meet with the people of
the base and get their input on what kinds of skills they would like to learn and then
present to us their ideas. We are excited about this plan.

Another place we visited was a hospital for women and children. They have 500
women a month going thru this place. It is clean and well organized. We met with the
main doctor and he is just as humble as can be and sincere in his treatment of his
patients. They are in need of an x-Ray machine and a ultra-sound machine. He has
other needs and he is going to prioritize them and give us a list. We really want to help
this hospital.

We visited a Chief, who attended our first meeting and was so excited about us doing
some humanitarian projects in Lungi, that he went home and spent 2.2 million Leones
having a hand-dug well started. He ran out of money so he covered the hole. He would
like us to finish it. It is a worthy project and he has shown he will take care of it once it
is finished. We will be doing this soon.

There is a well in Kissy that is also worthy of our help. This well was financed by the
Church. The contractor the community hired did not know what he was doing and the
concrete wall crumbled and has fallen into the well. The hand pump was also ruined by
the well technician. Because the concrete was in the well, it kept plugging up the
pump. He fixed it 3 times and his final solution was to cut the connecting rod so the
pump is two feet above the water level. The well is damaged and non-functioning. It
services 200 people daily when it is functioning. Now the people have to fetch water
from a long way away. The caretaker has put 20 million Leones into repairs of this well
out of her own pocket and it is still broken. We can fix this and bring some relief to
many families.

As of today, 16 homes at the PVA have been re-roofed. There are 6 more homes to do.
They should finish this project sometime this next week.

The blacksmith shop will get its security Windows and doors on Monday and Tuesday.
Our very next project will be a well up at Treeplanting. We are waiting for the welldriller
to finalize his quote. He says it should be ready early this week.