November 1-3, 2016

We worked hard and long in the office. We submitted 2 more projects for approval and two giant projects that will take some serious consideration by the West Africa Area Presidency. The two smaller projects are: 1. Dwarzak has a spring box that is located at the bottom third of the mountain and the heavy rains during the rainy season washes trash and sewage down the mountain and it washes over the top of the spring box and the fetching point. We are going to build a wall around the spring box and put ditches on both sides to divert the water & debris away from the spring box. 2. We are going to take what is now a fetching point (water flowing out of the rocks and collecting in a small area where people come and catch the water right from the rocks. We are going to build a spring box and place a 10,000 liter Milla Tank next to it so all the water is captured. This is going to be a very difficult project. The spring box will be way down the mountain in the community called "Down The Hole". 50 bags of cement (80# each) will be carried down on the heads of men. They will also carry the sand and gravel and everything else they will need to work down there. And I do not know how they will get the 10,000 Liter Milla Tank down there. I imagine a group of men will man-handle it. African men are extremely hard working (when they can find a job). And remember, they work for 10,000 Leones a day ($1.40). The two giant projects we are asking for consideration are: 1. a 14-stall toilet at the local bus stop. The only reason this project is being seriously considered is we asked for 2 stalls to be wheelchair assessable and a 3rd being big enough for a pregnant woman or women with children or women who are disabled. There are no handicap assessable anything in this country. If someone is handicapped in any way they are considered "broken" or "spoiled" and are thrown away. They struggle mightily to do their shopping and business. 2. We want to build a bridge in Kenema. There is an area that has a broken down bridge and it is the only way in and out of the community. The bridge spans a small stream but during the rainy season the stream floods most of the community and there is no way in or out of the community. We have had contractors out to look at the situation and to give us bids with drawings on how they would rebuild the bridge. The local government has been involved and things seem to be moving along. We submitted all our documents to our immediate supervisor and John Buah was here last week and we ran the whole idea by him. He was intrigued and told us to submit it. There are 4 men who have to approve each of our projects. John is the 2nd one. After he approves it, he takes it to Brother Francis who is the director of temporal affairs, and then to the West Africa Area Presidency (Elder Stanfill). The hand-dug borehole for the Treeplanting community was approved last week and that will be started next week.

This has been a brutal week. With John coming last week and leaving Monday night and the last 3 days we have been running on a treadmill we are very tired. We have not had a day off since a Oct. 26th. Tomorrow we plan to go to Makeni and take a break.