July 30 - Prayer Requests

In just a week students will be arriving for the start of the 2012-13 school year .  While the Carlsons have moved in to the hostel, and it's mostly ready, there are many loose ends remaining before it's really ready to receive students.

Please pray with us for:

*  Good health for everyone. 
*  Electricity to function well throughout the hostel
*  Sinks, toilets, showers etc. all function well without leaks - such a challenge in a new place.
*  Completion and installation of all shower rods & curtains, window curtains and rods, towel racks, toilet tissue holders
*  Safe travel to Yaounde for all students coming to live in UBAC Hostel
*  Three of the students who are new to the hostel, new to RFIS
*  Positive family atmosphere in the hostel among students  -- our 12 students include 4 Carlsons, 5 whose parents serve in Central African Republic, and 3 whose parents serve in Gabon.
*  Special grace for Karen Carlson who is teaching one class at RFIS in addition to learning the ropes as hostel mom.

July 18 - Getting Settled In

July 18 was Carlson's first night to stay in the hostel.  Karen had been busy sewing new curtains for every room; Dan, making curtain rods.  The day was spent putting beds together (finding all the matching parts for each bed), finding linens and making the beds, and moving personal items as well as kitchen stuff from CMF where they'd been staying over to UBAC.  Here's how that day looked.

Karen puts finishing touches on one of MANY new curtains

An example of the beautiful curtains specially made for the new hostel

Time to start moving furniture into place... and figure out where to put what!  Some pieces that had been used for kitchen storage are no longer needed for that purpose, so can be placed in the living area.

Newly re-finished dining table - like new!

This beautiful cabinet used to hold tupperware and kitchen items (with masking tape labels on the drawers).  Now re-finished, it stands in the space between the front entry and the inside stairway for a new purpose.

The 2 fridges and small freezer were cleaned well and moved into position in the new kitchen.  It took a few days to figure out why plugging all 3 in at once tripped breakers -- just one of the many glitches to work out in a newly constructed building.

Fridges and freezer in the new kitchen

Meanwhile, downstairs on the bottom level, tile was being laid - the final stage in tiling.  "But you said the tile was all done!" you may say.  True, we weren't planning to tile the bottom floor just yet, but oh well, sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand was thinking and at least it'll all be done! 

The last place to tile: recreation and laundry rooms on the bottom floor

And outside, landscaping continues.  Along the front of the house a retaining wall is built - made from cement blocks that one of the masons had been making for several weeks right here on our property.  No Lowes or Home Depot here to buy them ready-made.

Retaining walls to the left and in front of the front entrance

Fabrication of cement block for construction and landscaping

July 1-10 The New Hostel Parents Are Here !

July 1 we were pleased to welcome Dan and Karen Carlson, this year's UBAC Hostel parents!  And they set off right away learning everything possible from last year's parents Scott & Lee Pyles.

First day, a tour of their home-to-be.

Glass and screens going in, front steps done

 Take a closer look at the front entrance.

So up we went to the top floor kids bedrooms, and out to the big veranda that you see from the entrance gate.

Lee shows Karen the upper veranda off the girls bedroom

When they look over the side, toward the front door, this is what they see:

View from upper veranda of front steps, drainage ditch going in along the future road between hostels, and CMF Hostel.

At the other end of the upper veranda, Ron shows Dan around the hostel.

And when they go to the end of the veranda and look back along the back side of the building, this is what they see:

The wall that separates the hostel from RFIS, and a view of Stoker's porch below, and hostel living room veranda above.

Inside, the bathrooms are getting done - sinks, showers, toilets are in with tile around.  Work still to be done on the cabinets.

The sink cabinet is done in the hostel parent's bathroom.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who are the coolest hostel parents of all?

The cabinets are going in the kitchen.  Tile on the counter top, kitchen sink, but the island isn't yet begun.

One of the bedrooms - nice big rooms, with veranda.

Bedroom opens out to the veranda

Carlsons quickly put their children to work  - stripping and revarnishing furniture.

Sanding the dining table

The Carlson family have been living in the CMF Hostel since thier arrival in Yaounde 3 weeks ago.  Tomorrow they plan to move over to the UBAC Hostel and finish getting it ready for students while living in it.  Please pray that all the little things get completed before students arrive Aug. 4-6.