January 14

We thought that on Friday (the 13th of January) the cement truck would come again to pour the ground floor to the upper level of the hostel.  But the cement company informed Ron that something was broken (TIA - this is Africa) so the cement will be delivered next week.  This sounds like a Friday the 13th bad luck story.

However, on the contrary, it is a Providence of God story.  Early on Saturday morning January 14, Ron got a phone call saying the 2 - 20 foot containers we'd purchased, and had been waiting for since before Christmas, had arrived!  These are empty containers that will be the base of a duplex housing for Covenant / Free Church staff of RFIS.  Well, it would be ok to get the cement floor on Friday and have 2 containers delivered the very next day, but much better to spread out the excitement a bit.

Click here for a 30 second video showing how they got the containers off the delivery truck. 

Have a look at the delivery of these 2 containers.  One truck brought the 2 containers.  Each one was dragged off the truck outside the gate of the hostel.

The 2nd container being pulled off the flat bed truck that delivered them.

On the road outside RFIS back gate, looking into the hostel gate

Pulling the container inside the gate - view from road outside

Pulling the container inside - view from inside the gate.

The containers will eventually serve as storage for the staff duplex.  Meanwhile, it'll be a supply shed during construction.

Temporary resting place

On opening the containers up, an odor revealed that these had previously housed live animals - chickens or pigs.  And they are in desperate need of cleaning before use!  Still, Ron says they are in great shape and should serve well as storage and the base on which to build a duplex.

Now pray for the cement to be delivered soon!

Coming Soon!

Sorry, no pictures this time.  But I did want to let you know that very soon we'll be pouring the floor to the upper level.  This is not the 2nd floor but the bottom floor of the upper level of the split level building.  Ron explained it to the kids that the hostel is kind of 2 buildings, one a little higher up the hill from the other, and they're connected by a stairway.  So we're soon to start on the "2nd building."

January 3

While we were away relaxing at the beach in Kribi between Christmas and New Years, the guys on the construction site were busy putting up walls.  Ron was pleased to see the progress on his first day back to work January 3rd.

Lower level with walls going up on left, upper level on the right; CMF in the background left and AOG shop in background right

Foreground upper level; background L to R AOG shop, water tower, entrance gate, guard house, pile of cement blocks

Now pivot to the right for the next view:

The orange door in the wall (top right corner) leads to RFIS property

Now pivot 180 degrees for this view:

Upper level in foreground, lower level behind

Upper level, lower level new walls, and CMF Hostel at top right

December 24 Lower Level Walls Begin

Christmas Eve and the men continued to work, getting the walls started.

And after they got that much started, we went away to the beach at Kribi for almost a week of vacation.  Ron was interested to see how much progress happened in our absence.  You'll see how much got done in the next post!

December 23

The floor on the lower level of the hostel's split level building is done -- a bit late in the day since the cement truck arrived 3 hours late.  But the whole floor is done in one day!  Then in the night, the neighbor's guard dog left some prints that had to be smoothed out in the morning.



Lower level floor poured; upper level at top right

 Now walk up to the center of the upper level with your back to the wall for the following views...

Preparing the upper level floor - looking right toward CMF Hostel



Looking straight ahead, upper level in foreground, lower level in background



Looking left toward the wall between the hostel and RFIS