October Hostel Tour

October 11-20 we hosted Byron Amundsen from the Covenant office in Chicago.  While he was here to discuss safety and security of our mission staff in Cameroon (having already visited Covenant missionaries in Congo and CAR), we took him on a tour of UBAC and the duplex construction.

Byron and Ron stand at the entrance gate and look over the hostels

From this spot, they can see both the CMF (Baptist) and UBAC Hostels.

UBAC Hostel left, CMF Hostel right as seen from entrance gate.

Inside through the front door, we met Dan & Karen, the hostel parents this year. 

Karen, Ron, Byron and Dan chat in the dining/living room, at the base of the stairs to the students' rooms.

A look around the living room reveals that the UBAC banner has been placed in its new home.  This is the only souvenir of the original UBAC (Ubangui Academy) in Karawa, Congo.

To the right of the couch and chairs we step out to the veranda where breakfast is served and where Aunt Karen's prayer chair resides.

Then we took Byron on a quick tour of the student dorm floors.  In the hallway between bedrooms there is a nice place for linens and laundry baskets - just outside the bathroom door.

Linens and laundrybaskets in the hallway between bedrooms on each floor.

On the bottom floor we find in the recreation room, a ping pong table and lots of laundry being ironed, folded, and placed in the numbered cubbies for hostel residents to pick up after school.

Exiting from this bottom floor, we look through the windows of the Stoker apartment.  And then see the landscaping being done outside their porch.  Can you just imagine the flowers and plants that will one day be growing here?

Stoker's apartment - porch (left), wall to RFIS property (right) landscaping in between

Duplex Construction as of October 20

Still waiting for the 4th container to arrive.  Meanwhile, the workers continue to work at preparation for the floor to be poured on the 1st level, including the veranda in front of the containers.

This week we had a visit from Byron Amundsen from the Covenant mission office in Chicago.  He got the full tour of RFIS, UBAC and the new duplex construction.

Ron and Byron look over the duplex construction

UBAC Duplex Construction Begins in September

(Aug. 2012)  3 of 4 containers making up the base of the duplex

Now that the Hostel is complete, the next part of the project is a duplex for Covenant or Free Church staff of RFIS.  The plans were also made by Mark Post at Post Associates (and member of our home church in Grand Rapids).  Ron made some modifications -- like changing it to metric measurements, and adding a lower level of 4 shipping containers for storage.  There is space between the containers for laundry, workshop, or whatever the duplex residents choose.

So in September, regardless of the fact that we didn't yet have all 4 containers which make up the lower level, construction began.  Here's what it looked like then.

(August 2012) Future site of the staff duplex (as seen from a gate in the wall to RFIS

Retaining wall behind, veranda before, floor above.  At the bottom of the picture there is space for the 4th container.

The workers are preparing the floor to be poured above the top of the containers.  They are also making shelves to go inside the storage containers. 

We are praying that the 4th container will be delivered soon   We have paid for 2 since January 2012.  Lacking those, we paid for a 3rd one which we're also waiting for.  The problem is transport.  Pray that ONE of the 3 paid for will arrive so the floor can be poured.

View of the back of the hostel (as seen from just up from the duplex.

Aug. 3 Ready for Students to Arrive!

The weekend of August 3-5 the hostel had to be ready for students to arrive... school started August 8.

Drive up to this side of the stairway to unload your luggage

Climb the stairs to this "welcome" sight on the front porch.

Entrez through this beautiful front door (there is a screen door here now too).

Just inside the door, put your backpack in your cubbie (guest restroom on the other side of that door)

Continue on in to the living room

Ah, but first, the dining table is to your right.  What's this?  Someon's in the kitchen...

...baking cookies! 
Dorm Dad Dan says - it functions: food comes out of the kitchen, but it can use some improvements.
(the kitchen, not the food)

Dorm Parents' room - nearly done.  Curtains are to be added soon.

One of the bedrooms is set up for visiting parents to stay in.

I refrained from photographing student rooms, respecting their privacy!
But I did take pictures in one of the kids bathrooms!  There's one on each floor.  Two toilets, 2 shower stalls, and 2 sinks in each of them.

Standing between the toilet stalls (left) and the shower stalls (right) notice the new cup and towel racks.

Showers with new curtains hung!

Dan and Karen Carlson are amazing - getting this hostel ready to receive students, ironing out the glitches in power and water systems, and Karen spent much of the past week or 2 in new staff orientation at RFIS in preparation to teach Bible class!  Bon courage, ashia, yika mpiko!

Oh look, while we've been on tour, the cookies came out of the oven - bon appetit!

First batch of cookies baked in the new hostel (I think)

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.