"A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build..."

Hi Everyone,

This fall, B2B will be having a new couple coming on staff and they need a place to live. John, our son-in-law, is in charge of all the building projects and we thought we'd show you how things are coming along. The above picture shows you what the property looked like before anything began.

Everything here in Nigerian is done by hand - no Bobcats digging, no cement mixing machines. Just alot of hard work - but as you can see, it's progressing. First, John and Crist, using string, marked off the dimensions and the rooms etc. and then a crew of four young men began digging the footing trenches . Crist and John (see picture below) made the steel rods that go into the trenches. I'm trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about, but the reality is, I haven't a clue. Two days ago, they poured concrete into the trenches.

There were three women who helped with the mixing of the concrete and they would fill those baskets up with rocks/concrete and put it on their heads and walk to where it needed to be dumped. Crist said they were having a good time with lots of laughter among them and teasing back and forth.

In the coming weeks, we'll keep you posted on how the apartments are doing. Corrie and John have two friends from the states visiting them for the next few weeks and this afternoon we're all going to the nearby local zoo. We worked on 4th of July Monday, so we're taking off this afternoon to "see the sights." Corrie said for a very small sum you can pay to buy a rabbit and watch as a python slowly squeezes the rabbit to death and then eats it. Yuck! I don't think we'll do that. But, we'll take pictures so plan on seeing the Jos Zoo in a future blog.

In-joy,

Eileen and Crist