We Finally got to drop Miguel in a dark Hole somewhere!

The Cornerstone Six have arrived in full have been promptly put to work all over the compound! Most notably, they have continued digging our well so we can bust through the layer of quartz twenty feet below our feet. We have a twenty fut hole at the bottom of which is a few feet of constantly replenishing water and solid rock with a massive tripod and pulley system above it hauling water and earth out of the depths. It truly resembles an archeological dig out of Indiana Jones. Though Im not there to witness it, Miguel should be being lowered into said hole to do his share of the digging as I type.

On the medical center side of things, we are up to about seven feet on all walls and are a few courses of brick away from pouring our ring beams and then getting the roof going giving us at least a loosely defined building. Add some curtains and a doctor and we have got ourselves a medical center!

We had another worker come to the lord and he attended church with the team for the first time this past Sunday and he most certainly got his fill of scripture as we heard THREE consecutive sermons! Buckle up!

As for the rest of the team, Mark has been invaluable as he has been fixing every door on the compound because the list of doors that actually open and close is rapidly decreasing every day. we determined a cornucopia or reasons why...some of which including all the doors are not square (some not even rectangles) and the hanging was atrocious. Steve, Miguel, Mary-Lou, Janelle, and Danielle have been sieving sand like machines (and none of us have yet to agree on the actual pronunciation of that word), digging out the well, and generally recovering from any number of ailments that have struck in force but, to the best of my knowledge should strike the body with a vengeance but then promptly leave it. We shall see. Barring a well shaft cave-in or violent mutation of a virus they should all be safe in NJ within a week!

Anticipation Mounts in Adak

The word has spread in Adak that we will be soon visited by a team from Cornerstone and we are all very excited for our guests to arrive! So please keep these six in your prayers as they fly out on the 22nd and prepare to arrive in Adak on the 25th.
Around Adak, all projects have been making progress. Our diggers have made it down 20 feet and begun pounding through the rock that has halted every other well drilling effort we have made thus far. So with any luck, the people of Adak will soon have access to clean water.
The medical center is flying up, with almost all exterior walls reaching ten bricks high, and half of the interior walls matching that. The biggest concern now is preparing to get adequate lumber to make the trusses for the roof. Apparently it is next to impossible to get lumber over four meters long and we have been dead-ended every time we explore new options. But thanks to a creative architect and a determined engineer, I have no doubt any problems will soon be solved.
I am sorry to say, I am without photographs as I am in town to pick up an order of metal, but I will be certain to well document the site for the next blog. Thank you to everyone who has had us in their prayers. Despite many opportunities for problems, it seems God has kept things running relatively smoothly (which, in my experience, is counter to his personality...reference - The Old Testament)

An Unexpected Visitor

Construction is going very well as we continue to build op the walls of the Health Center. For the past several days, We have had the help of another team lead my Jesse Kroeze's Father, Jack which made a lot of our projects much easier. One of those projects included once again attempting to drill a well on property. Even after the efforts of a professional driller, we were unable to penetrate the rock layer about twenty feet down, so the newest plan is to have local diggers dig down to the rock, break through it, and then use our equipment to drill further. In just about two days, these two guys have dug down around 10 feet! Hopefully we will finally have a clean water source dug within a week or so. My project of late has been adding a ceiling in one of our huts which has proven most complicated as none of the 2x4s are of uniform length or width and all to often resemble the waves of the ocean. So that has been more of an undertaking than it really should have been...but that seems to be the theme of construction work in Africa so I can hardly say Im surprised.

As for the namesake of this post, I was thoroughly surprised to find a Cobra making its way around our huts in the middle of the day. Only after someone almost stepped directly on him, were we able to catch him and deal with him accordingly. Needless to say, we all began carefully taking note of each one of our steps from that day on.

You have to admire our fabulous scaffolding system

These guys are digging MACHINES!

A Fond Farewell

Though it pains me greatly to say it, Jordan will be departing Uganda this weekend and returning to all you lovely folks. So prepare for a mentally exhausted, likely unshaven, man using a ridiculous African accent in desperate need of a cheeseburger and ice cream. Please oblige him. He will be missed.
On the upside, the medical center is coming along beautifully despite the the complications that a week of rain brings to the work site. Last Sunday we prayed for rain, and Im beginning to think either to many of us prayed or we have a direct line to God's to-do list because the rain has been relentless. But in the face of adversity, the walls have been going up at a pretty good pace, and the medical center has really started taking shape. As i have forgotten the camera, I have no pretty pictures for show and tell today, but i will make up for that two fold in the next post. And despite the fact that our doors have not yet opened (or been installed for that matter) we have begun seeing patients from time to time. Mostly minor cuts but with a few burns to keep us on our toes. Thank you all for your support! Its so exciting to see Cornerstone and Touch The World coming together to make such a big difference here and I consider myself lucky to see it come together first hand.

1 week left

So as Adam is taking over the day to day responsibilities my job is becoming less exhaustive allowing me to enjoy life in Adak a bit more than I ever anticipated.
I only have 7 more days left in Adak then I will begin my return home. I'll set out for Kampala and spent the last 4 days there.
Adak's people have really captured my heart. The village itself doesn't have much to offer. Just a few shops selling things they bought in town, a bike repair man that visits twice a week, and the occasional dance party that tries to be a modern disco.
But the people have so much more to give. To see them hold on to Gods promises after nearly 3 decades of war goes beyond heart warming. To see them work hard to rebuild their community brick by brick, to see the houses that have been rebuilt and the land getting farmed again paints a great picture of restoration, which is what God was after all along anyways.
Our life belongs to God and hope is rising as His Glory floods our heart. Through faith based missions Love has torn down the walls so that northern Uganda can turn away from witchcraft and return to God. Praise be to God.

The Much Anticipate TTW Team Arrival!

With the exception of a very stubborn stomach bug that has seemingly just been circulating between the three full time Adak residents, things have been going marvelously. We have begun the pour on the second half of the building and done the lay out for the upper part with hopes of starting the walls within the next few days. And that is remarkably good news as we are stockpiling outrageous amounts of brick piles everywhere you look. We are flirting with about 16000 bricks floating around property right now. And when you factor in how little light there is at night and the fact that we wear sandals everywhere, that adds up to a LOT of stubbed toes.
The TTW GUTS team arrived this last Saturday and in addition to "weeding" out rice field (which to several of out team members meant walking down the line of planted rice and yanking them all up much to the dismay of the Ugandan who generally tends our fields). But that incident aside, they have been remarkably helpful in transporting bricks to where we needed them and even try their hand at the brick making machine 113 bricks and only a few small injuries to show for it! And on a random note, you would be surprised at how horrified one will get when you tell them that the sauce added to the beans that they are currently eating is actually made my crushing the cockroaches that are so plentiful. I have never seen a girls eyes wider with a shaking spoon frozen half in her mouth.

Our welder at his "workstation". Though, to his credit, he is rocketing through window and door frames.

Our little goat and cat recruited for the purpose of hunting and destroying mice though all tests up to date have yielded miserable results.
Our cook hard at work preparing beans and rice...every day.

Life in the Hut Penthouse

Hello everyone, Things are going marvelously here in Adak! We are currently pouring the floor for the medical center which is making this strategically piled dirt look more and more like a substantial building! And while our engineer focuses on that, Jordan and I have been doing a lot of work on the huts. I am very proud to say we have installed complete interior lighting in one of the huts and the best part is that it is entirely solar powered. Thank you sun. We have also become fairly talented at creating bamboo and bark contraptions. So far we have a functional ladder and some very classy clothing racks.
On the agricultural side of things going on here, one of our goats has had a baby and another is within a week of cranking another one out. Not to mention the outrageous amounts of eggs our chickens are shooting out. Its impressive that they can take grubs and seed and turn that into succulent eggs and delicious chicken. Nature is fantastic!
The TTW team will be joining us tomorrow for several days, so we have been eagerly anticipating there company and the goodies that they will bring (solar panels)! So we will put them to work on brick making and whatnot as we are starting on the walls of the clinic tomorrow and will need all the bricks we can get a hold of.
Finally, a kitten was found on property that we named Kwatc (cwotch) which means leopard and we have been slowly training him to combat our rat problem which has thus far been a losing battle. Im hoping that within a few months, Kwatc may be able to turn the tides in our favor. And while on the subject of adorable baby animals, we just got a pup from town that will serve as a guard dog once he gets big and strong. right now he is not quite intimidating enough to put in charge of guarding something. Its a never ending cycle but all entirely in the name of ministry with no ulterior motivation whatsoever...really.

Adam is arriving

As the construction project continues Adam Boe will be joining our team to take over the position as Construction manager as my time in northern comes to an end.

The foundation for the Health Center is coming to completion. The base of the concrete floor is a layer of medium sized stones laid out flat side up. This is a very labor intensive task, as the stones are split by hand (with a sledge hammer) and installed one by one in the compacted dirt backfilling. The voids between the stones are blinded with sand. As the blinding has been finished today we began pouring the concrete floor.

I recently had a chance to visit the quarry from where we have been purchasing the gravel. The conditions of the workers are brutal. They remind me of scene from the movie "Les Miserables" where Jean Valjean is working in the quarry. Breaking stones without machinery. With hammers and chisels. Woman bring their children to work because child care is not there. Fires are made on the stone to bake it as it is to hard to break without cooking it first. It is heart wrenching to see the conditions the people endure, day after day after day under the African sun, for a few dollars per day (not per hour).

The definition of gainful employment varies from region to region, however human rights don't.

More pictures coming soon.

Prayer requests:
-Peace and unity between our workers as recently two of them tried to have a fist fight.
-Smooth transition for Adam Boe. He has spent many months in Africa before, however the transition from Jersey to Adak is still ... extreme.
-GUTS trip from TTW we have visiting. For the effectiveness of their ministry while in Adak. Health and safe traveling.
-Well drilling situation.
-Overall safety of the construction project for the workers.

Alive and well…despite my drivers best efforts.

Howdy everybody, I have finally made it out to Adak and have been given a kings welcome by Jordan and all of the locals out here. If you are trying to understand what its like here, picture Ridgewood...then remove the paved roads, electricity, running water, traffic laws, and any sense of urgency. Then add a sprinkle of blistering heat, cooked goat on a stick that always ends in nausea, and several metric tons of children FASCINATED by white people. Thats just about Adak in a nutshell. And what better way to start my time off then learning the ins and outs of killing chickens...the logical first step to veterinary school. I LOVE AFRICA! And finally, I must apologize for my terrible punctuation. The keyboards here have a whole slew of symbols on them but none of the correct ones come up when I hit their corresponding buttons. Its been a little game of battleship just to get this post out. Im sorry to say the computer beat me more times than Id care to admit, so we can forget about apostrophes and parentheses for a while!

Computer is up and running (walking really)

We have now moved on the possibly the most exciting part of the health center construction: backfilling. That is filling the inside of the foundation with solid earth. Hours and hours every day for maybe 2 weeks of wheel-barrows shovels and dirt. Not to much fun but very important. Enjoy the photos

Finishing the plinth wall

Getting ready to backfill

Mean while we have still been pumping out bricks everyday. Each day (depending on the weather) yields between 400 - 500 Bricks. We need around 17,000 bricks for the Health Center alone.

Ocan (age 18) pumping out bricks with Okema acting as the counter weight

Just like every other construction site I've been on we build OSHA approved ramps and accesses. Whatever is necessary to get the job done. In reality I found them building this sketchy ramp and wanted to see it in action. After two failed almost successful attempts I convinced them to take a different approach.

Opiyo is going to pull Komakech and the wheel-barrow up the ramp under Kilama's (our forman) supervision.

A special thanks to the donor of our solar panels. They get used every day to power the laptop, camera and phone that make my job possible. Thanks.

Solar panels charging the 12v car battery in the red bucket