Have you had one of those jobs assignments when you think... no one will believe I am doing this. Today was another one of those days for me.
I am living on a compound that has several empty houses. (We are asking God to fill them.) I am currently sharing this space with two other single women. One of the things I volunteered to do was basic, I mean simple, maintenance. So, last night I had to figure out how I could get 14 toilets to flush at the same time. Joanne would be at the literacy center. That left Teresa, drafted into the project and our house hold helpers. But that only gave me a total of six people. So, I drafted our watch men and yard workers. By nine am I was unlocking houses and giving assignments. Oh, and teaching men 50+years of age how to flush a toilet and why this silly tubaab (white person) was asking for their help. The job went off without a hitch! Okay, this is Africa, there were one or two.... I couldn't get one of the houses to open up, I forgot to turn on the water in two of the houses. Thus I got my exercise running around this morning. When the job was done I drove to the village to buy breakfast for those who helped out. Opps, I didn't get any for Teresa. I stopped by Joanne's to give her the visual picture of teaching the watchmen and yard men how to flush. : )
The day proceeded to be busy and filled with all kinds of things. I mended the volleyball net, tried to clean a water filter and discovered the shut off valve, didn't shut off the water. (a cool shower in the heat of the day!) I saw a few sick individuals, ran a group of people to a village to the north and east of us, found some one ther who wanted to come to our village. (a little taxi driving on the side!) Then fixed a lunch that was interupted by an accident. A bush taxi flipped out on the main road. They described it as four feet in the air. (Tires up!) Four adults and three children were brought to the compound and they came to get me. I tried to patch up gapping head wounds and missing arm muscles. The people were headed to the captiol city. I am praying they have something at the Government Hospital to help clean out and close these wounds. I called our ambulance driver to carefully drive the victims to the hospital in Banjul. The children were just banged up, praise God, and all the adults were stable. One woman and her two daughters live in Spain. They are in The Gambia for a two month visit. The girls spoke Spanish and not a local dialect. Wouldn't you know... I couldn't put a whole sentance together in Spanish without Wolof words slipping out.
Tomorrow... a new toilet... the adventure continues.
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2 comments:
How do you get everything in in one day? God must make the Gambian days longer. We set back our clocks here so now it is dark at 6 I like when it is lighter out for longer. take care and hope you get your new toliet soon.. love ya dar
Hi! I've been reading but didn't take the few minutes to comment...So glad that you're feeling better. I wish that Duane were there to do all that maintenance, but this isn't the time in our lives for that...Duane had those burning/blistering sores. It was awful.
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