Dust and Pits

(October) For about the last two weeks, there has been an unusually large amount of traffic on the little village road that passes through the mission.  The government is having work done on the main road.  They sent a track-hoe (big backhoe) and at least 7 dump trucks to start moving rock and dirt from the area down by the river up to the main road.  After they finished all the "good rock and dirt" there, they asked to take some off the mission property.  They received a very firm "NO."  The area they wanted to dig up is right over the hydro-electric intake pipes.  It would have been a disaster for the mission's electrical system.  So they found the dirt on the other side of the river to be very good, and they moved their digging just up the mountain on the other side of the river from the hydro-intake.  We hope that nothing washes down and damages the system.
From early morning to late in the night the trucks would move up and down the road.  The dust became unbearable.  We tried to keep at least part of the road watered to reduce the dust here, but many others were suffering from the constant thick clouds of dust.  It was several inches deep along the road.  It was so bad that Janet was standing on one side of the road talking to Yona who was on the other.  The truck came through and she could not see him at ALL!  Janet worked diligently to try to get the trucks, the construction crew and government to work together to reduce the dust.  Some of us were starting to get sick from it.  They started watering the road some with their big water truck (a few times.)  We were so thankful!  Then, thankfully the rains have started, also.
In their digging by the river (the first pit) they dug very deep and all the way up to the road!

This of course was setting up the village to loose their road when the rains begin.  After MUCH communication with the village executive, district commissioner and the construction people some work began to move the remaining dirt to try to fill the big hole by the road.  The night we heard the backhoe leaving from on the mountain, Janet went to see if the hole by the river had been filled.  It had not been filled.  She spent almost two hours there with the workers and the village executive.  The hole did indeed get filled mostly because of her insistence. 


 

Closing the pre-school in Lupalilo

The school year ends for the public school on the 29th of November.  The hard decision was made to close out the preschool class that has been being operated by Eden Valley Foster Care Mission for the last 10 years.  The teachers and head teacher at Lupalilo Primary School are very sad to see this end, but they are very thankful for the service that has been provided to children, the community and the school.  The teachers mentioned that the children who attended the classes provided by EVFCM (Eden Valley Foster Care Mission) have prepared the children well for entering Kindergarten classes.  The head teacher asked if they could continue to use the many teaching aids from the class and also the furniture.  Janet agreed happily if they would make sure that they would stay at the school and be used for the benefit of the children.  They agreed and were so happy to get such nice things to help them with teaching the children.
There was a bit of serious concern at first because the head teacher thought that Janet was saying she was closing both that class and the school in Mago.  He asked about the orphans.  What will they do for help.  Janet quieted his fears and said that we will continue to have the school in Mago and will continue to help the orphans just as we had the previous week.