Life in Gimbie - October 1

This is a rundown on the last couple of days here at Gimbie. Sunday
was a pretty good day. First off because I was done being sick. And
secondly because it is a national holiday so nobody works. So like
usual when we have down time we played cards. Usually Hearts of Up
and Down the River, (it's kinda like rook). Usually it's Fletcher,
Justin, Luke, Joel, and I who play. Then in the afternoon we started
clearing off the soccer field. Or what we have plans to be the soccer
field. It's actually just a plot of ground where a house used to be
that is nice and flat. It was formerly used as a volleyball court, and
the net and poles are still there. It is now terribly overgrown with
weeds. As we work the kids that live in the compound come out and try
to help us work.

The hospital is in the process of building a nursing school to use.
Like most of Ethiopia the plot of ground to be used is on a hill.
There were two options for excavating the ground. One was to hire a
bulldozer and get it done in maybe a day or two, this would cost about
25,000 bir, (exchange rate is 10 bir to 1 dollar). The other option is to hire a
whole bunch or men to dig it out, which would cost about 8,000 bir.
Naturally we choose the latter.

The hospital hired four contractors to find men, and they gave them
this stipulation. For each day under 30 days that they finished, each
contractor would get an extra 25 bir. But, for each day over 30 there
would be a subtraction of 25 bir. There are about ten men that are
working at the dig site. They are using shovels, picks, and
wheelbarrows to move the massive amount of red clay. The men also work
extremely hard because they want their bonus. These men also are
apparently not the most trustworthy and we were told to have people
watch them all day so they wouldn't steal the tools.

 Monday was the day for fletch and I to watch. We also wanted to shoot
some video of what was happening. After doodling around, taking video,
reading and such, foreman Nolan (that's me) finally got some action.
The men brought two broken wheelbarrows to fix. They carried them with
me up to the garage where I spent the next hour and a half fixing
them. I even welded one back together, which was my second time
welding. That afternoon instead of just watching I decided to help.
Even though my helping would cost the hospital more money, it was
terribly boring just watching. I instantly had blisters but it was
good work.

Yesterday was spent cleaning the volleyball court/soccer field of the
one to two foot high weeds. It the US this job would take one person a
maximum of two hours. Here using the methods that I'm sure were
thought up in the Bible times, 4 people have worked 8 hours on it and
it's still not done. It didn't help that during lunch it rained like
I've never seen it rain before in my life. We literally had a pool of
water in our front lawn when it was all over.

Today was again a different job. We found that AHI (Adventist
Hospitals International) would be coming in November. Paul Howe (the
hospital CEO) asked Fletch and I if we could have a video ready to
take back with them. So the day was spent brainstorming, and starting
to get shots of the campus and such. Wish us luck!!!