The Not Rest Day

Preface:

If you have not been informed, about half of our team this year was on the Ghana engineering trip last year (me). For some, the design and installation of this sanitation system has been more than a year and a half of involvement (not me). We planned to go to the beach and have a partial rest day today.

Now for the events of the day:

Today is Sunday. We went to church service at the academy today. It is the same place we attended last week. Last year, we attended service at Hope College and at the academy. I enjoyed the variety and engaging both congregations. However, last Sunday, Sam Webb and I were scheduled to pray at the academy. So by the time I realized I wanted to attend Hope College’s service I had already made a promise to attend the academy service. It was a good service. I had no trouble with falling asleep as Sam and I were seated at the front like on stage (without an actual stage). From my experience, nearly 400 people staring at you for a couple hours is better than coffee in the morning (not suggested for everyday use).

Church was in three parts today: pre-church, service, and special ceremony. The special ceremony was for the retirement of a house mother and father. We did not sit at the front for the special ceremony. Pre-church and service went from about 7:30 to 10:30 as normal. The special ceremony went from 10:30 to 2:30. Our team left during picture taking at about 12:30. We took pictures with the retiring couple even though most of us hadn’t met them. Fred Asare (Mr. Big Boss) was like “hey, all the white people for this picture.” We had a good laugh about that one. I just imagine 20 years down the line who were those Americans at our retirement party. We met a couple of people from Pearl House. Courtney Garland and her two interns May and Christina (They are also white hence the earlier comment). Courtney actually knew the retirees so that’s why they were there. Also, May goes to Lipscomb so small world.

After Church, we back to the guest house for lunch, and it was decided we were not going to the beach, but everyone was tired so it would still be a rest day . . . I am a workaholic. I immediately asked if I could continue to work on the project, and proceeded to get approval. Abbie and Carson immediately joined me. We were running power cables again today. So they laid pipe, pulled cable through the pipe, glued the pipe from after lunch until dinner at 7. There was only one major mishap. Carson underestimated his strength and broke the caulk gun by trying to squeeze silicone out of an unopened tube. To replace to gun he and Abbie used a short piece of pipe to force the silicone out (not ideal, but effective). In the meantime, I was wiring the wall outlets for the pumps to plug into, and Hanleigh showed up to help. The rest of the team by this time was going full tilt on cutting media.

Hanleigh was helping with wiring while Mabana (blue) and Abena (orange) helped. In the background, you can see Abbie and Carson gluing pipe.

The team cutting media. Sam and Joe are measuring out 10 foot lengths of the corrugated pipe before they are cut into 1.5 inch pieces. Mabana (blue) and Roku (grey) were helping.

Kyle and Leah became the designated runners for dumping the media into the filter tanks. Carson and Abbie helped with the pouring process. We found that the more hands the less media went flying outside of the tank.

Right before dinner, I grabbed Sam and Hanleigh off media duty to help me with putting the pumps into the clarifier tank. By dinner, 99.9% of wire piping was done; the clarifier is basically done, and 23.5 boxes of media were cut out of the needed 30 boxes. After dinner, the team sat down for highs and lows, before returning to cutting media. As I write this the final box is being cut.

The team continued cutting media after dinner. Those not pictured on the porch were outside. Sam and Hanleigh became legendary at cutting media. When pictured their hands were always a blur.

Final Thoughts:

The team has grown much closer together as evidenced by us staying up later to hang out. Abbie has smoothly inserted herself into the team such that I sometimes forget she did not come with us from Nashville. The project is on the cusp of completion and the team beginning to think of our return home. Others even their return to Ghana in a year.