The Margie Smith House

My family has moved out and about in search of houses to stay in five times in a row in the last three years while working with kids at Daylight. Housing for my family has been a constant challenge as we work at Daylight, Kapenguria in Pokot, Kenya. However,  we now all have a reason to smile: our family house construction is finally underway! Thanks to a big time Daylight friend and sister in the lord. It all started when Margie Smith came in our way a few weeks ago. 

Margie Smith made a seed donation of $5000, and we knew getting started on the family was the way to go. The work on the "Margie Smith House" has since started in earnest. We are now at the slab level of the foundation. Megan, who is visiting with us, has been helping with the construction laying bricks. Locals also have not been left behind, their support has been instrumental. We are shooting at December to get through with the construction since the materials needed are not all available now, and so will be done as a work in progress. 

The pictures below tell of the work we have been into lately:

 We had to make water available by signing up through the local water department in Kapenguria township.

                             A truck delivering sand, lots of it needed

        Digging in to create the trenches to set in the foundation

                                                                 Foundation Stones

                                           Manually mixing the concrete

                                           work is underway

                                          Getting the figures right: 40ft by 22ft

                                          This little dude came to lent a hand too

                                           From a distance....

                                           Gearing for brick laying

               This old man who lives next to the site came to help big time

                          Gideon, the lead Mason counter-checking angle-line, just in case

                               Megan, our visiting guest, laying double bricks

                                     Work- work -work and more work

                                Gideon and Megan setting up  the corners

                                  Onto the 3rd layer....so far this is called progress, what else is it?

                                      Slowly and gradually, brick by brick.... we are making it happen!

                               Foundation wall taking shape

                                   Stones are arranged on the foundation

                                           Filling that space with stones is the next step

                                          Stone-work half-way and underway

Chicken for lunch, Megan slaughtering a chicken to make a meal on the site....freaking? It's just food for lunch after a day's hard work

Megan and I went to acknowledge a gift of 5 trees ( those behind us) to be used for timber. At the middle is Jackson who made the donation to us.

     Dinner at our family. Megan descending on ugali ( a popular Kenyan delicacy)

 Megan having a special kind of ugali made from millet.