Some day we'll teach at a small school and play and watch the snow fall...

Today we have a treat. The first snowfall like this in five years.

Naturally I was the favorite target.

Just a few snapshots from the iPod. The only sad part about it all; it's nowhere near Christmas.

In this post I exceed my skill set...again

I last posted what I had finished by Wednesday evening when after much trial, I got the first plank in place.

Well, Thursday I spent some time calling around for router bits. Luckily, or perhaps Providentially, Tannie Hessie was in Bloemfontein which was the only place that had them. So between cellphone pictures and conversations with the rep over Tannie's cellphone, I managed to get the bits that I needed. Thursday night is always mission prayer time (although this time we had a birthday party for Christelle Gault), so I did not work.

Friday, however, the good looks of the company I brought increased considerably (no offense to Steve Geise intended). Delani working on her pantry shelves.



And I could get back down to working on the plank flooring.



I only finished two more boards that night, and then we headed back. The next day, Saturday if you've been counting, I headed to town about 6:30 am to pick up my friend, Bokang, who I have hired to help. I should have taken a picture of the morning because it was absolutely breathtaking as the sun came up over the Maluti mountains in the distance.

I got to work on the plank flooring which I finished with very little delay thanks to the new bits. While I was busy with that, Bokang went and loaded up sand and bricks to wall in the fireplace.



And a close-up



It is far from a perfect fit. Some sections of the boards were walked over for the last century and in the process lost about a quarter inch or more. So, it will take a bit of planing and sanding, but it is in and nailed down so other work can continue. I will include a picture of the original boards that I used so you can get an idea of why it has taken me this long.

While I was busy with that, Bokang had finished gathering the bricks, and he and Steve were busy with final preparations on some of the walls. Getting these walls ready has been a full-time job and Steve has really done an amazing job.



After lunch, Bokang and I went to collect stones for the fireplace floor. My original thought had been to use three layers of smaller flat stones to build up the floor. After discussing it with Uncle Johan, we decided to use just one more layer of large, 30cm high stones. Well, Bokang and I got them loaded and that is about all. Weighing hundreds of pounds, there was no way we would be able to move them in and maneauver them in place, so we abandoned that idea.



Just for scale, the Geise boys on the pile of stones.



So we took them back and loaded up smaller flat, finish stones for the last layer. One of the beauties of this project, is stones that would cost a fortune in the U.S.. are laying everywhere on the farm.

Bokang and Isaac helping me with the second layer of stones.



After which I tried my hand at cutting stones. Getting them to break just right can be difficult, but God helped and I didn't make any huge mistakes.



Thanks to Bokang's concrete mixing skills, we were able to get a few of the stones in before it was completely dark.



Hopefully by next post I will have a finished floor to show you. It is really hectic keeping up with the understaffed school and doing a building project, but God is giving extra strength and help.

As always, stay tuned...

Work Continues...

Work continues on the house. I wish I could say that it is thanks to me, but the school keeps me too busy. Steve Geise has been helping me out tremendously. The brick walls look like a road atlas from years of settling and he has been diligently and patiently filling in all cracks and holes. He paints as he does many things, to perfection and so it has been such a privilege to have his help.

I mentioned that some of the floor was rotted. I tore out all of the rotted flooring and found several beams that were unuseable, so I purchased some wood and replaced the beams, but I still had a problem. Part of the floor was rotted as well and wood that is over half a century old is difficult to find a match for.

Johan van der Merwe gave me some of the Oregon Pine that laid in their house for a hundred years before being pulled out of one of the rooms. For a guy who loves history, it is hard to cut into a board that is at least around 110 years old, knowing that it is in every way, irreplaceable.

So, as I mentioned in the last post, the floor, or part of it was rotten.



So, I replaced the beams.



but first I had to go to Build It (Ladybrand's version of Lowe's) where the staff sectioned off the area, donned safety goggles, and with a power miter saw cut the precise lengths I asked for...well, not quite.



A couple days ago, before I started with the wood floor, or rather during the process of getting lumber, etc; I began on what will be the stone floor for the homemade wood stove I am going to make.




We are trying to save money where possible, so reusing the lumber, despite the extra work, is necessary. I started ripping the smaller planks out of the old boards.



Then I started using a router to cut the grooves into the planks



but that wasn't long lived. I think I got three and a half done when this happened



Somewhere in there was coffee break where I pondered my predicament. After all, I was about thirty minutes from a town where absolutely nothing is open and they don't sell the bits I need anyways.

So with a table saw, a leatherman, and a Craftsman scraper tool that my dad gave me, I managed to cut a "tongue" into one of the boards and get it in place. I couldn't leave without at least something to show for my effort.



Stay tuned...

Change of Time

Delani and I are back from our vacation and we are settling into life...well, we would if we had a place to settle. This post is about our homelessness and what we are doing about it. We live in a lovely little apartment that is heavy on the little. It is located in what was a Catholic mission a few miles from town.

This is Delani in our living room-kitchen-dining room-study. Notice the amazing chocolate chip cookies that kept disappearing as I worked on our newsletter.

So, where does the homelessness come in? Well, we have to be out by the end of this month, namely Saturday and here is our Master bedroom where we are going.



We had the privilege of having my sister, Jenny and her husband, Robert, stay with us for a week after we came back from our honeymoon. We went and did some great stuff like eating at "The Cabin."





Including a great idea for a stove I'm going to use on the house involving wheel drums and scrap steel.



And better yet, the Farmhouse breakfast.



Then it was on to the house under a gorgeous, cold winter sky.



Ironically, for a post about the house, I have no photo of the outside of the house. Jen and Robert came to lend us a hand. Maybe I should give a little back story. I was originally going to try and build a small house on the farm, Fraaiuitzicht, where I am now living that would be available to HIM for ten years and then pass to the family...thus helping both of us. It seemed that wasn't God's plan and then, another house they have on their farm about 2 kilometers away, became available. It just needed a little work. So, we are refinishing floors covered for fifty years with carpet and we are painting walls. There are no cupboards or stove in the kitchen. Along with this come all the fun surprises that come with working in an old house.







Robert needed a little break.



Taking up the carpet is turning out to be quite a difficult work.



In addition, I have found that there is some serious rot in part of the floor. So, we have our work literally cut out for us.



Fortunately, since my sister and her husband went home, we have other friends coming like, Steve Geise.

We will keep you posted. If you want to help with this project, shoot me an email and I will try and fill you in better on what it is all about. It is actually a mission project and probably just a two year stop over for Delani and I. Keep us in your prayers. Any work we do must be done after we get out of school and drive the thirty minutes or more. This takes it's toll since nothing is close by here.

Stay tuned.

Christ and the fishes...but not the time you're thinking of

There are definite rewards to teaching English as a second language in books that were never meant for that. I get to laugh quite a bit. Today I burst out laughing in one of my students faces (unintentionally of course).

As a Christian school, we pride ourselves on having the Bible at the base of everything we learn and know. We try to promote Bible knowledge, but sometimes when evaluation comes, I’m afraid we are found terribly wanting.

My student was a bit confused about what Anno Domini meant He had to use AD in a sentence because he was learning acronyms. All that he knew was that AD was supposed to be the same as “after Christ” for a reason he couldn’t understand.

This was his sentence:

“AD was born God created light.”

Naturally I was a bit confused seeing that even substituting “After Christ” for AD didn’t make any sense, I wasn’t sure what he was trying to communicate.

Me
“Okay, so you were just trying to use “after Christ” in the sentence, but what are you trying to say here.”

Him
“After Christ is born God created light.”

Me
“But light was created before Christ was born. Christ was born much later. Light was at Creation.”

Him
“Oh, he was born with the water and the fishes.”

Me
Laughing

Me
“No, he was born much later as a man, but he always existed.”

Needless to say, we didn’t really get anywhere. I dread the day I need to explain the Trinity. He can’t understand how Christ always was and yet was born thousands of years after the world was created…but then again, neither can I.

Not in the wind, but in the still, small Voice...

This may be a rather tedious post, particularly following a protracted period of silence, but I do hope you enjoy it anyway.

Well, today was different. I suppose you could say it happened in the early morning hours, sometime just before 4 a.m.

I dreamed last night that I was invited to be something like a clown at a child’s birthday party only I would be swimming with the little tykes donned with foam pool noodles. I would be donned with the pool noodles that is. First though, the lady of the house took one look at the mole on my ankle (which I don’t actually have) and sent me with one of her daughters to another room in the house where she picked up a small device (similar to those electric shock devices that they use to relax muscles) with which she more or less “zapped” my ankle and voila, the mole was gone.

It should have stopped there, but suddenly I found myself outside the house with my good friend, S.W. and someone else. We were watching his bull and suddenly realized the neighbor’s bull was on the other side of a very small, insignificant gate and was not happy with this intruder. S.W. saw the danger as we all did and we made it into the house just before things got crazy with the bulls chasing each other around the house and destroying everything in their path. I was peeking from just behind a curtain at what was going on outside (less the bulls see me and decide to come after me instead of each other) when a Holstein cow saw me and began laughing at my cowardice. She went so far as to berate me in an all too familiar tone on my lack of bravado.

That was the beginning of the day.

It was a beautiful morning, but from early on it was an uncomfortable shade of hot with humidity thrown in as an extra duvet. I knew the tin church where we worship from about 11 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. would be far from comfortable and to be honest I was not looking forward to it.

No one seemed very thrilled to be in service and even the leader, though he continually berated us for not being into the service, seemed equally reticent to give everything.

Somewhere during the service, it became obvious that we might receive some rain, a welcome sight in this drought. You can imagine the consequences of heavy rain on corrugated tin, you can’t hear anything the preacher is saying, but no one dares pray against rain these days. Somewhere during the service a small girl threw up on the floor and the rain began to fall.

First it was just a light rain and then gaining in confidence it produced the most deafening roar. Uncle Johan ceased preaching because no one could hear him anyway and we all began to sing. The lightening flickered in the darkened sky and the rain fell. Holes in the roof and broken windows made for musical chairs and sporadic seating arrangements.

The rain seemed to subside just a little and Uncle Johan began again. The rain was still falling, but I noticed that the direction seemed to have changed completely. This wasn’t really what I wanted to see since thunderstorms here have been known, though very rarely, to produce small tornadoes. When you are in a tin church held together with wire and a few nails, this is not a nice thought.

Fears justified. I can’t say it was a tornado, but a wind of some significance hit that little structure and made a terrible racket. When we looked outside, one of the neighbors had his roof suddenly sitting inside his house. It had picked up the roof entirely and deposited it inside the house. Considering the construction standards in the townships, this isn’t the biggest feat, but it was obvious the service was now at an end. Uncle Johan ended with an admonition to read over the text and next Sunday we would continue.

Next problem; with water running in the muddy streets, getting the van out of there would be interesting. S.W. and I took off our shoes, rolled up our pants and began to push. All of us walked barefoot up the muddy street until the van was in a safe place to take the weight and not sit in the mud and then we were off…well, nearly. We were a bit crowded so I ended up with a good-sized man on my lap for lack of any other spaces.

I understand that in the U.S. it was “Sanctity of Human Life” Sunday. I am sorry I missed that.

We came back and after a delicious lunch at about 3 p.m., we played some “finger board” and Bananagrams. Tomorrow is another day and 4:30 a.m. comes all too early.

Sleep well or rather when you read this, have a wonderful week. God bless.

Just about to hit the road...

Tomorrow, sometime before many of you will have even gone to bed today, I will be headed to Cape Town for Christmas. I would appreciate your prayers.

This won't be much of a post. Basically I wanted an excuse to try Blogger for iPod/iPhone. It's pretty cool.

But seriously, I would appreciate your prayers.

Merry Christmas!