Down time….but not really

its been a busy few days here. I do feel that my trip being canceled was really a good thing after all. Funny how things work out.

Yesterday

Scott and I picked up one of the builders from PumpAid and drove him to the site at Adziwa where we want to put the pump. He took a look at the existing well and told us what needed to be done in order for the pump to be out in place. Seems we are lucky because the well is almost deep enough. We need to dig it another 2 meters and then we will be ready to add the pump! There is some ground cleaning that must be done and the team will get started on that on Tuesday. After dropping the builder back off we went to the UN women’s office to see Alice. We had been at a gathering at her house the night before and she had wanted to speak with Scott about helping her with an event.  I sat while they met and actually was able to connect with Isaac there as he was passing by and need to drop off something to me. It worked out well! We then headed back to the lodge for lunch.

Scott and I left again for another meeting at 4 in town with the woman who runs the business we are buying the improved stoves from. We met at a coffee shop and had a wonderful latte and some cookies while we tried to work out a price and construction time frame.

She told us she would put off another job in order to start ours on Monday. This was great news and so lucky for us!! Things came together well on that and I couldn’t be happier. We worked out the price and materials and she set up for the head builder to meet us on Saturday to see the kitchen at Adziwa and make sure what we wanted would work well in the space. I forgot that in the morning Scott and I also went to St. Patrick’s Church to see a stove similar to the one we will put in at Adziwa. After seeing it we were sure we wanted it. In our meeting at the coffee shop with Maya we also inquired about if our bricketts would work in that stove. She is confidant they will and was so excited about the production of the bricketts happening at Adziwa. It seems we may be going into business with her and providing bricketts for her to sell along with all of her stoves. Very cool stuff!

I feel very prepared now for the next group to arrive!

its been great being here for an extra week. So much was accomplished and really things I couldn’t have done from the states. As many of you know things change all the time here and you have to be ready to adjust in order to stay the course. We may have weaved a bit but things are really looking good now.

The team arrives in a few hours!!!! I’m leaving for the airport soon and I’m sure ill have another post tomorrow ;)Erin