Rain, Mud, and Labor Strikes

June 24^th-26^th: Wednesday-Friday

It rained for the first time Wednesday afternoon. It has rained once before since I’ve been here but compared to this rain it wasn’t even wet. Jim and I went out running we had run up and around through some hills and were about two miles from the compound when the first drops fell. Just a few at first, they arrived brought by a string wind. Fortunately the wind came from behind us and propelled us forward. Then the rain really started with thunder and sheets of rain. We were both soaked to the skin in about a minute. The mud here at first turns really sticky and clumps to the bottom of your shoes and weighs you down. However after a few minutes it just gets incredibly slippery. We were sliding all over the road. It started to hail when we were passing the clinic about a quarter mile from the compound. I got hit in the head about 8 times and it really hurt. The wind had been pushing us along but to get to the compound we had to turn and run perpendicular to the rain up the drive and it just about blew us away. Got back just sopping wet and showered in Jim’s room. The girls were all at BS (bible study but they shorten it on the board to BS) so the guys had made chicken and cheese roll sandwiches; cooked in the oven. And Jim whipped up some salad and green beans. Jim also broke open his boxed red wine and we all had some. It was very warming. 

Wednesday we finished the mazungu (white person) trench and the karamojan trench had about another 6 inches but the storm that night had caved in the walls and flooded the trenches. So when Craig showed up that morning all the workers refused to work except Tom, the untitled foreman and Craig’s main man. So Craig sent them home and Tom, Dan and I spent the morning draining the trenches of water. I jumped in the trench and sunk mid calf into mud and knee deep in water. That afternoon we decided to pour concrete and as we drove back to the clinic Craig saw two guys walking that he knew and hired them. So with our new team of six we poured the concrete for the base in about three hours. Craig hoped that by hiring these two guys and working anyway would show the work crew that we didn’t need them. He also said that he can hire a new crew every week and not run out of people. 

We spent the next day and morning collecting enough agragit to pour the other banda base. The Karamojan make the agragit, these stone which are about the size of little eggs, by breaking much larger stones apart with a hammer or another stone. They then pile them up into 2-3 foot tall piles and sell them. We would go around with the tractor and a trailer and buy these piles. On Saturday we were collecting a couple piles by this well and all these little kids were getting water. Well they all came over and started poking us with grass. So Dan and I would chase these little guys around and around. They were really funny; they would come up and touch my leg because I have hair on my legs and the Karamojan don’t have any hair except on their heads and some guys have little wispy beards. They kept looking down my socks like they were trying to figure out exactly how much hair I had.

Had yet another community dinner Friday night. We ate Indian food. It was incredible. Some one even made naan, the fried tortillas like bread, and it was pretty good. I drank a dark beer and south African castle milk thing. It was pretty good. Kris made these amazing brownie and caramel cookie bars. I had seconds of those.