Sorry for the delay in updating - there have been problems posting.

Day Five:

Ah, it's Friday. Our first week in Africa is nearing the end. We spent the day at one of the local churches. Our task was to paint the inside and outside -- or at least the tallest walls so that we could reach it with our trusty scaffolding from the Pines. We built the scaffolding and then started scrubbing the walls with "sugar soap". I'm not sure if it is actually made from sugar, but the honey bees I met while I was up on the scaffold sure seemed to like it! I'll tell you, we had some fearless team members -- either on the scaffolding or balancing on ladders about 28 feet in the air! One of us even had a somewhat shocking experience -- even after asking 3 times if the power was off! It does make for a great story of our experience -- but not the kind you would expect to tell! Anyway, we actually did get the entire inside of the church painted on Friday, and we replaced a ceiling tile (Now that I think about it, we must have sealed in the family of bats that lived there. But, I was told that I didn't need to worry about them because they were "fruit" bats and were not carnivorous!) And, we built and hung a video screen. The inside had been white, and we painted it an off-white color which really made a difference inside.


Day Six:

We headed back to the church to work on the outside of the building. We had several additional helpers from the congregation, so Sara headed inside to help scrape the stray paint from the wood, and others were helping to clean the carpets and put everything back together for the service on Sunday. The scaffolding was reassembled and the outside of the church was scrubbed and the painting began on the high wall. Of course, there was another honey bee hive to worry about, but, amazingly, they were able to paint around it.

Bill got to visit the home of one of the parishioners and took a tour with another. Sara went out to tea (actually coffee) and apple crumbles with Val (who we met at Morning Star Pre-School). I think the high was was the only one completed, because of the time it took -- but it looked great when we were done.

My days are running together, but I know we did manage to play some soccer with the kids. Bill and Sara played "pig" with Moshudisu (sp?) and Dyetkesing. One of the dogs was trying to steal the ball to add it to his collection and managed to snag my finger in the mix. Ow! I was glad to hear that they do have rabies shots here! We had a barbecue on Saturday, (at least I think it was Saturday) with all of the kids and the mamas. What a crowd! The food was great and it was fun to see everyone together. Some of us went swimming with the kids -- and they all had such great fun jumping and splashing and just being kids.

Day Seven:

We got to sleep in a little later and headed to church at one of the housing projects. The little church was packed with lots of little children, but not quite as many adults. I am sure this outreach program has grown, though -- and it may even outgrow it's space. The children really loved to sing the songs and we all had a good time for fellowship. George, the minister from the Church we painted, also came to preach at this church.

Sunday afternoon, we all took it easy. Many of us were suddenly so very tired. I'm not sure if the time change caught up with us -- or if it was the flu that was going around -- or a little bit of both. We shot some more hoops with the kids and some went swimming and we just relaxed and hung out. We also went to a second service in the evening -- at the church we had helped to paint. It was great to see it again with all of the wall hangings up and the furniture back in place.

Day Eight:

Today, we tackled the gutters and the bees again. Or should I say, they tackled us? We were concerned about the big hoard of honey bees -- but it was the wasps that stung! Only one, so far, but as I write this, the team is back outside, in the cool of the evening, trying to resolve the bee crisis once more. We were able to get the gutters up today, on the end we had started last week -- but we ran out of time -- and ran into the bees. Hopefully, we can continue where we left off in the morning and complete the task.

The kids have been wonderful and are so curious and full of questions. Some of them are terribly shy -- and others are far from it! They are mostly chock full of energy and ready to go all the time.

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and words of kindness and encouragement! Hopefully, you have seen the video of the Walkie Talkies (http://www.niehoffsa.com/images/pogteam9.mp4) and have enjoyed some of the photos that Gene has posted on our blog page.