September 25, 2008 (10am)

I’m in the van on the way to the radio station to get some wireless action. We’ve been hard at work getting the site plan and some initial building designs done. I found out that we don’t have to get everything done for this village. We will be doing the overall master plan but only the buildings for Phase 1. Phase 1 will include the school, the water tower and generator, and the staff housing.

On the country front… it’s been very interesting to experience life in a different way. Both our water and electricity is unreliable. Sometimes we have power, sometimes not. And I didn’t realize that electricity could flow more or less but now I know it can. We often have very dim lights and it takes a long time for the stove to work. We have been boiling our water to drink and yesterday came very close to running out. We have been drinking a lot of water to keep hydrated and boiling using one kettle/hot pot. Thankfully, yesterday afternoon, the power started running in strong. Our fans made gales, our lights were shining bright, and the kettle boiled in just a few minutes. It allowed us to catch up with our water needs. Hurrah!

We are all eating very differently than at home. Generally, we have cereal and dried milk for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch, and rolls with cheese or canned meat for dinner.
It makes me laugh to have the dried milk because I grew up on dried milk. I used to hate it. I don’t think I would drink it too much but it seems to be fine for making milk for cereal. I think their dried powder is different than I remember from childhood. My sister will laugh because she remembers how many times we wanted to chuck it before coming home again.