Build day

Today was our only day on  a build site.  We travelled 45 minutes outside of Maseru to the Ha-Mpo village in Qeme.  There we would meet our family that we would be building for.  Our family consisted of Tsepang Liphoto, her 7 year old son Mosiuoa who is mentally disabled, her mother Mampolokeng who is also mentally disabled, and Tsepang's nephew Boitumelo and niece Tumelo.

 The build site was all set up and ready for us when we arrived.

We we also joined by the staff of Habitat Lesotho to build along side of us.  We started the day with a prayer and song from Habitat Lesotho, which was quite the treat.

Our goal for the day was to complete the first 4 rows of brick on the exterior walls.

We started out moving sand closer to the work site so we could mix the mortar.  Then we moved on to brick lines, moving bricks closer to the site.  In a delightful change, we were actually allowed to mortar and place the bricks under the supervision of the site manager.  This was unlike any other build I had been on, and was pleased to be allowed to actually build a house this time.

By lunch we had gotten almost the 4 rows completed, so then they asked us for 1 final push to get 1 more row done, so they could install the windows.  We were able to just about finish the 5th row when we ran out of mortar, with only a couple of bricks still needing mortar between them.

At the end of the day we had a closing ceremony with the family and the local chief.  We were told that the house would be 100% completed by early next week, and that our help greatly reduced the normal build time of around 3 weeks.  The house is in the name of Mosiuoa, the 7 year old, to ensure that he will always have a decent place to live that cannot be taken away from him.

 We all received Basotho hats with our names on them from the affiliate as a thank you for all our work.  All in all it was a great day, an it sure felt good to finally be mixing the mortar once more.

Tomorrow we are meeting with members from the EU for breakfast and then heading out to a different part of the country in Tebeng to meet and interview more families, then we will visit an orphanage that was built by Habitat Lesotho in partnership with Apostolic Faith Mission church, which can house up to 8 orphans.