Sleepless Nights

Hi,
Things seldom go to plan for me…… and today was no exception!
I was intending to get up early, as usual, and go to Church With Abs Dumbuya. However, Abs’s wife Mary Beth was feeling unwell so Abs wasn’t going as he had to attend to her obviously. I was going to go on my own, however I hadn’t sorted that starter motor on “Frank” the Land Rover. (Sorry Mum, you cant name a vehicle after yourselves!!) Anyway, true to form, Frank let me down! It was a bit late in the morning to get a taxi, so I fixed the starter motor instead. I was right….. the connection was loose, so he starts again! Too late to go to church. I missed it, the hymns in Krio are fabulous……. even though I don’t quite understand them yet! A real vibrancy. Anyway, God will understand!
Talking of missing things, missing all you lovely people who attend St. Helen’s in Pinxton in Derbyshire (specially my cuddle with Nanna!), and those who attend St. Nic’s in Nottingham city center, hope you are all doing well. My connection back to Open Book has literally been a gift from God. Although it took a while to get my communications sorted, they are better than I could ever have dreamed they would be. There are also family and loved ones that I miss dearly too……. who knew? Mr. Lone Wolf misses social contact! lol. Great to have the support of the team back in the UK not least Heather, who has absolutely fantastic. Thank you.
I had a bit of a moment of self doubt last night…..which has carried over to today to be honest. The building blocks that I want to make are different to the ones made locally…… which are made of just sand and cement (not a particularly strong mix either) The resulting building block is substandard in my opinion. So I want to add stone into the mix, and the same amount of cement but with narrower blocks (Hence a stronger mix). They should resemble a dense concrete block available in any builders merchant in the UK. However, some people doubt whether I can make the blocks and maintain the budget for building the “Low Cost” homes. I don’t agree, however, the certainty of the doubters gave me a sleepless night. So I have been up all night designing the houses I think I can build to keep costs to a minimum. I’ll need 7500 blocks for a block of four homes……. I need to be able to make them for a pound or less each really. Maybe the only way of knowing for sure is to make some, and see what they actually cost. There is also another less obvious cost saving……. due to the quality of the local blocks, the houses built here have to be rendered to stop the blocks eroding, but my higher quality blocks shouldn’t need to be rendered, so we wouldn’t have to pay for materials or labour to do so. Am I being too stubborn and not listening to good advise?…. or should I go with what I believe to be the right course of action? Time will tell I guess. I think I may have a few more sleepless nights, but that goes with the job.
I have uploaded some pictures of another potential site to build on……. fantastic location, privately owned (so more straight forward to acquire providing the price is right!). Its on a plateau on a big hill overlooking Freetown. Two issues for me…… Getting Polka up and down loaded will be tricky. But probably the one that gives me the biggest worry is how do we get water onto the site? Its a big hill….. not sure that a well would be possible, or financially viable! The stream in the vally is too far down to pump it up from. I could really do with an expert on wells or boreholes to advise. I’m hoping Rachel will add the pictures to my blog from the Dropbox folder I set up. Fingers crossed!
I also took some pictures of a view over freetown from the second biggest mountain. Also of a school being built by the church I have been attending Regent Road Baptist Church. Like I say, hopefully Rachel will oblige and add the photos for me!
I’ve rambled on too long. God bless. Blog again soon. Thanks for the comments.
Ian