Rebuilding Yorkin: July 2009

Recovering the Soccer Field

The flood in November left the local soccer field in complete ruin. It was covered with uprooted trees, parts of trees, all kinds of debris, and with a mountain of sand that left one half of the field about 3 feet higher than the other half. Seeing the importance of restoring this" "community center" - a place where families, friends, old, and young could gather together and play - to funcional use was something that caught the personal attention of our fearless leader Benson. He was able to organize the local youth, kids and some of the men, as well as recruit the hard labor of our volunteer teams from Colorado to transform the "mess" into a smooth, level place to play soccer. It was inspirational to see the way the young kids got involved and you could literally see their excitement growing as they realized that their soccer field was not lost forever, but in fact, about to be restored. And despite the fact that we saw the situation as ideal for a backhoe, it was all acheived through several days of hard work by many hands, many shovels, and just one wheelbarrow.

some of the tree trunks and debris that was removed

some of the local men and kids working the shovels

Benson encouraging and motivating the local guys

the kids got excited about helping out too

some of our Colorado crew

The Fine Art of Splattering Cement on a Wall

During the time that our first mission team from Colorado Community Church was in Yorkin (July 5-9) some of us got to test our stucco-ing skills. About half of the interior walls of the clinic had already been done by the local laborers, but some of the CCC team helped out with finishing the job. It's a fine technique of using a trowel to throw a wet cement mix on the wall such that it spreads out - not too thin and not too thick - and sticks to the wall. Turns out there are some people who have more of a gift for the wrist action it requires... While some of us are better at part 2 - the smoothing process with a wooden paddle. Working alongside Benito, our team was able to help complete the rest of the interior walls leaving them ready to be painted.

Pastor Hugo and Jeff mastering the art...

Benito, the foreman, preparing to tile the bathroom

making progress....

Pastor Hugo inspecting the work

Destruction and Reconstruction of a Jungle "Highway"

One of the projects that our volunteers from Colorado Community Church took on was a little "highway" reconstruction. A portion of the main pathway in and out of the village had been in pretty bad shape for a few months. What used to be an elevated boardwalk was now missing several planks and had collapsed to one side in various points. As a result, the people were forced to use the dirt path on the side, which is also used as the horse path. With all the rain and subsequent soft terrain, plus the high level of traffic on the path, it had become quite the muddy, slippery mess.

We worked along side the locals to rebuild the path in such a way that it would withstand the rain as well as lots of users. They showed us how to line the borders with large rocks, lay out medium and smaller rocks to cover the path in between, and then spread sand over the top to make it firm and compact. It meant A LOT of trips back and forth about 200 yds away to the river to collect rocks and sand and carry them back in our arms or in rice sacks. We got dirty, we worked up a lot of sweat, and as a team we were able to see the goal accomplished!