Medical Centre

At last the Medical Centre at the orphanage is now under construction and it's flying up!
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After many hours of planning and measuring, carefully situating the centre in the best place, in the beautiful grounds of the orphanage, our local builder and his team began the huge job of digging the foundations by hand.
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In less than a week, the trenches were dug, and ton after ton of concrete was also mixed, all by hand and the foundations were poured.
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We managed to get the best builder in town to build this project. His name is Emanuel which means God with us, which is always reassuring!
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Typically on most builds in Africa, the plans are drawn, measurements are specified then altered by the builder to suit their budget, resulting in thin narrow footings on which a large building is built, often with dire consequences.
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At the start of the project I spent some time encouraging our builder with the importance of putting in the correct depth, width, and strength of concrete, to ensure our building would still be there in twenty years time. And told him I would be keeping a careful eye on this importantant part of the job!

A somewhat weary Emanuel, a week or so later, said "I've never put a foundation in like this one before!" People in Africa just don't have the money to do that!


As I write this, the walls are now going up and are looking great!
I'll be posting more pictures shortly!
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