Yellow crosses

All along the route of the new dual carriageway, we see buildings of all types, from shacks to quite smart houses, with a yellow cross painted on them.   A bit like houses were marked in the black death, or houses of Jews in late 1930's Germany.   

It suddenly dawned on us that these are to be demolished to make way for the road.  We hear that compensation will be paid to properly registered/legitimate houses, but the shacks of the poor, which are in the majority and which have no legal standing, will just be bulldozed.  

A section of the new road being tarred.

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Today we did another morning labouring at the workshop.   Being (old) and female (!) Wendy and I aren't allowed to actually do any brick laying; instead we are labourers .... carrying bricks, putting mortar up onto the scaffolding for the brickees, mixing mortar, finding half sized (i.e. broken) bricks for filling gaps, and so on.    Jonathan, being male, is allowed to measure the flat rods they put between layers of bricks, and cut (bend and snap !) them, and he advises about mortar thickness, etc.   No notice is taken of his advice, of course !  

Wendy plans to take a piece of broken brick back for her husband to show him the quality ... soft, coarse and crumbly.   

Some of the bricks are bent !!!!!

I spent some time observing the 'apprentices' and Paul working with them.  He's obviously a good teacher, and Evans particularly seems to have matured into a confident and careful worker.

The chair Evans is making

After returning to the Mission house, we had much needed showers, lunch and a quick siesta.   Wendy and I called for a tuk-tuk and went to the Mega-City Mall.... where the Christmas decorations and lights are on.   Even illuminated snow-men .... in this heat ?   We also walked around the other side of the massive supermarket for me to show her the town rubbish dump, where children scavenge for food .... unbeknown to them, just feet away from the expensive plasma screen TV's for sale through the supermarket wall.  

I talked to Paul about if there was anything the workshop needed .... I'd noticed boys trying to plane and cut wood with nothing to hold it steady .... they need a bench vice.    The church at home has given me some money to buy anything we see is needed, so I think it would be money well spent to purchase a vice.   I quite like the idea of the church paying for a vice !!