Here's some updated pictures of the completed project and our trip to the Island of Sabang....

We hope to post pictures of our time with Mayor Muwardy tomorrow morning before we depart for home tomorrow evening.

We look forward to our return!

John and Dudley

look below as we finally were able to post some photos.

Thursday

Wednesday,

We took a 45 minute ferry ride to Sabang for a little break and to check up on the training facility that is being constructed there. As we drove to Freddy's, John and I witnessed the beauty of the island.

We visited the workers at the site and were able to witness the vision. The two story training facility as well as the fist two bungalows were well underway and should be completed by the end of June. John and Liz worked together to finalize the design of the decks and stairs as well as tweaked the size and locations of the windows. All of this was done to take advantage of the view and to provide an enjoyable stay.

One of the wives of the workers wanted her picture taken with me (Dudley). John and I were a little perplexed as why but I told him that I was sure she wanted photo proof to show her friend how white my legs were. So now they are a joke in two countries.

We have attached a couple of photos of the finished playground and the progress photos of the training facility.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with the mayor at the site to look at the playground and then we are hoping we can go back to his office for a longer visit. John and I will leave BA around 4:00 on Friday afternoon and should arrive in Dallas around 6:00 PM on Saturday.

Thanks to Vaughn and Liz here on this side of the world, as we would have not been able to accomplish what we did without their help. Thanks to all those who supported this project.

We will try to post pictures with mayor and further news if we have time prior to our departure.

Tuesday

Tuesday.

This day started out a little frustrating. I (Dudley) started working on this rock wall panel while John started on the activity panels. I worked and worked and it would not fit. So I took a hammer to it, then a pry bar and finally a sledge. Well, much to my surprise that did not work either. So I asked one of the guys to look into how we could drill it out and make it fit. While he was working on that, I started on the other rock panel. That's when I noticed HUM Maybe if we put the right piece in the right place it might work much better.

We switched it out and it fit perfectly. We did need to persuade it a bit but it did fit.

By lunch we had most everything installed. We took everyone to Texas Chicken as a thank you. Liz helped with ordering and the translating. I think all the men that helped us were appreciative. After lunch work slowed as we went back and tightened all the fasteners and cleaned of some of the mud.

Just as we had finished and were cleaning up 7-8 boys arrived and thoroughly tested the the unit. We must have passed the test because all you could hear was the sound of children playing and laughing. It was music to John and my ears.

Thanks to all who have had a part in this project. I can say without a doubt, the kids really appreciated what has been done for them.

Monday the day we saw light at the end of the tunnel

Monday,

Today we had planned on getting to the site early. well at the crack of 8 we arrived. Some workers where there and we concentrated on putting up one of the slides. When the others arrived we had them work on mixing concrete and filling all the post holes. By the end of the day we had assembled and mounted all the slides. We have concrete in all but a few holes.

Tomorrow we are hoping we can wrap everything up. We lack one climber a few activity panels and then going back and checking the tightness of all the hardware.

As I type this, our driver and companion Gunter is watching TV (I know it looks German but when he pronounces his name it sounds anything but German. He has told John and I at least 20 times how to pronounce it and we are 0-20.) and the Imam can be heard over the loud speaker reciting the evening prayer. He is about a block away and must have paid a little extra for his loud speakers. Because they are loud.

The first day, I prayed for God to give us clouds to provide some relief. God was good and in his style his blessing was abundant. I think we have had cloud cover from the third day on. It has made working in this environment so much more doable for John and I. It is not just HOT but the suns rays really take their toll.

Keep praying we still have at least one full day of work. In reality it will probably be two days.

Sunday,

We went to Vaughn's house for worship service on Sunday morning. It was wonderful to meet with fellow believers from several countries at his home. I was amazed at Vaughn's wife Jenifer. She knew every verse to every song anyone wanted to sing. She had a lovely voice.

After church we went to Texas Chicken for lunch. It may be the first time that I have had rice with Fried Chicken. Not bad.

John chose to walk back and through the the parks. He toured the Tsunami Museum. Well more like he looked through the windows, it was closed. He met several people and had a great time.

Friday

OK we are a little behind in the blog........so let me catch everyone up.

Friday Most of the helpers did not show up until we placed a call to Vaughn and he called the Mayors office. Apparently there was a bit of a mix up on who was paying them and because we had not paid them up to that point they were not real excited about working.

Vaughn got it all sorted out and they dug holes and helped put pieces on.

Saturday

We had two extra workers who helped dig holes. We made good progress and have most of the major pieces on with the exception of the slides. We had to hide out for 30 minutes or so as a rain storm blew through. We had to quit around 4 because of the rain that was coming.

It worked! Took about an hour to upload, but it worked - Here's more...

Pictures - we hope!

Thursday Evening - Indo Time....

Hi all,

So sorry not to get to this yesterday. We had our second day in a row focused on digging holes, pouring cement, organizing our equipment to be installed and trying to stay hydrated! We did get the holes for the main part of the Playground System finished - 3'' - 4''footings poured in some 25 holes that were dug about 23 - 25" deep - we were blessed to have 4 of Aceh's finest working tirelessly with us!! We hope that we will be able to post some pictures tonight that will give you an idea of what we are up to.... I think Dudley mentioned it is HOT!!!

We celebrated last night by going out to the local Pizza Hut - amazing - the nicest PH that I have ever experienced!!

Today - Thursday - our day started with some GREAT concern. As Dudley and the A Team (Acehanese Helpers) were getting the first posts ready to assemble, I was going thru the boxes of nuts and bolts - each box has ALOT of plastic bags filled with daunting assortments of the steel objects.... and each with a 6 digit # that corresponded to the part of the Playground that was to be assembled - this is all convieniently described in the 70 page Manual that I am happy to put away at the end of the day! Anyway, before we got too far along, it seemed evident that we were missing ALOT of the necesary nuts and bolts. Dudley and Vaughn went back to the Mayor's storage area to look around (they did find some PG parts that had been overlooked by the Officials that transported the equipment to the site - but did not find any more N&B's that we needed. I had organized what we had by the time they returned. We decided to see what we could get assembled and then do an inventory of what was left and see if GameTime could ship them over - we were not happy campers!

As the day progressed, we experienced several learning curves - we got the hang of assembling the parts in a specific order and accomplished much more in the afternoon than we had before lunch - our prayers and hopes were that we would get the superstructure up before finding we did not have the necesary N&Bs to finish at least this part. What we learned was that the Manufacturer plays mind games with first-time Installers (at least that is what we believe tonight). It seems they pack large bags of a wide assortment of N&B's that one does not need all at once. But you get the opportunity to go thru the bag to find the 6 or 8 items you need. The good news in this exercise is that I became much more comfortable with where to find certain N&B's for various Playground Parts. I imagine I will be pretty good at it by the time we are done....

While I played with the small stuff, Dudley worked with the A Team in bolting alot of stuff together! We all worked together in the afternoon when I finally got my act together. The good news is that the superstructure is up - there is much to attach to it in the next few days - and we have alot of N&B's left! Praise God!! Vaughn and I were talking at a break in the afternoon and reflecting on the course of the day. He said that he and Dudley had prayed that if we did not find the N&B's that we needed, that God would multipy what we had. I must admit, that prayer had been on my mind as well! Regardless, we know that God blessed us with another wonderful day!

We hope that we can get some of the pictures posted. They should give you an idea of the past 4 days here in Banda! Our new friends - the A Team - are great guys. They are such hard workers and always smiling and laughing. Today they pretty much wanted to take over the construction. Quick learners and willing to do more than we expect - what a blessing! The last picture is of our first 2 children that came by late in the afternoon. We tried to bribe them to not play on the equipment yet - with a couple Tootsie Roll Pops we brought on the trip. We'll see....

Please keep praying for us - that our relationships with the guys we are with will continue to deepen - that we will remain safe and healthy - and that God will continue to show us where to look for the N&B's. Thanks for your interest in this incredible project!

hot and slow

All

on Monday we arrived in Banda Aceh at around 1:30. Vaughn Thomas picked us up from the airport and transported us to the guest house where we had lunch with Lizapple White. Then we went to visit the mayor as well as look at the equipment in storage. The meeting with the mayor went well although they would slip in and out of Achenese So in reality I am not too sure what they were saying a good portion of the time.

Then we went to visit Vaughn's farm. He is doing demonstration as well as research and testing to help the locals lean different farming practices that are sustainable and transferable. He has about 2 hecters with chickens, several fish ponds where they are raising fish, compost piles, garden plots, a compressed earth block factory, cattle where the waist is captured and the methane gas is refined and used to for a cook stove, as small store, they are growing timber, and goats. It is truly amazing.

Today Tuesday

We started at about 8:00. We showed up at the mayors office where the equipment was stored at waited and waited. Finally we called to see where the men were that were going to help us and learned they had already loaded the equipment to the site.

While John and I were unloading the equipment and getting organized, Vaughn started to dig the first hole, that's when we heard the very distinct sound of post hole diggers hitting rock. He was only 1/2 inch down and hit the first rock. He gave up and moved to the second hole. Well as luck would have it he met the same fate. Uh Oh

Today, with the help of 3 locals we dug a grand total of 14 holes. You must use a rock bar to loosen the soil and rocks enough to get it out with the post hole diggers. It seams as if the soil is compacted well and is made up of 50% soil and 50% rock. The rocks are rather large in some cases. We have 46 holes to dig in total.

Did I mention that it is HOT HOT HOT. We are thankful for what we could accomplish today and know that tomorrow will be a good day as well.

Hi all,

We arrived in Moscow an hour early - yeah - now we have a 2 1/2 hour layover! Singapore Air is fabulous in service - the seats are a bit hard, but we were able to get some sleep. On to Singapore in a bit - 10 more hours - then a couple puddlejumpers. Wish we had some time here in Moscow - wierd to be here and not be able to explore this part of the World. Have a wonderful Sunday!

John

Saturday, April 25 just after 3:30 PM –

Dudlley and I are 5 hours and 57 minutes into our trip – and awaiting our boarding call (in an hour) for Singapore Air to Singapore (via Moscow) and sitting here in Houston (been here since 11 AM)…. Just practicing for our 2 – 10 hour flights… - o’yeah, then the short flights to Medan, Indonesia and then on to Banda, Aceh – total trip time… roughly 36 hours from Dallas - whooowhooo!!

We are pumped! We got thru checkin and security with our 2 bags of clothes, etc and two bags of tools. We were ready to explain, but nobody asked…. Just as we were checking in to Singapore Air, a friend of Dudley’s from Frisco, called out his name. Josh, a 26 year old weight lifter – boxer – arm wrestler – and various other body strength abilities – is on our flight (we are safe!) enroute to Thailand to continue his professional career in kick-boxing. Josh has a wonderful heart for the Lord, with a bent on beating on people in a cage….Our trip has taken it’s first very interesting turn.