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.