20 October 2009 - Crackin' Wise - Red Rhino Outreach Project

Today had an easy, guided feel, like driving a good two-track dirt road. It was a holiday, Kenyatta Day, as I mentioned. But the guys preferred to work. We sang the national anthem with putty knives in our hands.

Oh God of all creation

Bless this our land and nation

Justice be our shield and defender

May we stand to defend…

Here’s how the rest of our day’s song played out.

A couple of houses just down the road from us.

We worked the morning on the mazzera stones.

If you snuck up on 'em you could see them through our new welded steel window frames. Peter, of roof truss fame, made them.

Then we got to small crack filling.

A lot of us. We filled them all and then sanded them with fine sand paper until the hard, cool wall was so very smooth.

And Gilbert got his first turn painting with a roller.

Samuel raised his hands in praise of the new thing.

By five, we had our first white room, ever.

And a recessession in a stone wall

for our electrical box.

We looked back at our big chess boards

and still found the time for Bob Gill, the fish, and one of my traveling companions, to give my other traveling companion a little "welcome to the dashboard" chin stroking.

Steady now,

David

Comments(8)

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Chris L says
October 20, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Hey, are you guys building an orphanage — or a Tuscan farmhouse?

From where does the elegance of this stone and plaster work derive?
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Peggy says
October 20, 2009 at 9:18 pm

That white room is beautiful! and that black dog is beyond words.
Peggy
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Jenny M. says
October 20, 2009 at 9:19 pm

Bravo! Be it every so humble. You are making a home which just also happens to function as an orphanage. Way to teach us all how to multi-task. Your labor is love. May your love be contagious. Would that we could build a vaccine from that good germ and inoculate the world to spiritual as well as physical health. God must smile from time to time when He looks down upon the efforts of the supporters and loving people of the Red Rhino Orphanage.
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Ed Richardson says
October 20, 2009 at 9:29 pm

Dave,

Jenny M. said it so well, all I could do is smile and wipe tears from my eyes.

You are a saint.

Ed R
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david says
October 21, 2009 at 5:31 am

Dear Chris,

We’re hoping to lure a nice American couple with an Eyetalian inclination to come live here and cook for us. Any ideas?? The wine cellar will be jammed with Brunello Nobile from the vineyards neighboring our beloved Sant’ Antimo.

I ordered a load of sand today, granted a big one, thirty tons, from Shamji. It costs 81% as much as the mazzera stone for all three areas (1500sq ft for $586.00), one of the twisty myst’ries of construction in Kenya.

Wait ’til you see the finished cement floor. You’d think Frances Mayes was moving in.

Ci vediamo, fratello.
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david says
October 21, 2009 at 5:34 am

Hi Peggy,

I love the white room and the black dog, too. More and more. I’ll get you the info you need soon. Working on it.

David
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david says
October 21, 2009 at 5:39 am

Hi Jenny,

I hope and believe that God is smiling on our efforts, and no doubt laughing out loud at times. On our own, we’d be sunk, time and again. Our place is His place, so to speak.

Thanks for the uplift,

David
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david says
October 21, 2009 at 5:43 am

Hi Ed,

You have a great heart for this project, and I love it. I may have you write a letter to certain authorities here on my behalf..so they can come to share your view of me.

I’ll make sure you get a first class relic when I croak.

Your sinner pal,

David

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20 October 2009 – Crackin’ Wise

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20 October 2009 – Crackin’ Wise