WE WERE PUT TO WORK TODAY

(Patience, please: The email system here in the compound was down for three straight days, so I could not make any blog updates until now, Thursday evening here in Niger. I have been making the blogs and saving them until I could post them. The following is Monday's blog.)

Monday in Niamey: We scattered today to work on many different jobs around the compound. Some painted the lettering on the new sign for EERN (The Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger) on the wall that surrounds the compound. Walls divide the private properties in most of Niamey. Inside the walls you can find a variety of dwellings around an open court in which the people live. They may be huts made of straw with thatched roofs shaped almost like acorn caps. Or they can be stucco covered brick homes. Many of the poor can only afford the wall and can only afford to live in shelters made of scrap materials such as corrugated steel or mats woven out of some sort of grass. Others crowd many family huts inside the walled enclosure to share the costs.

The EERN compound has a stucco covered office building, a temporary shed for the materials and tools we are using to build the new center, and a dwelling for the family that lives on site. The father/husband of the family is the guard of the compound. His job is to keep the compound’s exterior clean and orderly, and keep people out (kids mostly) who don’t belong inside. Day or night he’s always there to open the gate when we drive up to enter. And every morning he washes the EERN vehicle clean, a daily necessity because of the incredible dust.

Some others in our group cleaned and scraped the ceiling and walls in preparation for a fresh coat of paint in the office building. Some others in our group helped with making the steel frames that will support the cement foundations. Others worked on building a new shelter as a temporary dwelling for the workers EERN has hired to build the new complex. (We are their volunteer assistants.) Most of the workers are Christians from a distant town, so the daily commute is too much for them. For example three men work together to make the bricks that will be used to build the new building. They earn eight cents for each brick they make (split three ways). Since they make so little, they prefer to live on site rather than commute the distance.

This is the core of the Nigerian economy. Non-governmental development organizations (NGO’s) are the number one employers in the country. That fact boggles my mind – Niger’s economy depends on the generosity of people from around the world. I wonder how the current global recession will impact so fragile an economy.

It’s good to roll up our sleeves and get busy. We feel a good tired this evening; the kind of tired that comes after a hard day’s work. And we are enjoying that deeper and even better feeling that you have when you have done something to help someone else less fortunate than yourself.

Again, thanks for your prayers.
Pastor Dave Corlett