Moldova Missions Trip – Day 9 – Friday

Click the picture to see Day 9's photos.

Recycled Nails, Rebar, and Concrete

Today was a busy day at a community called Bubieci.  We prepared for the day by doing devotions, praying, and having a good breakfast.

As explained in a previous post, the church at Bubieci is meeting in a house that is being sold.  Also, there is not much room and when there are guests, they carry all of the pews outside to the drive way and have service there.

As all buildings are built here, this one will also be built with concrete and limestone blocks.  Our job here is to wire up rebar and pour columns between large concrete blocks that are laid in place by a crane.  The concrete blocks are over 15 inches thick, and this is close to how thick the walls will be when they are built above the concrete blocks.

Everyone from our team was involved in one way or another with the process today.  We did not have nails or any new lumber, so many of the ladies, and girls from the church, disassembled lumber, recycling the nails and straightening them all so we could use them again.  We are promised that we will have nails tomorrow.

Placing the concrete blocks in place was interesting.  A layer of concrete would be shoveled on the top of existing blocks, then the crane would lift the next layer of blocks in place with men on each side making sure the line of the wall was (somewhat) straight.  See the pictures to see what went on.  The crane had to come into the construction zone to place some blocks near the rear of the building.  The water table under the earth was down about a foot.  If a hole was dug, it would fill up with water.  When the crane drove in, it sank up to its axles.  When the outriggers were put into place, they slowly sank.  We had to build up the areas for the outriggers and place a path of rocks for the wheels to drive in on.  Finally, it was stable enough to lift the concrete blocks.  After the last block was laid, the driver gunned it and blew blue smoke everywhere, and tore his way out of the mud.

The Bubieci church supplied a nice lunch for us at the construction site.  They are very nice people, and about half dozen or so helped all day long.

The weather today was beautiful.  It was probably above 70 degrees, very sunny, and no wind.  A slight breeze would have been nice because while we worked, it was quite hot.  We have been watching the weather back in Montana and noticed that there is a “winter storm warning” alert as I type this.  We hope and pray that all is well there.

We were able to get about half of the columns rebarred and wired, with forms set in place.  We hope to have the second half done tomorrow.  We all come home tire today, but we still have enough “umph” to play some cards before we turn in for the night.

Thank you all who are praying for us.  We appreciate you and your prayers.  Thanks, also to you who have been sending us notes of encouragement.  Those are the extra little tidbits that help keep us going.  If you would like to send us a note, you can click the “Send Us A Message” button on the column on the right side of the main Moldova page at http://McDougallsHome.net/moldova .  We love and miss you all.