Around 7pm last night this was a very true statement. An hour long downpour brought the blessing of a full water tank but unfortunately it also brought a ridiculous amount of water into our front door. Because the center is located below the road, meaning you walk down a slope to get to us, all the water from the road rushed our way. I had no idea what was going on, just sitting in my room silently marveling at the force of the rain, until I happen to go outside my room to check on everyone. The boys room was starting to flood and the girls’ room was already ankle deep with filthy water. And the rain showed no signs of stopping. Most of the kids thought it was exciting. Somehow Ezechiel and Ednel slept through the whole ordeal. Francois smashed small, ground level holes in the back walls to give the water a place to go. The women were frantically getting all of the bins and boxes of belongings off the ground. Me and the older girls were using small buckets to bail out the hallway. At one point I started kicking the water towards the door. The older boys placed empty buckets wherever they could catch rain. It was a busy hour.
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The boys room this morning.
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The girls room this morning.
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After the rain finally stopped, I talked to one of the construction workers who happens to be staying here during his time working on my room (Pastor Justin’s nephew) about building a small, 3 ft wall where it seemed much of the water entered to prevent this from happening again. We have cement and sand leftover from my room which is basically finished so we only needed to buy 40 cement blocks. Hopefully that wall will be up by the end of the week.
Today was a massive cleanup extravaganza. Because so many of the kids uniforms got wet they stayed home from school which is just as well because there was much to do. Every single room was cleaned with water and soap. Any clothes that got wet were washed by some of the younger girls. The older girls helped get their room back in order. The older boys helped me move small rocks onto the muddy parts around the water tank and steps to prevent more mud from being tracked inside. Everyone helped in one way or another. Except the little ones. I spent the day yelling at them to get away from the mud and to go wash their feet, etc. All is clean now. Pray no more rain for a little while until we can get that wall up at least. While it was a nice little band together moment I would rather not have to relive it anytime soon.
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