June 28, 2013 Budapest

I'm still at Aaron & Maresha's place where I'm well taken care off and improving in health, TG (for the un-initiated: this means Thank God). In the beginning I got tired easily and slept quite a bit. I guess my brain got tired from all the rewiring that had to be done as right after the coma not everything lined up. I was also getting a little dizzy from time to time. But both the need for extra sleep and the dizzynesses are things of the past now and I'm feeling better all the time.

July 21, 2013 Budapest

Since landing in Budapest I have been staying with Aaron and Maresha. Since coming here I had a check-up in the hospital which came out clear. TG! I used to get dizzy now and then still, I guess aftershocks of the coma, but it's getting less and less. Maresha knows quite a bit about nutrition and vitamins and is taking good care of me.

TY for your continued prayers, the main healing factor.

Here's a link to our latest clip about Mushapo.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5X7qFfJKNk

As the day of my flight back to Europe was approaching, I travelled back to Tshikapa on a motorcycle taxi. This was quite a ride, @ 50 km, over narrow paths, through streams and up steep slopes where I had to get off the bike otherwise it couldn't make it.

In Tpa I stayed a few days with the DENYS company who are doing a big water project there and have been a great help to our work. On my day of departure though I became unwell, lost my balance a few times, fell and landed in a coma because of a cerebral-malaria attack. I have little recollection of the whole thing or how I was in the hospital, but thanks to the prayers of many I came through the ordeal.

While still in Mushapo, I had had a few little times of not feeling well, but because the symptoms of malaria were practically non existant, I thought little of it until it hit me full force. So it pays to check out any odd feelings as something bigger might be brewing.

I stayed a week in Kinshasa with our faithful Mpona family, many thanks also to Dom and Marie, who were a great help. At the moment I'm writing this, June 7, 2013, I'm at Aaron & Maresha's place in Budapest, where I am recuperating further.

The chicken buildings wich SADR graciously has designated to be modified or used by us for this school project are in different states of ruin. The great advantage is that the floor is already cemented and the roof are nice and sturdy. One of the buildings, the last one in the row suffered a collapse during a short but very violent rain storm. The wind actually pushed the building over resulting in the roof and the rafters resting on the ground. Here you see Rambo pointing out where he was trying to find shelter from the storm. Thank God he was not hurt.

The next moring we found that 2 of the currogated roof sheets had already been stolen as they are a hot item here, so we proceeded to dismantle the whole thing so we can use the materials for other buildings.

Since the first building was finished, we started on the second one. This one is on our own property on the other side of the village. It's about half an hour walk from the first building and having no truck or jeep available, it was the women again who eagerly helped with transporting the bricks to the new location. There were also some men who participated with this, but they used bikes on which they piled about 20 bricks and that way they could make a nice income.

We used the wood from a hangar for making the rafters. Putting these up with just man-power was quite a feat, but it worked. The walls are now 11 bricks high. The next step is to make a "centuron" of iron bars and concrete around the building right above the windows and doors to give the building strenght.