"God is in our midst"

Feb. 23
Maureen Webber, Fuller Center volunteer

Three more nights and we’ll be on our way home.  The roosters have been in a competition over who has the best wakeup call for over an hour.  And soon after they start, the city below our window begins to stir. I hear the hum of 15,000 voices waking up to a new day: men, women, children, and babies.  I also hear the horns of the “tap taps” (brightly colored trucks that people ride to get around), motorcycles, small cars and big trucks in the distance on the highway. 

Today’s goals are to drop the cages into the trenches, secure them together, set up the 4′ “L” shaped ribar and secure them to the cages, so the long arm of the ribar sticks up.  Then, we’ll start mixing the concrete, and using a bucket brigade, pour the footer. 

Half of us worked at the trench this a.m. while the other half finished the cages that will sit on top of the walls and offer support for the roof– this in the shade of a stand of trees.  The cages are in place in the trenches and the “L” shaped ribar secured as hoped.  Plywood pieces had to be placed in the trenches as spacers and to help hold the cement in place when it is poured.  You see, we had to do quite a bit of digging yesterday to make the corners square and adjust the dimensions pretty significantly.  Garison hired some extra help for the trench work today, and 3 masons arrived to give a hand with pouring the footer, too, two of whom were women! 

While on the way back to the worksite, I asked Heather how different things were along this stretch of road before the earthquake.  Of course, there wasn’t the building rubble that is still all around us, but the street side venders were all there with their brightly colored beach umbrellas.  Some of the tarps shipped there for shelter after the quake are used to shade the venders as well, which, of course is new.

In reflecting on this trip so far, I’ve realized I need to look for the times when God might say, “it is good”.  I see it in the ocean view, the star gazing on the roof, the flowering hibiscus and bushes and trees that flower, the smiles on the children’s faces, the sounds of their laughter and playfulness.  In the midst of this incredible and profound poverty and devastation, God is in our midst.  If we fail to see God, we might be overwhelmed by it all.