more house building photos

Talk about doing things by hand (and foot), I will probably take my cordless drill out for one small part of the roofing, but other than that, everything is done by manpower. Here we are trying to keep the corners straight. You can see the windows and door being framed up.

In the dry season, the houses blend in with the mountians, but soon, things should be greening up.

Here we are getting a few layers above the door and window beams. About 3000 of these adobes should be enough for the whole house. We are planning a small loft on one end, to have a bedroom upstairs and one downstairs, the rest will be open up about 12ft. The folks here have one certian way to do everything, with little room for inovation. While we want to make it simply, and fit in with the rest of the houses, I still have some ideas about doing things differently, but get into trouble, as anything different here is seen as "wrong!"

You can see a few new roofs of our neibors in the background. The roofing is a big cultural event here. Many friends, neibors and relatives come to help, and to eat a big meal. It is normal to kill 2 sheep or a cow for a roofing day. I am trying to get 2 alpacas for ours, which, by the way, is set for Nov 14th. We hope to have many of our friends attend, help, and get to hear the gospel, instead of the normal drunken party that normaly lasts most of the night. Please pray that this event would be a light in the darkness. I have tried to go to most of the roofings around, and help in the day, if I can, but then escape fairly early in the evening (6 to 9PM), before the alcohol starts taking much effect. They have so many customs steeped in darkness, but when confronted with the Truth, dismiss them as customs that are more inportant than the Bible. Such as pouring drink and blood offerings on the walls and floor, trying to remove the sheep's heart still beating, and many other similar things, just to get a little more luck for the house and family. We are inviting some of the believers from some of the areas near by, as well as many of our friends from Velille and Tacllapampa.

Anyone want to come for a workday and some alpaca ribs?

Little nooks and holes are included to make built-in shelves.