Fire, fire!

Oops- this is an older post, from March 3, somehow misfiled here. Oh well, minor glitch!~


Today started off in a different way than I could have imagined. I decided to look at the wood buring pile/charcoal procedure to see where they were at with that, and it looked like they were taking the charcoal out, so I went over to see. Mr. Francois wasn’t there, but one of the teachers was there. He explained that Mr. Francois wasn’t there, but that the charcoal was more than ready to be scooped out. When they build the pit to burn the wood, it is topped with a lot of soil, which keeps the fire contained, and also, later, when they pull out the coal, you have to have soil to cover it up with to keep it from burning. You also need buckets of water to douse the coals, but alas! there was an issue with water, so a few of us from the school jumped in to help find water, and then to help douse the coals. Let’s say it’s not a glamorous job, and I’m guessing it’s really bad for your lungs, breathing in that smoke, and then the resulting steam after you put water onto the hot coals. It took over an hour, with several of us there to save the charcoal.

From there, I went to the jobsite and we put stones into the poured steps of the front entrance of the school.

Again, I marvel at the various creatures who trot across the schoolground. When I leave my place to go to the school or to go to breakfast, I look both ways before crossing the dirt road-not for traffic, because it’s quite rare that there are vehicles, but in case a bull, donkey, mule, horse, goat, cow, chicken, turkey, guinea fowl or other is walking by.

The following day, Mr. Francois sent his son over with two lobsters he had caught in the river, I’m assuming as a thanks for helping out. He wanted a photo of myself, the teacher who worked on the coal, and himself. I love this photo!