By Sara Dessieux
Four years ago, after the Project Living Hope land in Camp Marie had been purchased, our team started creating plans for how the fields, buildings and such would be laid out on the land. The 3-D renderings looked so snazzy, and I could just envision people walking to and fro on the land participating in all the different learning options available. I knew it would take years to raise all the funds needed and to complete all the construction, but there is one aspect that I never consider and that is the mess. Currently, we are very much in the mess phase.
When the very first soccer camp was held on the PLH land, players and coaches were constantly chasing down soccer balls because the land was sloped. The following year, the land was cut into several different flat areas so now games can be played without the ball rolling downhill. We are still battling the fact that our piece of land is on a slope and when heavy rains fall the water flows down through every lowest area. So in addition to putting in the first basketball court last month and building the restroom this month, our concrete workers are also building canals, concrete pads and retaining walls as needed. It’s not very glamorous work, yet time and money has to be devoted to it.
There are constantly piles of sand, gravel, blocks and rebar scattered around. There is always a water barrel, a screen set up to sift the sand, fragments of blocks and empty concrete sacks revealing where the most current work is taking place, and all around it, as we enter the rainy season, mud in various stages of drying out. Then there is the noise -- our precious backhoe with an endless to-do list to go with it, dump trucks coming and going, and sometimes a grader or steamroller or both working within a few feet of my English class in session. There are also our two cement mixers, so loud hour after hour, but at the same time so invaluable. Over the din, the crew yell back and forth to each other as needed, and I stand there dreaming of the day when the tools can be put away and everyone can have their good clothes on rather than their work clothes.
Of course, there is much good in the current situation as well. Our staff is learning to problem-solve together. Men with no steady jobs are being employed for weeks on end. Step by step, we are getting closer to having a developed campus.
We are so grateful for the support you give us. Without it, we would be so many steps behind where we are now. At times, the progress seems slow, but when we reflect on how much work has been done in just a few short years, even despite much turmoil in the country and COVID-19, we are humbled and thankful. I feel confident that within the next two years, much more will have changed. In the meantime, please forgive our mess.