Tuesday, March 21, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 784

I didn't get bored though. I spent those waiting hours just playing around and having a good time. The first one I spent climbing trees. One tree I climbed up and then went out on its branches which were about 10 feet above the ground. I kept going until I got just about to the end, and then the branch started breaking, and it set me slowly down to the ground.

The rest of the waiting hours I spent playing in the river. There was a vine hanging from a tree at the edge of the river. It worked just like a rope. I had alot of fun swinging out on it, and then dropping down into the water at the last minute. When we got out there, it was a drop of about 10 feet into water about 5 feet deep. It was perfect. The river is about 100 feet wide and the current is slow, so that one could even easily swim upstream if he wanted. I swam across quite a few times and spent some time on the bank at the other side. That means that now I have actually been to Guinea. The guard had said goodbye and gone back to the village quite awhile before this.

Alot of the ladies came to wash clothes there. About half of these came from the Guinea side. One of the ladies from Guinea even knew my name and everything.

This evening, back in Kamiendor, there was some native dancing and I joined in with them. This one was a couple of drummers sitting on a bench with the people dancing in the area out before them. Quite a few of my ladies were there, and I was the star of the show. Sia Kundi was there also, and so I danced quite a bit with her. Everything seems back to normal between us. She asked me today if I brought anything for her on my return, and I told her no. I had promised myself that she wasn't going to be getting anything more from me. I did, however, give her two leones, which she is to give to her sister, Kumba. Kumba is joining the society at this time.

Friday, March 24, 1978, 8:00 pm, Day 787

The third day, things were really going good. It looked like we could be able to get in 7 trips that day. Then the tipper ran out of fuel. This driver came up here to Kamiendor, knowing that he was going to work for 4 or 5 days, and he didn't bring any extra fuel with him. Luckily, though, on the second day, we sent a container down to Sefadu which came back today with 4 gallons of fuel. I had gone to Densembadu to pick it up, but the lorry came late, so by the time I got it and brought it back to the tipper, I found that it had run out of gas and had been sitting for one hour. That evening we found that the front tire had gone flat. The driver had brought a spare, but some of the kids had let the air out of it the day before. We didn't have a pump. My Honda tire pump wouldn't have begun to do. Besides the great volume needed, we also needed 105 psi pressure, while only 21 psi is needed in the Honda tires. The driver was able to manage by removing a tire from the double wheels of the rear axle and exchange it with the flat front tire.

On today, the fourth and last day of hauling sand, the tipper wasn't filling the loads as full as before. I was letting him do this, as he was missing the tire behind. Then the tipper broke a spring on the front axle. It was the type of spring that has all of the layers of iron bars, and the top two of these broke. The tipper was still able to manage though, and we did another trip or two in this condition. We only did 5 trips today, as the driver didn't want to risk the tipper on another one. Therefore, I figured that he would only be paid for 5/6 of a day this day. Everyone kept begging me to feel sorry for the tipper and pay them for a full day, but I was stubborn and held my ground. I didn't feel that I should pay him for work he didn't do, and it wasn't my fault if his tipper was falling apart on me. I finally got my way here.

When it came time to pay him this afternoon, we still had the point to clear up about Pa Lamin using the tipper that day. I was only going to pay for 5/6 of that day, as we only took 5 trips. The tipper driver wanted us both to go see Pa Lamin to settle this. We went, and I asked Pa Lamin how much he had agreed to pay the tipper. He said that they didn't talk price. I told him that I wasn't paying the tipper for a full day that day, and that it still left 12 leones to fill it up. I told Pa Lamin that I felt he should paythat 12 leones. Pa Lamin told me that he felt that I should pay for it. What nerve! At this point I told him a few things. I told him that not one day have I seen him out there as a communal laborer, that he has not contributed one cent towards this water project. I told him that this water was for him, not me. And here he was, trying to get the projectto pay for this hauling stone to build his house in Kisene. I told him that I was only asking him to pay the 12 leones, but that I felt he should pay more. I told him that he might as well pay 24 leones while he was at it. I think he finally paid the 12 leones.

Altogether, in these 4 days, the tipper made 22 trips and hauled about 2100 cubic feet of sand. This cost the project 256 leones.

Monday, March 27, 1978, 9:00 pm, Day 790

Today was the first day of actually using cement. We started to make concrete blocks today, but it mostly turned into a big practise session. We'll try again tomorrow.

First, I had them fix up a 1:8 mix, taking one bag of cement and putting it with in with 4 wheelbarrows of sand. Then they added some water and then made a block to see how it worked. As soon as they took it out of the mold, it fell apart. First, the mason thought that it was too little cement, so they added a few shovel fulls. Then they thought that there was too much water, so they started adding sand to make it a drier mix. Still, the blocks fell apart. Then they decided that the sand was too clean, that it didn't have enough dust in it, so they added some dirt. I didn't agree to all of this, but I just kept my mouth shut and went along with them, as they have worked with making blocks before. This was my first time. They ended up making 24 blocks out of the one bag of cement, while with the original 1:8 mix, they should have only been able to make 14 blocks. This was because of all of the extra sand and dirt that they added. This one bag probably took about 4 hours to do. We called it quits after that so we wouldn't waste any more cement. These 24 blocks that we did make don't look too good, and should fall apart pretty quickly because of the lack of cement. Tomorrow, we'll try again with the original mix and try to keep from adding all of this other stuff.

Yesterday, I went down to try to find water in the well. There was a small puddle in the center when I got there, which I at first took to be the water level. I started digging then though, and the water got all shoveled out, leaving the hole dry. This had me worried. I started digging a small hole on down to try to find water, and I ended up going down about two more feet before the ground became saturated again. I then went and dug all of the rest of the well down to the water level. This was at about 84 inches down from the surface. Last time it was only 56 inches, so this was quite a drop. It was all clay now, and so the water was seeping in very slowly. I checked the water level again today, and it had come up to 73 inches below ground level. I noticed dampness up above this level though, so I think thatthe actual water level is even higher.