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Plans and Exciting News!


                                                                       Hello!

    


     Well, I know that it's been a while since I've written, but I was waiting for answers and now I finally have some!

      There have many ideas tossed around, but I came to the conclusion that I should not rent, but build a place for the library instead. This would provide a permanent place that would eventually pay for itself. After contacting "the powers that be" at Bear Valley ( the congregation that oversees the Tz2000 mission work), I was just given permission to build on land behind the preaching school here in Kisongo. I am so blessed that they believe in this work!

So...what am I going to build? I came in contact with something called "cob" a few years ago. It is a mixture of straw, sand, clay (Kisongo has a high clay content in the dirt), and stone. Here is a picture. The library will look similar.


     Isn't it just lovely? This house has three stories. The library will have just two. It will probably also be a darker color, but that all depends on what kind of finish I use. As you can see, it has a stone foundation, cob walls and a thatch roof. Because of the way the materials work together, the building is cool in the summer, and warm in the winter. Some people think that with the littlest bit of rain, it will come crumbing down but many homes in England ( you know what the weather is like there) have been built with cob and they have stood for 500 years. I just love the look and the most important thing is, they are very inexpensive to build. Labor intensive, but cheap. If  you would be interested in helping see this building go up, you can send funds to :

Logan Martin church of Christ
P.O Box 1602
3401 Martin Street S.
Pell City, AL 35125

(Just put on the outside of the envelope: Tanzanian Library Fund)

I'm super excited and I can't wait to get started. There is a small company here that works with people that want to build such earthen structures, for a price, but it's worth it. Not only is it labor intensive, but it is also slow. It'll take at least 8 months to a year to be completed.

But I don't wish to wait a whole year to set up the library so..... I plan on asking the men of the Kisongo congregation if I can use the church building during the week. I feel sure that they will let me begin the library there and then move once the cob is finished. There is only one problem to this idea...I only have so much money. If I ship my books, that's money that could be used on the building.
So, we'll see what happens. I'll keep ya'll updated!

Until Next Week ( hopefully :)),

Abigail

 







 

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