Hard Work and a Serious Little Dude.

I started writing this on Tuesday, but I just kinda kept writing each day. This is the first half.

It has been a very difficult week so far.

We're working on a frustrating project- that same pipe that broke two times? broke again. So there's the initial frustration of that, but then things started piling up.

In order to fix the pipe for good, we decided to find where it went into the cement, attach an elbow joint, and circumvent the problem altogether.

Simple, right? No.

We had to follow the pipe by smashing up the cement. At first, we thought this would be a short, though difficult and destructive, job, with an added bonus of helping us figure out how the pipes work. All of those were true except the first one, and so far, the last one.

For the last two days we've essentially been tearing up the hospital, at the cost of our hands, and we've pretty much learned nothing. We start again tomorrow.

HOWEVER

I was able, because of all this crazy work, to meet a little boy. I don't know his name, in fact, I've never heard him talk, but we've become friends, based on our mutual love of my sunglasses.

The first day, he just stared at me while I was working. One of those big, wide eyed, little kid stares. Kids are never subtle when they want to look at something. If they want to, and they have the ability to, they will. It was that kind of stare.

After a while, I said "bonjour! Ca va?"

He stared at me. And nodded. But not a lot.

From my experience with Gabonese children, I knew that this was significant. The fact that he would respond to me at all is impressive. That might be a personal thing more than a Gabonese thing, because I am in fact a scary white giant.

At the end of that day, I offered to shake his hand, and bid him a good evening. He stared at me.

Then he extended his tiny little hand, and we shook.

To be continued...