When we were first married, Roy worked on a construction/maintenance crew with the L.A. Flood Control District. I was in nursing school and he was taking college courses at night, working like a dog full time during the day. His crew did grunt work like road and field clean-up, but the true gift of that 2 year stint was that he learned all sorts of skills. He worked with a master mason, a master plumber, and learned how to properly set a fence. He was the newby on the team, so they had no reservations about giving him the worst of the work requests, such as hanging from a dam in a bosun’s chair/sling to paint spillway plumbing, climbing trees to use a chainsaw, or getting into an 18″ crawlspace under a house and running a jackhammer… He even was able to spend some time in the office, helping with bookkeeping and running the ham radio. God knew that ALL these skills would come in handy in Africa. Because of this background, one of the things he knows enough about to do a level, good job, is masonry. He has been involved in the construction of too many buildings to count over the years. This one is just for fun and family: making our kids BBQ chimney taller so the roofing over the patio can cover more area.
We’ll see how the construction of the new building on the CEFA farm has gone when we get back there in a month or two. It is in Luke Turk’s very capable hands, and Roy is thankful to have colleagues to help out in his absence.
