"I Am Painting for the Lord"

Tuesday January 20, 2015

It’s pretty bad when two days into the job I can hardly remember what day it is and how many days we’ve been working.  Last night I woke up at and watched the clock until almost.  So I was a little worried that I’d be operating on 5 hours of sleep.  Now some of my children might be able to do with very little sleep, but as they all know, and tease me about, I need to go to bed by 10pm to get my 8 hours.

Today I really felt the miracles.  If you could have seen what the halls looked like last night, when I was a little worried about so many hands working the walls and so much inconsistency, and then seen what they looked like as I left tonight, you would be amazed!  Everyone was much better with the finishes today.  I guess practice really does make perfect and after doing a quick training session with our “better finishers” among the locals, they were able to go through all the work done yesterday and “fix” all the problems.

Since I was in another room working the 2nd finish 27 feet in the air, I missed the part where one woman started to sing and then the men joined in and the story of how Oscar (from Ghana) told Vicky “I am painting for the Lord, “ at which point she began to cry.  He said he loves it here in the temple so much he would just stay here all the time.  That tells you the faith and spirit of these people.

Meanwhile I took 3 helpers, 20 plus feet in the air on sketchy scaffolding to learn a new finish.  A couple of them were wearing temple slippers to work in and I insisted that they put on “real shoes” before climbing to be safe.  Much better idea! I told them the Lord would understand that their shoes were not white.

All three were hanging on tight for dear life on top and not one of them wanted to go to the highest area (almost 27 feet up) where I climbed the extension ladder planked off the scaffold while they held the ladder to keep me safe (the most important job for sure) and handed me tools and product while I explained the finish.  After coming off the crazy high part, each got a turn to work the walls (mostly one-handed, while holding on tightly to the scaffold with the other).  As we worked, they became more comfortable with the height and by the end of the day, we had most of the huge wall done with layer number one.  Now we only have to climb two more times to finish out this area before moving to the next.  Crazy stuff!

I believe the team from Nigeria is getting paid from the “owner” to work here for three weeks since they flew them over to Ghana, but I believe the team from Ghana (due to conversations my husband had with some of them) are all volunteers because they feel it a privilege to be in the temple everyday helping to create beauty.  I did not know that they are volunteers (that is probably why my numbers were doubled from what I expected on day one).

Today Rose, our cook was very late with food for lunch and since we’d been waiting for 45 minutes and no work was happening and we were all starving, we pulled out some of the food we had purchased and shipped from home and started sharing with our HUGE group.  They got to try granola bars, trail mix and tuna fish sandwiches (small ones since we needed the food to go around), and apples and bananas with peanut butter, which some of the Nigerians especially liked.  I felt bad that they were all waiting to be fed after they had worked so hard and we all started to worry about Rose and if she was ok. But thankfully, she did arrive and lunch was a success.  I’m not sure they really liked the “snack” food but they were hungry enough to eat it, and although my crew seemed to be full once Rose arrived, you should have seen the plates full of rice these men ate (not to mention all the rest that went with the rice).  I’ve never seen so much food consumed from such skinny men, but I was grateful she did come. 

We worked  past 6pm tonight and when we start at 7:30am, it is a long hard day working in very hot conditions.  All of us are pouring sweat all day long and we keep asking the temple people if they can please find a way to turn the air conditioning a little cooler.  Nothing is simple here.  Everything needs a new person from a different “department” to do a simple task. I would say that organization is not a key element in this country.  For example, the day we arrived, we were given one key per room (only 3 rooms with 9 people) so I went back to the desk to beg for another key for each room.  The kind man pulled out a bag (equivalent to one of those white kitchen garbage bags) full of keys and had to dig through it to find the right keys for our rooms.  This is patron housing where they have three full floors of rooms and that was the best system for keys?  Very different mentality than we have.

Last night as I was talking with Sunda, I asked him if he, as a Nigerian could easily tell the difference from a Nigerian and a Ghanaian.  He then explained “yes”, that the Nigerian’s skin is much “whiter” than the super dark Ghanaian’s.  It's a mystery to me Nigerian and Ghanaian's skin look he same to me.

After working 11 hours.  Michael and Jys (the light skinned ones)

At dinner tonight as I sat talking with Hanna, she said to me that she is amazed at how I can do so many things all day long (since I’m not only working the walls and training, but also constantly being pulled from area to area to answer questions, direct and inform)…that it is overwhelming enough with the one job she has of working walls and training.  I honestly don’t think about all that is required of me, but I’m grateful the Lord made me good at multi-tasking so I can have these kinds of experiences. Again, I am amazed at the strength and stamina I am able to find each day as well as my amazing crew and the more amazing Nigerians and Ghanaians who are away from their families for so long so that they can work on the temple of the Lord.  It brings tears to my eyes as I walk through all alone at the end of the day to feel at peace and look over the work.  I have the best friends and crew ever who work with me.  They are kind, compassionate and great teachers.  And at the end of the day, despite tired, worn out bodies who can hardly climb the three flights of stairs to our rooms, we wouldn’t give up this amazing experience for anything else.

Alicyn