Setbacks and Hope for Success

Bridge construction has slowed to a crawl, but we have hopes to pick up speed this Monday.

When one of the bridge's sponsors was asked to leave the country, we were left without funding for the laborers' wages. The World Food Programme offered a food-for-work deal that seemed great to us but was not well received by the laborers. For the past two weeks, as we've been discussing various options, we have hired a small group of the secondary students at SBNA (South Blue Nile Academy, run by SIM) to help us out in the afternoons, once classes are out. This has been a great opportunity to teach and interact with the students, and we have spent quite a bit of time collecting materials (sand and rock) for the reinforced concrete soil anchor.

We just received word that there are some funds now available for laborers' wages (praise the Lord!), so we have invited folks to show up for work this Monday. Here is a picture of the first cable we were able to hoist into place over the threshold of the tower.