They seem to be sprawled everywhere. In their own beds, in borrowed beds, on the couch, on the porch swing… on every surface long enough to lie down, exhausted World Racers are resting their eyes. It is barely 2pm, and we’ve been here long enough to be mostly adjusted to the time difference. So what on earth have these young men and women been doing to cause such exhaustion? Getting rid of the Tunnel of course!
In order to get from the Children’s Home to their school, the kids take a cut-through, referred to by our squad as ‘The Tunnel’. If I hadn’t been shown the entrance, I would never have found it. We have to duck under several rows of laundry to find this hidden world. Behind the drying clothes, we step on many shards of glass, walking past two large, long-established, trash piles to get to a steep incline on the other side. Aside from the trash, there is dense vegetation encroaching on the path, so all we see are large green fronds above and to the sides, giving it a claustrophobic feel (and one of the sources of the moniker ‘Tunnel’). The path itself is a thick ruddy clay, studded with brightly colored bits of trash. Each time it rains, the path becomes an oozing red swamp, fostering within it all manner of trash and human and animal feces.
Team Karis saw this, and felt that a change was needed. Their initial thought was to pick up the trash and cut back some of the plants. They brought it to Jeff Long’s attention, and the vision grew. Two days later, Team Karis and members of Aletheia and Dunamis, set out to eliminate the Tunnel.
The vision is this:
Remove the trash heaps from the path
Machete away the dense vegetation and create an open path
Level the path and establish effective drainage
Pour a 24″ wide, 100 yard long, concrete sidewalk
We have 21 days.
Here are some shots from Day 1
Our men our armed to the teeth!
And Brenda too!
Ben, hard at work.
Brenda is supervising our neighborhood helpers.
World Racers working hard and sweating in the humidity!
Neil the engineer, contemplating the path…
More Little Helpers from the surrounding neighborhood!
