Another cup of chai
The past week has been full of mud, sand, bricks, motorcycles, sign language, chai and donkeys. Many of the Garhi Khairo people decided to settle in new locations, so we spent the last week with 11 families on a 2 acre plot of land owned by one of the men named Dost Mohamed.
“Ocean warzone” is the best way to describe Garhi Khairo and the surrounding lands; and the monsoon rains stopped nearly 5 months ago. Homes are completely demolished, roads are destroyed, and farmland is underwater as far as the eye can see. People say some of the water was nearly 16 feet deep at one time. Downtown Garhi Khairo is abuzz despite a crippled smattering of fallen buildings, shops, and precarious power lines.
Wherever we go people are drinking chai at the closest shop.
Reconstruction or repair is planned for 19 homes. Eleven homes will be built on Dost Mohamed’s property, and the rest are scattered throughout the nearby area. Tractors leveled Dost Mohammed’s property, and one water pump and three foundations were cut as of Friday. In the surrounding area two more foundations are cut, two wells are installed, and a tractor is blazing an access road to some isolated homes, including a set of widows.
Everyone we stop to talk with insists we share a cup of chai with them.
Plans are set for the remaining homes and repairs, but access to bricks and masons has been slow. Treacherous road conditions and water damage is limiting the amount of useful bricks for building. All construction costs have increased, including masons, and created some minor setbacks. Please pray that resources access and availability will improve and construction will proceed in a God magnifying way. Many more construction materials will become available if a road opens to nearby Shidadko.
Each morning the people serve us chai for breakfast.
The people are thankful for our influence. Everyone greats us with a humble, personal handshake. We can tell the people receiving new homes are concerned that financial support will end once we leave next Saturday, but continue to assure them this is not the case. Missionaries in nearby Shikarpur will continue to support the village once we’re gone, and rations are being distributed by other organizations. In an effort to prepare a transition relationship Giardo and Hakim, two Pakistani Christian men working in flood relief, visited us in the village on Friday. We return to the village today for our last week of work.
We pray the people see the reason for our presence and actions amidst the urgency. Like cups of Pakistani chai, God is constantly filling our cups. We pray the Garhi Khairo people recognize the full cup presented before them.
