A Day at POC

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

I Chronicles 16:34

 

So it has been a while since I have blogged.   Many things happened during POC. 

(Pacific Orientation Course) Some of you have read my Facebook posting or Jay’s blog.

(www.pettygroveprogress.org) I am going to try and tell a little bit about what we did every 

day at POC with some more pictures.

We were at POC from January 20^th to March 6^th. A normal day consisted of classes in the morning and more classes or activities in the afternoon.  We ate our meals together in a dining hall.  2 missionaries and 3 nationals managed the food.  As the course went on they enlisted our help for some preparation and clean up.  We ate breakfast at 7am, lunch at 1215pm, and supper at 545pm. Fortunately, there were nationals who laundered our clothes on Monday and Wednesday.  They washed them in machines and hung them out to dry.   It was our responsibility to collect them.  Sometimes we were able to do so before the rain; at other times we were not.

Dining hall

Kitchen

Dorm area

Our room from the outside(by the Box labeled with a "P"

Our room consisted of one bed covered with a mosquito net, a table, 2 chairs and shelves with a place to hang a few clothes.  We did bring a table fan which helped in the heat. The floor was cement with a couple mats. There were shaded slatted windows on two walls. The rooms were right next to each other with no insulation.  One could hear all the coughs and sneezes of their neighbor.  We had a group of 46 students (28 adults and 18 children under 6^th grade)

inside room

doing homework

The men and women’s bathroom each consisted of three toilet stalls and 3 shower stalls. The toilets did flush :)  The shower was cold river water piped in. Otherwise at 6am and 430pm someone was assigned to start a fire which would heat the water for the shower.  One could fill a bucket with hot water and use that to shower with.  The showers were full in the evening with children bathing before bed. It was quite the process for the families. 

Women's bathroom

Spout to get hot river water to fill the bucket with

Someone had to light this twice daily when we could have hot water

The Bucket Shower

Whenever we left the POC site as a group we rode in the hino.  The hino is truck with a covered bed with 3 benches in for us to sit on. It was full when we all went.  The road was dirt and gravel. It was basically a one way road with a few areas to pull over if you met an oncoming vehicle. It was a bumpy ride. Sometimes the road was dry but many times it was wet and muddy from the rain.

Loading the hino

The one way road is on the right