Life on the Edge: A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

Life does not always look consistent from day to day in the mountains, but we have some themes that keep reoccurring. For Matt, that means going out to projects to “inspect” them and decide if a project is one we want to do. We have to ask if it’s a project that is needed and wise, but also if it will give us a chance to spend time with people in the village and if this is in an area we want to keep spending time.

Last week, the project visit of the week was a trip about 20KM out of town to a village of about 400 households to look at one of their canals. We were up early to get out of town by 8, in the summer the sun up on the mountains can get pretty hot so we wanted to avoid too much walking up in hot weather. Our engineer, our office manager, and I all hopped in the car and drove up to the village.

Once we got to the village we picked up a couple of the village leaders and drove up toward the canal. We kept driving up, up, and further up, about half an hour up a little track in the side of the mountain to some high pastures for animals. I parked up where the road finally disappeared and we walked about 200 yards further up the side of the mountain to the canal.

Now here’s the thing about canals here: they are dug and sometimes carved into some very steep sides of these mountains. Usually they are a slight line of green on a sheer cliff. To walk along these canals there is a little path about a foot wide you get to follow, inevitably on the down side of the canal. I have never hiked in areas as exposed as I do here walking up to and along canals.

So we start along this canal. I am reminded of Donkey in the Shrek movies (“Shrek! I’m looking down!”) and remember that, while I don’t have a true ‘fear’ of heights, I do keep a very healthy respect of them. Nothing quite reminds a person of that respect like your right hand hanging over a thousand foot drop along a trail. Somehow locals take this like a morning stroll down a neighborhood sidewalk. I feel more like it’s a half-hour near-death-experience.

We got out to the damaged section and looked the damage over. Sure enough, about 20 yards fell down off the cliff and need cement and rebar to reinforce it. Everyone working on the canal was over sixty, nothing is quite as humbling as being outwalked and outworked by a group twice your age. We talked over repairs, I got to pray with the group, and then restarted the casual little stroll along a cliff face back.

I always have a slight temptation to kiss the ground once we make it back to solid ground, but try and act casual like everyone else when we get down. We still had the drive down the road, then a visit with one of our hosts for tea and soup for lunch. We sat in a little house next to the river, had a meat soup heavy on the fat, talked a bit about life and whatever came to mind, and took off for home.

It was partway through the drive down that I started to feel a bit weak and achy. By the time tea was over and we were headed home I was definitely feeling sick. After the half hour drive home, I was ready to crawl into bed, where I stayed for the next four days getting over some as yet unknown illness. You never really know how any given day is going to go.