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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Rumors and more rumors

When is the second half of the Philippine MTC going to open?
Ever since I've been here there has been the rumor that the MTC extra buildings are going to open and more missionaries are going to be here. December went by as a final date, February has gone by, I don't think even April will be final. The current rumor is June.
I don't ask any woman when her baby is due and I don't ask when the MTC will open. I just note the changes that happen.......and I really can't figure these out.
The scaffolding next to the dental clinic was up until Elder Cook came to visit, it came down and then up again until around the first of February when it seems to have come down for good. Now the windows that you can see was the gym that is being turned into a new chapel for the second phase  of the MTC- of course that is the rumor. Work is happening in there. The missionaries are playing in the parking lot - basketball, badminton, volleyball, jump rope, mats come out for exercise and some run.
IT was hard to figure out what was being done as one set of men would do work for weeks on one part and then another set would chisel out by hand - a wood handle with a long nail out the side and hammer, then they would bring small buckets up by hand of wet cement to cover it over. Sometimes I would notice men hammering up old cement into little pieces to mix it in with the cement. 
I thought it was all done, but then they started over on different parts chipping away and adding new cement
Another thing that happens is deep lines chiseled away in the walls or ceilings and then wires on metal tubing put in through the holes and lines and then the line is cemented back over and smoothed. Why weren't the electrical, water, or such lines made in the first instance? No architectural drawing or guidelines followed?

This entrance had been poured at the end of January, last week they chipped the top of it off by hand and then smoothed it back over with small buckets of cement

Then another man painstakingly drew lines with a ruler in the wet cement exactly so far apart - why?
Each set of workers wear the same color shirts. There are red, green and yellow shirts. I noted the grounds crew all wear the same costume too. Why?  All the maintenance men in the whole MTC wherever they work wear a grey overall - Why? Is it culture or Church required?
Lots of rooms, sidewalks, and walls in the new buildings seem to be done and then are done over.....and over. Why? Beds and toilets are carried in and then wiring? Why?
I have seen the meticulous care that has gone on in parts of the building - but then someone else will cover it over or do it again. I'm still trying to figure out why things are not passing inspection. Why else would they do work over and over? Maybe it is different work done over the already done parts?

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