At long last it is finally happening! Martha has received her 10 acre inheritance from her father – and it’s a beautiful piece of land that lies adjacent and upland from her current school campus.
A First Hand Look
On Saturday, February 1, 2014, Martha led Compassion Corps staff members Jan Bean and Gail Guidry along with a dozen small children in tow, down a primitive path and over at least two rather treacherous bridges, through palms, ferns, and underbrush, to have a first look at the new 
building site.Martha’s older boys and several volunteer community members had been already hard at work “brushing the land” – that is, clearing the high grasses and clearing the small shrubs with their cutlasses.
Several hours had already been spent with Martha and Compassion Corps partner, Pastor Martin Valentine, a former civil engineer for the Liberian government, mapping out a plan for where the new children’s village buildings will be placed. At the crest of the hill, at the approximate center of Martha’s land, Jan and Gail were struck with the beauty of this place – the place that Martha’s now 68 children will soon call home. Their view affords them a sweeping vista that includes the St. Paul River, fields of sugar cane and cassava, countless towering palm tress and gently sloping hillsides. Over the next week, while the children are on school break, they will be busy assisting Martha’s adult volunteers with these first preparations for building.
We’re Off to an Exciting Start
Work will begin this week on creating an access road to the hilltop, building a secure, temporary structure to house all of the building materials and running a water line which will enable them tobegin making their own bricks and concrete blocks. Martha and the children will continue to do all they can to facilitate this first phase of the work, in eager anticipation of the Compassion Corps work team’s arrival in mid April. Pastor Martin, who will act as forman of the building project, expects to have at least two buildings completed before the rainy season, which begins in June.
Check out the project video to learn all about Martha’s situation, her kids’ need for a new home and the building project that will fill that need!
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