A Sad Note

Our school is in the middle of a large building project. Our split campus is becoming unified by selling our elementary school and rebuilding adjacent to our high school buildings. The building project began last summer and is scheduled for completion in early May. More than 200 workers have been employed to make the deadline, causing the work site to appear like an ant hill as Indonesian men use sheer labor to transform an old gymnasium into a modern elementary school. No heavy equipment, no cement trucks, few power tools. Shovels, small cement mixers, hand saws, and hammers create a cacophony of sound for teachers to shout over during the day. As the daily rains come, the workers scurry for cover and the percussion line is exchanged for the regular rhythms of rain on tile and roof waterfalls on rock beds. Sign language has become our lingua franca.

Yesterday, a different sound was heard: dread silence. During sixth period, the raucous subsided. Many students and teachers saw a man being carried by his peers, face wrapped and mouth agape. They rushed him to the hospital while rumors spread like fire. In nearly nine months, this is the first major accident on the site. The young man fell off the roof of the new building. Rains had been spitting all day, making the roof a veritable water slide without forcing the men under cover. Apparently he was near the apex of the tile roof when he slipped and tumbled all the way to the ground; the roof is the equivalent of a three story building. Many prayers went up.

This morning at our teacher prayer meeting, it was announced that the young man passed early in the morning. He was the major bread winner in his extended family. With unemployment rates near 40 percent and life insurance unheard of, his death will impact his family and his close friends in more ways than we Americans can understand. Death is so common here, yet its sting knows no mercy. Please pray for Mastur’s family and the morale of his co-workers.