Up, dull and early

Charlie: Today we were all up before the cockerel's call. Mainly because Barry’s I-phone forgot which time zone it was in - or did he!! Still it’s not such a bad thing. Everyone is eager to begin and today will hopefully be the first full day of building. Sundays are pretty quiet days in South Africa and today the whole group will be helping with the build. Starting tomorrow Helen and Moira, our two practicing nurses will go to 1000 Hills Community Helpers where all their knowledge and skills will be put to good use. Liz, who will be putting her skills and knowledge to use later in the week, will also be helping at 1000 HCH.  The schools are on holidays at the moment until the 10^th October and 1000HCH will be a hive of activity for the next week as they run activities for the children.

Alan, Barry and Mark will be working on the building along with a local tradesmen and his labourers. Estimations are high and as long as the weather is on our side, they will be calling back the rest of the group to help paint and tile if all goes well.

I will be visiting and meeting projects tomorrow, I have some important meetings where I hope to make some real headway - fingers crossed and more on that tomorrow.

Today however the plan is for half the group to build a strong chicken pen which will prevent the dogs killing sitting chickens. The rest will be working on the house. Today the first block will be laid and we will have the pictures to follow.

More later...and it’s later now

Alan:  Well what a great day, apart from a couple of showers where we lost some time, BUT what progress we have all made both the “chicken run” gang and the building team led very ably by Barry, despite the lack of chocolate!! We were joined by a local builder, 2 labourers and quite a few of the older boys from the orphanage who helped us move about 700 blocks. We, and that’s the “Royal we” laid approx 350 blocks and made a really great start ready for the first official day of building tomorrow.

Start: Day 1

End: Day 1

Helen: It was hoped to start a programme of rabbit breeding, unfortunately two of the four rabbits died and neither of the two remaining rabbits have produced any off spring, on examination by the two medical personnel it was decided they were both female!!!!

The new chicken coop was completed, the hens now have a lovely nest to lay their eggs and the run will keep the dogs away from the chicks.

Chicken nesting boxes

One disappointment for the team was sending Alan to the builder’s yard for material; he came back with some building items and one snickers bar!!!!