Things are heating up!

Helen: The girl’s first task today was to fence the vegetable garden to stop the cattle from walking all over the newly planted vegetables. One of the local lady’s had already planted cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and onions and they were thriving and looking healthy. Three strands of single wire fastened round existing fixed posts and then the mesh wire attached to the single strands, a few extra posts were required just to give extra strength. A job well done as some hours later a her d of cows came running down the hill.

Later in the day the girls were part of the chain gang helping to complete the second half of the roof batons and moving roof tiles.

Ladies fencing the vegetable garden

Mark: The boys began the day shifting more blocks for the local builders to finish the internal walls.  Access to the other side of the roof proved more challenging than anything Anneka could conjure up!  Once the scaffolding was in place the batons and felt were nailed on ready to tile the roof tomorrow.

Starting the other side of the roof.

Starting to render. One wall is already finished.

Precarious scaffolding ready to finish tiling!

Just call us the 'Chain Gang'

Alan: Well what a day today (Thursday) – the building team, Barry, our specialist builder, & Mark and I (the labour force) were joined by Helen, Liz & Moira (the chain gang).While the boys finished felting and battening one side of the roof the girls moved tiles closer to the “coal face” ready for us to start tiling the roof. While we were doing this the local builders were finishing off the internal walls and started on the gable ends. The chain gang started loading us out and after a bit of instruction from Barry the tiling began – Mark & I couldn’t believe how easy Barry made it look but we soon got the hang of it and by 3 in the afternoon we had laid 500 roof tiles and one side of the roof was complete.

A great step forward today and a really good “team” effort – bring on tomorrow!!!



Day 5: Start (Chain Gang)



Boys on the roof!

Day 5: Evening

Lots to be positive about

Helen: Liz, Moira and Helen accompanied a team from 1000 Hills Clinic to observe and help with an out reach clinic in one of the poorer areas. Around 30 children and adults attended with various complaints from coughs to probable sexually transmitted disease.

The afternoon saw the nurses take off in the ambulance with some of the clinic staff to do some home visits; an elderly man who was off his feet, a young boy with what we thought was cerebral palsy. We also delivered a couple of food parcels.

Still a few hours left and we went on to the build and moved more than a 100 breeze blocks into position for the boys.

Mark: The build team (Alan, Barry and Mark) started the day by developing a cunning strategy to manhandle the roof trusses into place while the local builders worked on the internal walls and doors.  We had cheese rolls for lunch.  The afternoon was spent moving breeze blocks, securing the roof trusses then attaching felt to the aforementioned trusses.  The felt will be completed tomorrow in the warm sunshine that Charlie has promised.

Day 4: Start

Day 4: Afternoon

Day 4: Evening

Charlie: I can’t report lots of manual labour, or major achievements but contrary to the rest of the teams jibing I have been working. This morning I visited Sithembakuye and was happily impressed with the progress this project is making. They have started a crafting project using recycled materials and in a partnership with a local business woman. I will be visiting Sithembakuye again next week and hope to report some further exciting developments.

I then visited the valley with some old contacts and I enjoyed going back and seeing some old friends. The situation is still very poor in the surrounding valley’s and families consist of only young children, HIV and TB are still rife and inadequate services and education continue to compound all the issues.

I then visited Theresa a retired nurse who decided to open a care home for children in her community.  Even though government offices promised support they still have not even met the most basic needs. However they continue to send children which need shelter. Its a very difficult situation and Theresa really has a big heart as she could easily turn the children away.

Still so many exciting projects to visit, so many people to meet, and so much to learn. I need another month rather than two weeks. Still it’s been an all round positive day and the building continues to beat their estimations. With the ladie's help tomorrow the house will be well on its way!

Just a quick update

Yesterday the building team worked flat out to get the building ready for the roof. The ladies also had a full packed day with the baby’s clinic, at 1000 HCH. Everyone was very tired last night. Here are some pictures of the progress and tonight we will give a more detailed blog. 

Start: Day 3

End: Day 3

End: Day 3

A silver lining even in the KwaZulu Natal clouds

Charlie: Only on our third day and already a lot has been achieved. Considering today is the first day when it was expected all would commence, the building team are ahead of even their estimations. However, the weather today is awful, cold and wet (heavy rain showers) still think it will take more than that to dampen Barry, Alan and Mark's spirits. The three ladies have gone off to 1000 Hills Community Helpers and hopefully all being well they will be spending the week there. Both the building team and ladies will update us later on their day.

I met with Walter Frey and Thokozani Mabuya this morning to discuss ‘First step Right’ pre-school. It was a great meeting and they have intentions of working with us initially and making the pre-school their community project as part of their company’s social responsibility. They currently are in the process of buying the land that the pre-school is on which is part of a deal to buy the associated business. More on this as we go through the weeks!

I also met with Phindi and Kevin today. Phindi is a radio presenter and a very involved in charity projects. She has been running exercise classes at a clinic in Umlazi and she has plans to extend her charitable work. I will update the blog more on this as we have some further meetings with Phindi and Kevin.

Liz: Today I had a fantastic day at the 1000 Hills Community Centre. Having been given a tour of the complex which included a clinic, kitchens that feeds up to 1500 people a day, a gift shop selling crafts made by locals and a laundry service, I spent time in the school facility. This included a crèche for up to 6 month olds, an older crèche for 1 to 2 year olds, a larger room for the 2 and 3 year olds and finally a pre-school. The 2 and 3 year olds looked like they could help me so I stepped into their world. Approximately 12 of them (it’s usually double this – its holiday time) were sat having breakfast on mini chairs. They stared then eventually thawed and said ‘hello lady’ repeatedly. Then they were put to bed, packed in blankets, all facing the same way so as not to wake each other for 2 hours. Once the children awoke, it was lunch then play which consisted of them pointing to parts of their body and telling me what it was in English. My role was to learn the Zulu. I won’t write it here as I’ve no idea of the spelling but I can honestly tell you I know most of the parts of my body in Zulu including a short seminar from a 2 year old Zulu girl who corrected me when I thought the translation was ‘back’. She said, “no, it’s your spinal cord”. Enough said.

An amazing place! Inspirational! Well organised and clearly life-changing for so many people of the immediate and far-reaching community. Tomorrow, I’m in the pre-school although have promised to go back to the crèche to prove I’ve remembered my Zulu lessons.

Mark: The building team put snickersgate behind them and headed to Ithembalihle to build on (excuse the pun) the previous day’s progress.  Unfortunately the weather had other ideas with typical British rain setting in for the day.  We did take delivery of the window and door frames, which will allow us to crack on tomorrow with the hope of better weather.  Bring on some African sun!!

Helen: After a quick look round the 1000 Hills clinic the two nurses were left with Sister Margaret. It was the Elderly Clinic day. Around 50 people were already seated outside on the veranda, our heart sank!! After sitting in on a few consultations with Sister Margaret she left the consulting room and it was down to us. We had a translator to help us out as we have not quite mastered Zulu. Drugs were limited but hopefully we gave good advice and treatment. We also had a house call, the clinic ambulance took us to a house where a young boy was quite unwell, he had a high temperature, sweating profusely and difficulty with his breathing, the family had phoned for a government ambulance some four hours earlier and it had still not arrived!!! Not quite as bad as the NHS. Hopefully the young boy received the medical attention he so badly required but I will try and find out and update the blog.

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!!!!

Settling in – Base camp

Charlie: Well it took 24 hours to get to South Africa; Birmingham via Dubai then onto Durban. Having left the UK, which had temperatures of 27 Degrees and arriving in Dubai at 7am in the morning having 32 degrees, we were all slightly disappointed, to arrive in South Africa to temperatures of 20 degrees, low lying mist and rain! However today (Saturday 1^st October) we have all awoken to brilliant sunshine, so all is forgiven. We are staying in new accommodation, which Debbie (GAGA’s SA liaison) has built under her house. It’s basic but far from uncomfortable. It’s a brilliant place to base our operations for the next few weeks. Barry and Alan are chomping at the bit to get building and in a little while we will have breakfast with Debbie’s father to discuss the building. He has been instrumental in the planning of this project. After breakfast we plan to head over to Ithemablihle and make preparations in haste, to start building as soon as possible.

More later...

Moira: Brilliant sunshine – woohoo!  Had a look around the area to get our bearings and see where we will be working over the next two weeks.  Met Thandiwe and the children at Ithemablihle and got started moving the blocks into position ready for the guys to start building tomorrow. Very hot and dirty work but very satisfying.   Feels like we have really done something useful!  There are lots of practical issues to be sorted out and lots of different tasks for us to do – something to suit everybody.

Whose the builder?

Have seen some wildlife-no, not Alan-some birds and monkeys.   Also had a quick trip over to the beach at Durban, which was lovely.  Raining a bit tonight but it doesn’t matter – mission accomplished for today!