The building Project - Part II

There wasn’t a huge amount that could be done with this team which was quite disappointing. We cut endless amounts of wire as the builders tied even bigger lengths of wire together to make the support for the floor to the next level. I hadn’t appreciated how much there was that actually went into this. It took about 3 days to complete it all.

They then made a huge ramp from the ground up to the first floor level to carry up concrete to lay the slab. This took another day and then there was fixing the boards to the sides of the building to create a shell to pour the concrete into! Finally in the second week we got around to mixing concrete. The builders formed a chain up the ramp and passed bowls of concrete to each other up to the roof where they filled a wheelbarrow and wheeled it across wooden boards to where they wanted it to go.

We then got power which meant the builders could use the concrete mixer. They produced huge amounts of concrete at a much faster rate than normal and in no time at all the slab was finished! They were so proud with their achievement! Unfortunately the team was left with nothing to do on the building site! Oops!!!! Nothing more could be done until the slab had completely set which would take about 3 weeks.

We did get another small project though. We were asked to paint some biological diagrams onto some walls at the school though to help the students learn them. I went through Marina’s medical teat books to find pictures, bought some paint and brushes from the local hardware store (If you’re ever in Africa they don’t use turpentine or white spirit, you’ll have to go to the local petrol station and buy paraffin!!) and soon the team were painting an eye, a skeleton and a fish with labels! They’re not quite finished yet, but we’re back in Rukungiri next week and will complete them then!