First day on the Building Site

We were up early this morning (19th January)... 5:30am! This is much earlier than I would rise on a normal work day but with two girls sharing a bathroom and a 7am departure time, it is necessary. We got into the minibus (which would become our second sleeping spot after our beds) and drove the hour across town to the Suubi 2 village. As we drove, children everywhere would spot the Mzungu (white people) and run up to the edge of the road waving with great big grins on their faces. It was a brilliant way to start the day and I felt a bit like a celebrity.

The building site looked exactly like you might imagine. Lots of buildings all in various stages of completion with our plot ready for us. The foundation had been laid and the corner stones started and we were to do the rest of the brick work in one week. Hats, sunscreen and work boots on, we got a brick laying lesson in five minutes which consisted of mortar (musenyu) down, lay the block, straighten it against the string used to level each course, wait til the course is finished and then fill between the blocks with more mortar. Smooth and then repeat, layer after layer. I call them blocks as they are larger than house bricks, around 12lbs each and we moved hundreds over the course of the week.

The day started off with light rain which kept the temperature nice and cool. It was such a blessing to get this great start to the day. If I'd had to start in the blazing sun, I would have found the work much harder. Our site looked down into the valley over the previously built houses, into the green trees beyond to the hills. Local children from villages around the site would wander through, often with yellow jerry cans on their heads fetching water.



Our breaks were under a wooden shelter, a couple of planks for seats with a table in the middle. Here we ate our sandwiches and freshly cut pineapple & watermelon. We had to keep hydrated with plenty of bottled water and this eventually meant a trip to the toilet which turned out to be not what I expected.



(Read at the following at your own risk) From the outside the toilet was a small, two cubicle brick building that looked as modern as the rest of the buildings on site. Pulling open the rickety door, I found before a rectangular concrete hole in the ground! I've used long drops in Australia and squat toilets in India and this was just a combination of the two but definitely the least civilised of anything I've used before. Just hold your breath, close the door, avoid your shoes, do your business and get out as quick as possible!

After lunch, a guy called Fred came down to the site to say hello (different guy than our host). He is another of the original Watoto children and another success story. He has just completed a Bachelor of International Business... one more reminder of the opportunities given to the orphans from this great organisation.

Most of us slept in the minibus after a hard day putting down bricks or moving them about the site. The cry of "more musenyu" in my ears and the dirt of Uganda in my shoes... what a great start to the working week. We got back to the guesthouse to find Ope, Gretl and I had been moved to bigger more comfortable rooms which was a wonderful blessing!. The shower felt amazing and even with sunburnt legs from the afternoon sun (you should see the sock marks!) I was ready for an early night but very content.