Build - Day 4

It’s getting harder and harder to get out of bed at 5.30am, thankfully tomorrow is the last time this week.

Martin, Gretl and myself were the only ones going to the building site today. Chas and Ope went into the KPC Office and of course Janet and Peter are yet to come back from Mbale. We were greeted at the site with some tragic news from Fred, that a Suubi boy was killed on the road yesterday in a bicycle accident, most likely a hit and run. It seemed to really affect Fred and he kept busy helping out a lot on the site, mostly brick laying.

We started off the working day with a couple of songs from the locals, followed by a prayer and then finally proper introductions of all the workers. We had to correct a few names we had misheard (like Frank instead of Fra!) but it was good to finally know who everyone was. Gretl and I weren’t needed up on the scaffolding, there were enough people doing brick work. We did move a lot of bricks during the course of the morning though, so weren’t sitting around doing nothing all day!



There were times when there literally was nothing we could be doing and I felt guilty sitting about when others were working. The break was nice though and I got to sit and chat with Gretl for a while.



We had an early finish, lunchtime came and we were done. Martin, Gretl and I went back to the guesthouse with Chas (who’d been driven out to the site from the office unnecessarily because we were finishing as he arrived) and then the three of us decided to find a hotel whose pool we could use. We tried the Sheraton, the Serena and the Imperial Royale but didn’t swim after all that. The pools were either not very nice or in the case of the Serena, too expensive for just a couple of hours. We did end up stopping at the Serena though so Martin could have a haircut and Gretl, Fred, the driver and I waited by the pool and sipped non-alcoholic cocktails in the sun.



There were seven of us once more at dinner tonight and with everyone talking at once about their various activities over the last few days, I couldn’t cope for long and retired early to my room. Ope came in and we chatted for a bit. We are experiencing a lot of the same emotions over the trip so it was good to be able to share them together. Have I said before how grateful I am for her company?