Day 5 - Concrete

We laid a huge amount of concrete today and I am glad to report that more than 50% of the courtyard is now concreted. It was back breaking work and those boys on that team truly earned their supper. They certainly looked the part by the end of the day; some were covered from head to toe in concrete and cement. The slabs all looked fantastic by the end of the day though and the job for tomorrow is to fill in the gaps.

One team of boys were left to their own devices to build the supports for the sinks, putting to good use the skills taught to them by the local builder as they built the towers a few days earlier. These are the kitchen sinks for washing up and they did a fantastic job making three plinths all the same size and height.

Another team worked on a block house to hide the top of the bore hole, working with the local builder to complete this. Work on this was stalled as all the leaks had to be fixed; there were 6 joints and every time one was fixed another one sprung a leak. It took two frustrating hours with the sun beating down to get them all properly sealed.

Although we pumped water yesterday it was just running freely from a pipe so the electrical team spent the first hour re-installing the system (it was taken down overnight for security until it’s fixed permanently) and setting up a temporary 1000L water tank for everyone to use until the main tanks are set up. This was a huge success and the tank filled up in just 20 minutes, even though people were drawing water from the tap continually. The cut-off switch was also fitted and the system ran very happily all day long, topping up the tank as and when required.

A final thought for today…….not one child had to walk to the river today to collect water – the first time in their lives.