This morning it was still snowing, and when I got to site I was confronted with something I had never expected: a completely white building…
TED were there, ready to set out what they needed to dig. I looked around for Ntate Sello but could not find him any where, a few of our workers (the ones that live locally) were there but no sign of him. I phoned him and he told me that he was at home, that last night he’s car had got stuck and that by law you are not allowed to work in these weather conditions.
There was nothing I could say to make him change his mind and so I dismissed the boys. Five minutes later I regretted having done it, and was still quick enough to manage to pursue one of them to come back…
There was one little task that I wanted to do, even if we were not doing any new work today I was not willing to ruin our old one. So with him we swept the ice/snow and freezing water off the larger slab and covered it up the grass/thatch.
Meanwhile TED finished setting out and Andreas and Refiloe told me they were leaving. When we had finished with the thatch (it would later prove to be an unnecessary task, but better safe than sorry), I left and locked the site.
Luckily as I was driving away I recognized the two guys that Andreas had recruited for the digging walking back to the site carrying a wheelbarrow and two shovels… I stopped, turned around and asked what they were doing. They had a deadline and had to finish removing the topsoil by Friday! We now had a problem, I had no one on site, but at the same time was not willing to waste such a commitment and the chance to have something actually done.
We managed to find one of our own workers and, once I had everyone’s names I promised to come back at 5pm to check out had their work had been.
Between one visit and the other, I went with Baba to give some clothes (that he had collected) to the some orphans, decided to go and check if the children at the LCCU were ok (they needed blankets and I remembered they were some in the container, so I told them to use them, I also told them that if the weather was like this tomorrow not to let the children go to school), and then attended a QEII playground meeting.
Unfortunately at the moment we do not have enough tiles to build a complete playground with them but we might end up building one with a sand pit in the middle, still to be discussed in another, meeting… we decided on a time table for things to happen and now let’s see if we can follow it through. Tomorrow a group of volunteer girls will come and help wash the tiles.
When this meeting finished I rushed back to the site, only to be again amazed, but this time by the opposite. There was no trace what so ever of the snow!! It could have all just been a dream…
All our kit was there and a small amount of topsoil had been removed, our usual guard was back on site and I was happy to see that all had gone according to plan.
I do not believe it will snow or freeze this night but still, I wish the weather would become more favourable once again, as time is short and at the moment we have absolutely none to spare!
TED were there, ready to set out what they needed to dig. I looked around for Ntate Sello but could not find him any where, a few of our workers (the ones that live locally) were there but no sign of him. I phoned him and he told me that he was at home, that last night he’s car had got stuck and that by law you are not allowed to work in these weather conditions.
There was nothing I could say to make him change his mind and so I dismissed the boys. Five minutes later I regretted having done it, and was still quick enough to manage to pursue one of them to come back…
There was one little task that I wanted to do, even if we were not doing any new work today I was not willing to ruin our old one. So with him we swept the ice/snow and freezing water off the larger slab and covered it up the grass/thatch.
Meanwhile TED finished setting out and Andreas and Refiloe told me they were leaving. When we had finished with the thatch (it would later prove to be an unnecessary task, but better safe than sorry), I left and locked the site.
Luckily as I was driving away I recognized the two guys that Andreas had recruited for the digging walking back to the site carrying a wheelbarrow and two shovels… I stopped, turned around and asked what they were doing. They had a deadline and had to finish removing the topsoil by Friday! We now had a problem, I had no one on site, but at the same time was not willing to waste such a commitment and the chance to have something actually done.
We managed to find one of our own workers and, once I had everyone’s names I promised to come back at 5pm to check out had their work had been.
Between one visit and the other, I went with Baba to give some clothes (that he had collected) to the some orphans, decided to go and check if the children at the LCCU were ok (they needed blankets and I remembered they were some in the container, so I told them to use them, I also told them that if the weather was like this tomorrow not to let the children go to school), and then attended a QEII playground meeting.
Unfortunately at the moment we do not have enough tiles to build a complete playground with them but we might end up building one with a sand pit in the middle, still to be discussed in another, meeting… we decided on a time table for things to happen and now let’s see if we can follow it through. Tomorrow a group of volunteer girls will come and help wash the tiles.
When this meeting finished I rushed back to the site, only to be again amazed, but this time by the opposite. There was no trace what so ever of the snow!! It could have all just been a dream…
All our kit was there and a small amount of topsoil had been removed, our usual guard was back on site and I was happy to see that all had gone according to plan.
I do not believe it will snow or freeze this night but still, I wish the weather would become more favourable once again, as time is short and at the moment we have absolutely none to spare!
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