-posted Oct. 17, 2006
Today we broke ground on the new school building. I’m tired, sweaty, and my clothes are drenched in mud. (Yes, I desperately need to change.) But rehashing the day in my mind, we accomplished a lot. Below is a brief rundown of the day.
7:00 a.m.
The cold breeze coming through the screen of my tent woke me up—that and the sound of the bush babies and monkeys. Barely awake, I could already feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. It was our first building day.
I headed over to the washroom to line up and brush my teeth. After changing into some work clothes, I sat down with my fellow classmates and facilitators for a quick breakfast (fresh fruit, toast and jam, chai tea, and scrambled eggs). After filling up, we were off to the build site.
8:30 a.m.
At the site, I was more than ready to get started on the school! I was totally pumped. I walked over to the tool shed and got suited up with a shovel and a pick axe. It felt strange carrying them around since I hardly ever touched either item at home, and now they wouldn’t leave my side for two weeks.
Our first task was to dig a flat base for the school walls. We struck the hard soil time after time, and after an hour’s worth of digging, it seemed that we had only dug a few centimetres deep—we were supposed to dig down three metres in total. It was a little disheartening!
That’s me in the blue shirt digging away!
While some of us were digging, other classmates moved boulders out of the way. Others were mixing cement, which would be poured for the foundation. And a few people had to bend iron rods for the base of the school. We were all exhausted, and we had calluses on our hands and feet. Needless to say, we weren’t used to the physical work!
But everyone refused to give up. How could we when we had a constant visual reminder of the current school the children were attending? That crumbling, old building would become our motivation in the following weeks.
We worked for most of the day, but decided to stop for a quick break when the students got out for recess. We abandoned our tools and headed off to play. A fierce game of soccer was taking place, and many of the girls tried to teach us local songs.
Me and a couple of the students during recess
5:30 p.m.
The first workday is fini! On the way back to the centre I had to suppress a laugh. All of my classmates were covered in dirt and mud, but no one seemed to care. That evening, we sat down with our trip facilitator for our nightly talk. We discussed how our work would help to sustain future generations—earning an education didn’t just help one child, it assisted many people. A child could use that education to get a job, or set up a small business, or learn about health issues and then take that knowledge and help his or her family and community.
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