Sithembakuye foundations are ready!A lot can happen in a week of foundation laying and good progress is being made by the Lionsraw boys.
At the end of last week the boys completed the foundations for Sithembakuye orphanage and had time to dig the septic tank and get that in place. It's now ready for the team to come and build up the house next week. The Lionsraw teams fly in on Sunday and Monday and will be straight into working hard.
The foundations are coming along nicely at Inchanga School for the new toilets block. A team from another local organisation Arauna Ark are doing these ones and they should be ready by the weekend for the team doing that build project to arrive. The preschool too is almost ready.
This week the boys are spending their time at Makaphutu Children's Village, laying the foundations for a Changing rooms block there. The Children's Village is in the process of putting a new sports pitch in and these changing rooms will come in very handy. Makaphutu is situated on a small hill overlooking the valley and is perfectly placed for events for children from the local community so many will benefit from this new building. At the time of writing, the boys are in the process of putting blocks into the foundations and the fun of laying a slab floor comes in a few days' time.
We've been blessed with sunny weather and no rain, typical KZN Winter. However yesterday it was blisteringly hot (my washing dried completely in about 20 minutes!!) and the cement mixer and sand etc was down a slope so the poor boys had to run up and down to get the cement into the right place - it was one of the most challenging days yet. Plus they had to do it in record time as the mixer was delivered 3 hours after it was due to be there! This is also typical Africa.
Today the sun has still be shining but the wind's come up more. This makes working conditions better, until a dust cloud is blown over the site. In addition they've had to cope with bushfires springing up around them. None of them too close to destroy their work, thankfully, but there was a lot of hot smoke around to contend with as well!! It all adds to the charm and fun of working in the valley.
