10 May...CONSTRUCTION!

Today we started construction! We arrived on site with shovels ready to tackle anything but our enthusiasm was quickly quashed by the incredible hard ground. However, once we had met with the builder who was very confident about how we should do our foundations and once Anthony’s hordes of volunteers arrived we relaxed a little. I had to spend 45 min’s on the telephone to my insurance company regarding a car accident I had yesterday but once I was done Gift informed me that he had organized for a meeting with a welder in Section 2 about the signage board we had designed. The meeting with the welders was quite amazing-I sat in a shack in a back yard with my laptop and designed the entire sign on sketch-up through the guidance of Phillip the welder. I am producing a concise set of working drawings for Phillip for Monday but need to meet with an engineer friend of mine on Saturday first. After the meeting I phone Nico Phooko, the mural artist I have befriended over the past few weeks who lives one street down from the welders. Gift and I chatted to Nico for about half an hour before Catherine and Robyn picked us all up so that Nico could introduce them to a woman who knows a lot about the beer hall. Catherine dropped us back at the Chess Park site and the hard labour on my part started. Thank God Karabo and Kasia bought cold drinks and cinnamon buns for everybody. All the volunteers are such fantastic people- Its amazing how they can just work like this-hard labour- all because Anthony Shoba said they should-it shows what a wonderful leader he is. We ended the day with a braai at the old beerhall men’s container-pub where Gift and I drank Zamalek and I talked at length about girls with Wandile and his friends. All together a fabulous day!