14.05.2007

What a day! When me, Sifiso and Karabo got to site, we met kasia who had arrived an hour earlier and had negotiated with Benny and Benji to lower their fee. However, it was clear that we were now going to have to work harder than ever to get the work done, because with the lower fee, all the labour was going to come from us and the volunteers! This predicament showed how strong the community spirit was because so many volunteers showed up this particular day and we even managed to remove all the top soil before lunch.
Benny later on told us, because the fee had been reduced so much, he didn’t think he could afford to supervise us the whole day, but said he would give the supervision of the project over to two other builders, Sonny Boy and Solomon, and would come and check in from time to time on how the work was going. I was disappointed to see him go, but that was short lived when I saw how efficient Sonny Boy and Solomon were. We managed to start mixing and pouring the concrete into the trenches after lunch, only stopping to buy more sand and by the time we left Kwathema at 4:30pm the foundations were 2/3 done, and Sonny Boy and Solomon reassured us that they would keep working to make sure they were finished before the end of the day.