T-Minus One

T minus 1! Last day of work! I don’t know how we’re going to finish today. I need to get the balustrade finished. We’ve got a few more pieces to weld so I’m confident we’ll have it finished by lunch time or just after. My worry is the basketball board, the mattress screens, the swings… oh and the beer crate screens! So much to do, so little time.

Our group called a meeting shortly after lunch to deligate tasks to everyone working at the beerhall. I had to finish the balustrade, drill holes and install the mattress screens, drill holes into the concrete beams for the swings and try and install this massive, heavy basketball board. This is all overwhelming and I’m sure everyone you speak to will tell you that I wasn’t very talkative this afternoon. I had my tasks and I just wanted to get them done- I was running around like a headless chicken.

After completing the balustrade I quickly installed the 5th and final prop. One task down! Now to drill the holes for the swing brackets. This should have been an easy job because I had become quite an expert at drilling holes into this super strong 40MPa concrete but the task took longer than expect because the concrete was so hard in this area. The battery for the drill that we borrowed from Fisher wasn’t lasting more than 4 holes so I had to keep charging it which just took time and added to my stress. In between the charging of the drill and the drilling I helped Wandile, Khula and January with the installation of the basketball board and hoop- this was actually a surprisingly easy job- we procrastinated on this job for so long because we anticipated it being a nightmare task but once we actually came to install it, it was a very smooth easy job.

Finally I installed the last swing bracket and it was time to hang the swings and see how the children would like them. The second we hung the first swing we had children flocking! The swings were an instant hit and kids were fighting each other for a chance on the swings!

With the day quickly coming to an end we realized we didn’t have a beer crate wall. We discussed this idea amongst our group and decided that the idea of this screen is far too important to leave out. We had to stay in KwaThema and get these crates fixed together. I honestly didn’t anticipate this job taking a long time but after a long struggle in the cold air of Mr. CIndi’s courtyard we eventually had the job done by about 22h00. I was exhausted, cold, dirty and incredibly hungry. I just wanted to get into bed and pass out for the next couple of days.