DAY 4

Sunday is usually a day of rest but not for the Rebuilding Lives Team! We were back at camp early this morning and volunteers at both sites were already busy at work. We have started building in two areas of the camp which are called Pipeline One and Pipeline Two. At Pipeline One we were meant to start with Plot One, which is the house I have sponsored with my buddies back in New Zealand, but because the plot is next to a set of pit latrines it is on hold because we need a health inspector to approve the construction first. She is due to visit on Monday so hopefully building will commence this week. So we started with the next plot in line which is the family Sarah and Ben and their friends back in Australia are sponsoring. At one point today I noticed a woman in a lovely dress hard at work and shoveling cement - it was Jecinta, the beneficiary of the house. It was a special moment for me and I was so happy that she was getting involved and joining in. The cement mixing is another job done manually, there are no machines. Everyone is working very hard…
At Pipeline Two we were able to start with the first plot and it is actually the family that Nikki is sponsoring so she was actually able to meet them! We took photos of Nikki and Mary and a couple of her kids. Two of the children were at church which is held in the tents that are also used for the school and adult English classes. I think because it was Sunday the camp had a very relaxed and happy feel about it despite the hardships everyone is facing.
All of the workers at the building sites are volunteers from the camp and they are working incredibly hard despite their lack of food so we organised lunch consisting of ugali and skuma to be cooked for them. Mary cooked for the team at her site which was great to see and demonstrated how appreciative the community is and how well they work together.
Once the trenches were built, a layer of cement poured in, and the first blocks in place, everyone called it a day to allow the cement to dry. The volunteers would be back at it again early tomorrow.
I am so happy to see the project in action finally. There have been a few bumps along the way and the first build has been slow but now we have the design and formula in place the next build should run a lot smoother. Well, in theory : )
Irene and I are planning to head back to the camp on Thursday to see the progress and also take a couple of volunteers for a visit. More to come soon!

Thank you again to everyone who has supported this project, together we really are making a difference and helping rebuild a community.

Hugs,
Lauren