Sunday 6th February.
We've completed our first weeks work on the site. What have we achieved ?
Well, we have moved hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bricks ! They had originally last year been stacked in front of the doorway, (when the ground floor of the building was completed) but needed moving now before the new doors arrive for fitting. Each brick weighs about 6 to 7 lbs, and is roughly 3” x 6” x 9” … I say roughly, because there are no two bricks alike. They are all fired in stacks of wood, so some are very soft and crumble, and others which must have been in the hottest part of the fire, are vitrified, and almost glass like.
We stand in a line, the four of us, picking up, tossing the brick to the next person, bend down, pick up another … the person at the end of the line makes the new stack .... and so on, for about an hour at a time. Then we stop for five minutes for a water and banana break, which makes the African plasterers laugh ! We are just weak, soft wazungu to them … whereas they work hard from 8 until about 4 each day, no breaks at all, no water, no lunch stop.
When we are not tossing bricks we are shovelling or sifting sand in order not to waste a heap of sand which has got mixed up with stones … the lack of tools makes it laborious, for one person shovels sand into a koria, a battered metal bowl, and carries it to the door, where another of us takes it, carries it over to the sieve, and the last person rubs it through the mesh … and we change over every now and then, for shovelling sand outside is hot work. All our jobs are filthy, hard, and dusty; we come home at 3 each day exhausted, and collapse into the showers … after a very welcome cup of tea. We find we are drinking about two gallons of water between the four of us each day, which has to be boiled or treated with tablets.
Saturday was a very welcome change to routine. We worked on site until 11, then got the tuk-tuk back home for a quick shower and lunch. Next we were collected by Paul who took us to the place where the windows and doors are being made. They are metal, for security, with weld-mesh welded on … and that's another health and safety nightmare ! The welders use ordinary sun-glasses to protect their eyes, and are welding wearing just flip-flops on their feet.
Next we went out to Dunga, down by the lake, to visit the orphanage, started by an amazing fiesty 73 year old Christian lady, who about 15 years ago, got 'called' to sell up everything in Norfolk, and move out to Kenya to start the orphanage. Its now a registered charity, and has about 200 children from babies to young adults living there and attending the orphanage school. Read about it here …
www.covenant-home.org
I had heard about it because one of my old friends from years ago in Kenya, who now lives in Thailand, and who sponsored me to come here, has been sponsoring an orphaned girl called Lucy in the school. She is now 17, and a confident, well rounded young lady. She is hoping to become a doctor … maybe …
Later on Saturday we went down to Hippo Point to see the sunset over the lake, and watch the hippos. Another day we are going to go out in a canoe to get closer to them. Paul and Lucy joined us for drinks in the open air bar, and it was all very pleasant and relaxing ! I could get used to this !
Sunday ... I went to church again on the back of the Yamaha ! All these new to me vehicles I'm using ... a motor bike, the tuk-tuk's, and the boda-boda ... seat on the back of a bicycle ! After church (the lady with the firey hippo on her head wasn't there ...) I went back to the flat ... the others had had a lie in ... we went for a walk in the mid-day sun to the Kisumu Museum. I just can't adequately describe the heat ... its totally exhausting; just no let up, even at night. The two coolest hours of the day are at about 5 to 6 a.m.; once dawn has come, it's rapidly much hotter, and by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, you just can't move without the sweat running down, and eyes screwed up against the glare. Even the Kenyans find it hot !
I called in at the Cyber Caff, and met a delightful elderly Luo, one of a previous generation who had had their six lower front teeth removed as was the custom, some say to enable feeding if they get tetanus. His name is Boaz, and he had been at college in Loughborough ... I'm going to have another chat to him another day.
Today, Monday, WE FINISHED SHIFTING THE BRICKS !!!!! Alleluhia !
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