Day One of Construction: Excavation

Getting to work looking over plans and materials orders

The EWB team arrived safely in Shirati Friday night, with their driver George, just in time for dinner.  It is the first time all of the students have been to Africa, so even after a long trip there was visible excitement.  Everyone grabbed a quick dinner and took some time to get acclimated before getting to bed to prepare for day one.

Day one for the team in Shirati was a tour of the town, a short hike to see the lake, and a visit to the Village Life leadership program.  The leadership program brought leaders from all three of Village Life's partner communities, two of which are EWB-UC partner communities.  The program went very well and we all adjourned around 1 pm for lunch at the Motel 2000, where the event was held.   The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing and settling in.  Adjusting to a new timezone, especially one seven hours ahead, can be an exhausting challenge.

The EWB team surveying the foundation Sunday

The second full day on the ground, Sunday, the team trekked out to Village Life's Roche Health Center to get a look at what the Burere school building will look like when it is done.  If you have not had a chance to see the pictures of the Roche Health Center, check out the Village Life website and the blog which details construction of the Health Center.  After a visit to the Health Center, we broke for lunch then traveled to Burere for a short meeting and to survey the site and place string around the foundation outline.  The meeting went very well and we were able to talk specific construction logistics including materials storage, location of sand we could use, breaking of stone, and the roles of volunteers in the morning.  After the short meeting, we went to the site for a brief survey so that the community could clear the sod before our arrival in the morning.

Now that all of the logistics were handled and the meetings done, we were ready to dig on Monday!  After another night of rest, the team piled into the van with our translator, Daniel, and general contractor, Julius.  It was an exciting trip for everyone, over three years of work was about to be realized in a day of hard work.

The entire community seemed to show up for work!

Upon our arrival, we were met by over one hundred community members!  Shaking hands took some time, we had to work our way to the school site through the community.  Once there, we introduced the Burere Fundi's (construction experts) to Julius.  We hired two, Otoke and Otienu, to be the leaders of the volunteers from Burere.  Shortly after this business was handled, excavation began.  EWB members and Burere Village volunteers worked a full day to get the rough outline and depth of the foundation done.  It was quite an experience, and the whole team is sore and weary.

Hard at work on the foundation excavation

Keep checking the blog for pictures and updates.  We should have another post up tomorrow or Wednesday!  Everyone here is excited to keep working and we're prepared for several more days of hard work.  Thanks again to all the students, faculty and members that made this possible.  I also want to thank our donors and partners, especially Village Life and SHED.

A meeting of the Fundis (from left to right: Zach, Julius, Otoke, translator Daniel, Justin, Jim, Otienu)