Day 2 - Pouring the Floor - Part 1

Arriving on site at 9am this morning the scene at the school had changed greatly overnight. The promised labourers from a nearby farm (The farmers, Michael and Zoe, have been a huge help to us; they suggested the project originally and are providing daily support to us throughout our time here) were ready and waiting as were two tankers of water and a trailer full of spades, buckets , wheelbarrows and other assorted equipment. Within minutes all the boys were busied; some emptying the trailer whilst others started to mix the concrete for the foundations.

Unfortunately the floor wasn’t quite ready to pour as it needed one more layer of bricks around the outside to provide a level to fill to. Once the trailer was emptied it went off to collect the bricks for this task. In the meantime the pile of dry concrete mix was growing ever larger and the constant threat of rain eventually led us to cover it with tarpaulin.

The bricks arrived soon enough and the boys helped the local workforce to lay the one layer that we needed, completing the job before lunch. The first section of shuttering was also completed and would be ready and waiting to be poured as soon as we returned from lunch at the farm.

Although I digress I should mention that the breakfast and supper at the hotel have so far been varied, abundant and very tasteful – the packed lunch less so, consisting of a sandwich of indeterminate, though tasty, filling, some cold chips and an apple. After some discussion it was decided that the cold chips were probably supposed to be ‘crisps’, something being lost in translation. Fingers are crossed for tomorrow.

After lunch everyone went into overdrive as as much concrete as possible needed to be poured in the three remaining hours of daylight. Concrete was being mixed as fast as it possibly could be with teams not only using the mixer but also making up batches on the ground. Nevertheless in the end the area covered was about one sixth of the total floor area. The workmen are arriving on site at 6am tomorrow to get a head start and the boys should be joining them at 8am. We will certainly get most of the floor completed tomorrow, but whether we can finish it as hoped remains to be seen.

Everything was cleaned up and everyone was off site by 4.40pm. Although quite early, the light was already fading and we only just made it back to hotel before darkness fell. The cloud had lifted significantly though so we could all appreciate the drive up the mountain this time. Tired, dirty, but satisfied at the end of a tough day, the boys raced to the showers, not quite knowing how much hot water might be available.