Dog Tired - Day 2 !!!

Hi again,

Well, we've survived another very hot, very tough day building.

We had thought that the talk of a 4.30 am wake up call was a joke. Unfortunately, we were wrong !! So a leisurely rise again at 5am, breakfast and off to the site for about 7am. Today our Patron, President Carter was on site and was actually building. Here's one of his minders !! We came across him fitting the kitchen sink at Number 40 (pictured above) ...
Back to Number 18 for us, and it's looking good after a hard day 's work. Here's Jim and Michael getting started on mixing the concrete for the blocks. I was on the brickie team today and did some block laying and pouring concrete. It was that bit more tricky as we were working higher up on the walls and needed the scaffolding for most of it. Our team as a whole is not the tallest, so I was in good company scrambling up and down scaffolding with blocks and buckets of concrete. Sarika, our new home owner was with us again today. That's her in the foreground of the photo. She's a really hard worker and matched everyone with the block laying and concreting. She's delighted to be working on her new house and we are all excited by the fact that she will shortly have a nice new home, thanks in part to our efforts.

The temperature again was probably about 90 degrees, not quite as hot was yesterday, but nevertheless exhausting to work in. We managed better today with looking after ourselves and each other - taking more frequent shade breaks and more water.

Our gaffer, Spencer, from Southern Calfornia, pictured here with Ciara and Catriona, put us through our paces well today. He's very demanding and keen that we get everything right, but very hardworkng himself and we get on like a house on fire. Today was a bit of a rush to the finish, as we needed to get the top layer layed and poured, so that they will dry overnight and allow us to continue in the morning. It was tight and we almost missed the last bus back, but just made it. It was a very tough but satisfying day, and Spencer assigned an A+ to the Irish Team for a great day's work.

We got back to the hotel at 6.50, to hear that the buses for dinner left at 7 ! But we managed an extension to the time and enjoyed dinner at a nice Thai restaurant (I use to like Thai curry !).

So it's off to bed now and up again at 5 (we've cancelled the 4.30 calls !) for another day trying to perfect Number 18 for Sarika and her family.

Will check in again tomorrw,
Kate