Recap - Day 7 - Ssenge Village - Kitchen Building

Thursday morning arrived with lots of humidity to greet us as we ate breakfast at the hotel.  The morning routine generally included April, Jan, Cristina, and I enjoying breakfast together.  After soggy corn flakes one morning, I decided to stick with 2 pieces of toast (butter and red plum jelly) and occasional egg or omelet...usually ordered, not always delivered!

For the next three days, a group of us went to Ssenge Village (a favorite of many from earlier trips) to throw bricks for their construction of a kitchen at their school.  This school is brand new (finished in January 2011) and is amazing.  They have nearly 200 students that attend there.  School in Uganda is year-round with a couple of 3 week holidays throughout the year.  They attend from 7:30 until at least 4:00...and it's all in English - you should feel sorry for those kids, but they love school!

I will be doing a completely separate post about construction practices in Uganda, but here is a quick synopsis of how to mix concrete.  Dump 2 wheelbarrows full of sand - and full means full, that's how you measure - 4 wheelbarrows full of a different sand/cement mixture, and 1 bag of cement into a pile.  Then, with a shovel, move that pile about 3 feet away.  When you've moved the whole pile, transfer it BACK to the original pile location.  When that is done, it has been thoroughly mixed and is ready for water to be added little by little to make cement/mortar!

This is the kitchen build site on the morning of day 1.  The grid has been laid out and the trenches dug for the foundation footings, but no bricks have been moved or laid.

Even though we began here on a Thursday, we had a growing audience all morning because school was closed due to a national holiday, Heroes Day (similar to our US Memorial Day).  Many of the kids sat on the steps of the school and watched us for awhile.  When we would take water breaks, we came up to see them, give high fives, and take photos!

At this point in the trip, I only knew one phrase in Luganda and it wasn't helpful in trying to get kids situated to take a picture.  I learned how important it was to specify which kids you were saying "come" to or they will ALL move to the one spot you are at!

After a brief breakfast break from throwing bricks, we mzungus returned to find that many of the cornerstones had been laid 6 high and they were working on making those level so that the walls could be started...not bad for a couple hours of work!  Impressive work ethic by the contractors!

After our breakfast break (11 am) and before our lunch break (3 pm), we just worked at throwing bricks (and a few people were making cement/mortar).  We had a smaller group working this day (only 13) because some were sick and others were at the Legacy Leadership Conference for pastors (more on this in Day 8's post).  So we had to work extra hard in order to make up for their absence.  Fortunately or unfortunately, we had a small contingency of kids that came down to where we were working and began to watch everything we were doing.  They were so cute!

In this photo are from left to right, Isaac, Michael, and Joshua.  They played so well together so we knew they were probably about the same age and were good friends. 

At one point, we forced ourselves to take a water break to watch the cuteness unfold.  These boys and another friend of theirs had watched us work and began to make their own human chain and were throwing bits of broken bricks and making their own pile.  It was so cute!  Unfortunately, I yelled at Isaac at the wrong time and he gets a little hurt, but he brushed it off like a man and kept working! 

When it was finally lunch time, we were going to be done working for the day.  We went to the African Hearts boys home in Ssenge village for our meals (which were wonderful, by the way! Moreen is the BEST cook ever!).  When we got there, a small boy was on the porch with a squeege trying to get water off of the porch.  He appeared to be about 2 years old, running around in a onesie with the snaps unsnapped and no pants.  He was the CUTEST thing ever - I asked about his name and was told it was Cosom (rhymes with awesome)...but others are spelling and saying it as Kasim (kaw-seem) but either way, once we heard his story we were amazed.  He is really FIVE years old and has been living in the Kivulu slums his entire life...he and his younger brother, John, were seen there in April by another one of our teams and John was actually trampled by a large group of kids there.  Kasim was allowed to be brought to Ssenge about a week prior and then his younger brother, John (age 3), was able to be brought earlier the first week we were there.  They really do belong together.  Kasim has been watching out for John in the slums and at African Hearts it was no different.  He made sure his brother got food and was taken care of even if John is bigger than he is!  Here they are with Emma - Kasim (age 5) is on the left and John (age 3) is on the right.  We are hoping that Kasim will begin growing now that he will have proper nutrition every day.  Such sweet boys.