Sitaki!

We all went to bed strangely early last night (all in by about 11pm) but got awakened by LOUD music at 11:30 or so.  We thought maybe one of our cellphones was charging outside and had a weird alarm set but after some investigation, found that it was coming from right outside our fence. There is a little house out there and it turns out to have QUITE a sound system.  For whatever reason, the occupant decided to tune the radio to music, talk, more music, and lots of static, all very, very loud.  Shawny was running around with a headlamp trying to figure out what to do and then got one of our Massai support staff to help.  Because she couldn't think of any useful Swahili words to say, she used the only one that made sense: Sitaki! Sitaki means "I don't want" and worked well enough to get the situation under control. We slept for almost eight hours after that and got ready to hit the worksite by about 8:30.

Our job for today was to start raising the walls on the kitchen.  Olivia and Nate went with SENE staffer Pascal to get cinderblocks to line the trench we poured yesterday.  The rest of us made concrete to finish the trench and sifted sand to get ready for the arrival of the blocks.  The kids kept coming around saying "Jambo!" and we are starting to figure a few names and relationships among the kids.  Some of them have little backpacks that say "Sports" on them and for some reason we get a big kick out of that.

We lifted and loaded rocks and blocks and sand and concrete most of the morning.  For Nate and Olivia, there was a lot of sitting around and waiting, as nothing was quite where it was supposed to be (including the truck that would transport the blocks to the worksite) but they got to see a different part of the area and catch on to why construction projects are so difficult to make happen.  They appreciated the chance to circulate in the community without being in a group of 19 or more people, which makes it quite hard to be anything but a spectacle.  After quite a bit of waiting, the big push to load blocks finally happened and both Nate and Olivia lifted as many as they could to help support the effort.  The main group headed home a bit early for lunch, as they hit a standstill until the blocks came.

At lunch, most of us felt a little droopy and tired, especially because thunder started to roll and Kenja told us that rain was coming.  It came, but was pretty mild, though it made it possible to get in a tent without burning up in the middle of the day.  Some of us pulled off short naps while others played a card game. Once the rain stopped falling, we headed back down the worksite, which is only about a mile away down a steep road.  The walk down is lovely but the walk up is a challenge to say the least.  We're getting better at it already and assume that by the end of the week, we will be pros at scaling the slope.

The afternoon task involved the blocks that Nate and Olivia brought.  We set up bucket lines to move them to the edge of the trench, then started mixing mortar to help bind them together to serve as the base of the walls.  We made a lot of progress really fast and feel confident that we can finish the first part of the kitchen project by the end of the week.

We came home to a meal of soup, chapati (wonderful fried bread), beans, carrots, and fruit.  We have fallen behind on videos and pictures so we decided to take a break from our usual evening meeting (including the purple bike) to catch up. We also hope to go to bed early tonight and avoid a late night concert from our neighbor.  We'll continue to backfill photos as quickly as we can so keep checking!

 Josh, Olivia, and Anthony hiking down the hill after carrying logs from one camp to another.

A subtle sunset overlooking nature and Moshi.

 The English encyclopedia at the public library.

 Paul and Max shoveling sand into cement to create concrete for the new kitchen.

“A girl without education, like a perfume without smell”. A picture made by a student in the public library.

 This is a view of the kitchen that is currently being used to cook the school meals.

 Mount Kilimanjaro was visible during our work-day.  We could see it through the trees behind the old kitchen.

 “Anotha one” – DJ Khalid

 One of our jobs was to sift sand to make mortar for laying the bricks.

The view of our camp from our walk back from the work site.  The best sight after a long day of work!

 The main task for today was mixing and creating mortar for the brick walls.

  Barnabas laying the bricks for the kitchen walls at the primary school in Mweka.

 Ali was working hard with the help of Barnabas to make sure the walls were straight.

The sunsets in Tanzania never disappoint. 

Dirties were busy creating the foundation for the kitchen. Different jobs included retrieving water, creating mortar, and laying the cement blocks.