Tuesday, October 7, 2014

World Habitat Build day 1 and day 2

We ended our day with having 6 courses of brick over the majority of the 4 houses we are building on.  We had dinner with our guide Carl and discussed the issues that face the modern, post-apartheid South African, such as taxes, availability of housing and the issues that they face.  The overwhelming sense of positivity and ownership of the welfare of the country of South Africa as a whole is refreshing to see and experience.

We started day 2 with another orientation, clouds overhead and a steady breeze, making it a bit chilly; then it was back to the brick line and dugha mixing.  We ended the day with the final 6 courses of brick going up on the back of the 4 houses and with 2 of the interior walls being half built.  Tomorrow should bring the completion of the rest of the exterior walls and finishing a majority of the interior walls.  We should be able to get everything but the roofs up by Thursday, which is quite exciting!  You really get a sense of just how different our building styles are.  We finished the night with buffet style dinner at a traditional Cape Malay restaurant. The food here has been amazing so far and quite varied as well.  You may have bobotie one night and fish and chips another.

On Sunday before we went to Langa, we went to Cape Town Gateway International church, where we observed mass and joined in on singing and dancing.  It was a very energized service, and at the end we found out that most of the parishioners would be joining us at the build for the week, most helping out as caterers for the over 200 people that were expected each day.

There will be pictures from Sunday and Monday posted separately, so you can see what we have been up to.

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