Day 2: Transformation Begins @ UWA School

Well, we have just finished Day 2...which is the first of work for us after a long day yesterday travelling to Uwa school..

Yesterday we landed in Nairobi at around 6am after the most uncomfortable flight in the world....the plane was really nice but I think the seats were made of cardboard....After a little nap and a few games of Cards (called "Sh*t head"), we boarded our connecting flight to Kilimanjaro which was a 30 seater twin-prop plane.

The heat really hit us when we got off the plane - must have been about 35C I think. We filled in our arrival forms and got picked up by Really Wild Travel who took us first into Moshi Town where we got SIM cards, water (we drink SO much of that out here) and got harrassed by EVERYONE trying to sell their good or swap them for our possessions! We did learn some great lingo though..in particular "Habaan aSante" or something like that which means simply..."no thank you" or....buggar off!!

We arrived onsite at Uwa School at about 16:00 local time and had the most amazing welcome ever...all the children  (all 440 of them) were singing, running after us, wanting to hold our hand (in fact most of have one child per finger at somepoint)! We had a welcome speech and again were sung too before having a late lunch and a tour.

We had a bit of free time to sort out essentials such as sorting out the tents and getting the beer in before sitting round the camp fire (with Marshmellows that we brought) and having the most AMAZING dinner ever...the food here is really simple but just tastes so great and full of flavour.

We sat and watched an electric storm and slowly watched the bright stars disappear before the most heaviest rainfall we'd seen in a long time set in, so after nearly 36hrs of being awake we used this as a good chance to get some kip!

So...DAY2.....
Most of us slept quite well...with some of us braving the night rain to use the squat toliets....man those head touches were a good investment...

We got up about 7am (when it got light basically) had a bucket shower (well, I did) and then another great meal (breakfast)...of juice, omlet, sausage and...wait for it....peanut butter...the best in the world...EVER!! REALLY!!

We started work at 9 and pretty much worked though till 6:30pm stopping only for lunch and a coffee break...yes...they have coffee and tea so we are all well refreshed!!! WE ARE PROPER BUILDERS...
What did we do...LOADS....so much...we emptied 3 classrooms of tables, chairs, bits of old roof and piping and then dusted down each room, cleaned the walls and floor and then painted.....this meant

• 2 coats of Primer on the walls
• 2 coats of primer on the windows and doors
• 2 coats of top paint on the walls (we have one left to do)
• 1 coat of gloss on the wood...

What was so amazing was the kids....they all just wanted to help..with everything - they were queuing to help and are just so so greatfult for what we are doing....Yesterday evening we were out witht the kids playing games - Harry doing airplane impressions and Katie teaching them nursery rhymes...I think Katies favourite was ring a ring a roses....it is so hard to explain how this feels but its like they worship us for what we are doing...and not just the kids - the whole community...the following picture cannot really describe it, but gives a glipse of the work and participation of not just the RM Futurebuilders but the children of the school...

   Thats it for now....its 7pm here and pitch pitch black.....a few of will be having showers in dark as we let the girls go first...nice boys aren't we!!!

Shower, dinner, beer and camp fire again tonight...earlyish night I expect as we are knackered...
Bye for now......