12 May 08 (08:15 EAT)

Community Service - Materuni - September 2007

September 7th 2007, the trip begins. It’s like any ordinary Friday afternoon, the 12:35 bell signals the end of yet another week and the beginning of three days without school. Only this time the excitement is tangible. An exclusive group has volunteered to give up the three days that are dedicated to laziness. This group is on a mission to start the foundations that will insure the education of children in Tanzania.

I woke up Friday 7th September well aware that I wouldn’t take a shower for another two days. We were told that there was no bathtub at the campsite and the rivers and streams were the only source of drinking water for the people in the surrounding village. I wasn’t really bothered with the thought of not taking a shower as the thought of what exactly hard labour entailed. In the group that had volunteered this weekend, no one had ever participated in any of the trips. Previous groups had complained of bone breaking work but even as we carried the hoes, shovels and pick axes to the lorry, it seemed we were unable to register what we would use them for.

The first day was luxurious. We enjoyed the beautiful green scenery of rolling plains in the forty-five minute drive to our destination. The road was very steep and at some point the big blue lorry came so close to going over the edge that naturally all the girls had to shriek in fear while the boys stifled theirs in gasps. However once we were safely on solid ground, the atmosphere was yet again animated. We were greeted with a harmonious reception of singing children, which made the most of us sheepish and heroic all at the same time. Daniel Mundeva made a vibrant introduction in Kiswahili that was pursued by another from the Head Master of the school. He told us that ISM had previously built a whole block of the classrooms and our job was to add another. We had no idea of what we were in for yet. After the brief interaction with the children, we unloaded equipment off the cars with dynamic teamwork. We then set up camp and sipped hot chocolate as our peers prepared dinner. By 6:00 pm, dinner was ready and forks and spoons were reluctantly lifted, wary of the experience of previous trips . Obviously hunger soon overrode these doubts. Conversely these were later reinforced by Bubba’s hilarious trips to the washroom after he had devoured two heaped plates of a suspicious chicken curry and rice. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the company of friends and a round of ‘mafia’ that was played before we retired.

Saturday unusually began at 7:00 am with a strange disorientation, two friends lying close and no warm shower. At least we managed to brush our teeth and have a fairly OK breakfast to restore normality. At 8:00 am we moved out to begin the real hard work. The group was split, the largest of the group responsible for digging the foundation and the smaller for making the bricks. Digging was no easy fit, girls and boys alike were called on to call up their inner masculinity and break the rocks, once this was completed; a foot long trench was dug around the area. The act of picking up the hoe/pickaxe up above and then down again to the hard ground became a routine. The pulsating energy we had begun with crawled away. Nevertheless everyone worked together through the ‘chain’ mechanism; all the materials from heavy stone rocks to sand were moved from one site to another by passing on to the next person in the chain until they arrived at their purpose. This relieved the work and made it faster. Our spent energy was finally revived at mid-day with pizzas and fruits prepared by Mama Somaiya. We presented the Head teacher with books for the school and resumed with the hard labour. The two groups had to switch roles, those that had dug all morning exchanged with those that had made the bricks. At 5:30 pm, exhausted and sore we slopped to the campsite to savor grilled sausages, beans and toast. Once again we called upon our teamwork and engaged in a ‘chain mechanism’ of massages. Others luckily got a full body step massage but then again mixing cement and making bricks isn’t as easy as it sounds. Contemplating another morning of literal hard labour, everyone was out by 8.30 pm.

We groggily woke up with aching muscles but it was Sunday morning, a few hours to go and it would all be over. This thought sped us to work even faster and make the most of the few remaining hours. Most of the work had been completed the day before so all we had to do was make at least 300 bricks and mix more cement for the foundation. The goal of making bricks became our obsessions and often one would see the other going crazy trying to count the exact number of bricks that had been made so far. So as one shouted “three more bricks to go”, another would run back shouting, “17 more to go”. The confusion was comical but we never paused and by the time it was time to leave, a handful of people had counted that we had made over 300 bricks and as we walked away we felt we had achieved some sort of purpose.

There were a lot of laughs on this adventure and the true strengths of some were revealed and all in all it was an interesting experience that I was glad I didn’t miss.