It’s the second morning of the build and our bodies are feeling the pain of yesterdays hard work. Luckily our team has increased to six members as we head to the township early Wednesday morning. We started off the day with mixing daga and introducing Bulumko and Marc to the site. As the day went by each of us learned different skills on site. Murday helped some of the builders with laying the cement blocks. Inge helped with setting up the profiles and a few of us helped laying down the brickforce. The houses were built up to window hight and the door frames were installed. The builders were ‘begging’ us to help with the bagging. We used sponges and some daga to even out the inside of the houses. It was not going the to be plastered in the inside, so we tried our best to give it good appearance.

Then the rain started to fall. After our lunch break all of us were given the option of either staying with the houses or to go and collect painting equipment to paint the ceilings of other houses. Five members of our team went of to paint and one member stayed back at site. No matter were we found ourselves in Wallacedene that afternoon we all did our part in helping the Niall Mellon Township Foundation.

Click on any picture in the gallery above to see an enlargement with a description.

Early Tuesday morning the bus departed from Tugwell to Wallacedene with four of our team members since Bulumko and Marc missed the bus. We eagerly arrived at the site offices, ticked of our equipment and headed to our awaiting raft foundations. We and the T- Barney’s where directed to four foundations where we started transporting the cement blocks into piles on the different slabs. The excitement soon faded away and we realized this was going to be hard work! Then we started waiting for the water… When the water arrived the vigorous tasks of mixing Daga (mortar) started. Sand, cement, lime and water was a back breaker. Click on any picture below in the gallery to read a description.

At 9 o’clock Friday morning we started our CEM Community Build Project with a welcome from Karin Le Jeune and Mark Massyn. The Light Blue Team was born after a merging of two teams and so it all began… A theme song, favorite pizza and music genre was agreed upon. After the team bonding experience, we had to tackle our first task of portraying one of the Labour Contractors in a Mini Real Life Construction Project. Six houses and six garages per Contractor was required. Mortar was mixed, mini bricks laid, windows and doors put into position…. and viola! Our mini homes captured in the picture above. Just a few seconds after this picture was taken we had to unfortunately demolish our masterpieces.

The long weekend ahead to rest for the real work that is going to start on Tuesday!

OUR THEME SONG : Eye of the Tiger

We are a team of first year Construction Study students at the University of Cape Town that set a week of our Midterm break aside to work hand in hand with the Niall Mellon Township foundation in Wallacedene. From the left : Inge van Rooyen, Bulumko Zitumane, Marc Callanan, Daniel Rwelamila, Mante Masela and Murday Chellembron.

“A man is not a man until he has a

house of his own”
Nelson Mandela

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