Liam Mullens Diary

Wednesday 13/10/04. Woke early at 6.30am. kids came down at 7.30am mad to pack all daddy’s clothes and tools all packing done. Dropped Cliodhna and Padraic to school at 9.20am. Had to go to Bank to get 3,000 euros cash from St Bridgids in Callan and 400 Euros cash from Bennettsbridge National School. Interview on KCLR at 10.20am. Nice Light Interesting. Picked up picture from St. Bridgids at 11.30 and headed home for lunch. Ciaran says he is going to Dublin with Dad on the Helicopter. Left for airport at 12.45pm via Hennessy Sports where I picked up a KK Flag and 4 Jerseys. Nice journey to airport with only two calls on phone. Arrived at Airport at 3.15pm. Met the other Foremen some I knew from last year, others were new faces. Lads from Antrim to Kerry, Wexford to Cavan and a lot in between. Gerry Nolan telling us how he fund raised for a J.C.B. and had to take it apart to put into a container to ship here. The container had just landed in Cape Town at 12.30.

Flight to Heathrow left on time at 5.35pm arrived in Heatrow at 6.40pm. Got up-graded to 1st Class due to faulty seat and got the Royal Treatment. Met Seoirse from Limerick and Denis from Cork in Heatrow as they had flown from Shannon and Cork. Had a few bevs in the bar before heading for boarding at 8.30pm. Rang home while waiting to board all fine at home but Pa missed dad. Ireland 2-0 up. Left Heatrow at 9.30pm. Fell asleep on plane at 12pm woke at 6.30am with only 2 hours of flight left. Landed at 8.30am adjusted watch at local time 9.30am.

Thursday 14/10/04. Flew through baggage and customs to meet Niall at arrivals. A short meeting and it was agreed that we would go to hotel for shower and meet in lobby to go to Township at 11.45am. Shower and shave over met Niall in lobby where he asked me to captain a team of 70 me, and sure why not, we all work well for the cause anyway. We all departed for the Township at 12.15pm with the 5 captains in Nialls car for a short meeting while we drove. Got to Township at 12.45pm to have a look around and meet the people once again. The first impression is that you can see the place taking shape with 230 houses now complete. We walked through the area where the fire took place in February and can only imagine the devastation that took place. There are now 11 houses slabs ready for us in this area and the local Government is putting roads for the housing. So some good has come from the fire. We were all taken up to the very top of the Township where you really get the smell of the depervation in the air. You console yourself by saying that in two years they might all have a decent home.

We had a look at where all of the 50 houses we hope to build will be placed and it is quite spread out. Now that we have a feel for the place we all head back for a meeting in Nialls Office in Cape Town. This is situated in Cecil Rodes Building which is owned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation.At this meeting there was five foremen assigned to my team, James Keating (Dublin) Francis Rogers (Bray) Graham Carey (Dublin), Jim Raymond (WX) and Larry Cody (KK) with myself and these men we hope to complete 10 houses in the next week. The meeting finished at 6.30pm having discussed all the specs for the three different types of houses from 38sq m, 50 sq m and 72 sq m. back to the hotel to clean up. We met at 8pm in the lobby to go for food. Arrived back in hotel at 11.30pm. It has been a long 41 hours since 6.30am yesterday morning.

Friday 15/10/04. Left Hotel at 8.30am arrived at site via hardware store at 9.15am. We decided to change team set up to have Individual men looking after Trades “Francis Brickie”, “Jim Plasters”, Graham Chippies”, “James Labourers”. Today we decided to just work as a five-man team. We scudded the houses that we could, filled in all ops around windows and doors, Francis and James marked out all houses on bases and walls. We got our backie for site delivery with three sites scaffold out. Gerry Nolan assembled the J.C.B. with it on site at 3p.m. All the brickies arrived at site 12pm, and got started straight away. What a sight the trusts for three houses delivered with blocks for one. Got three houses set up to start on tomorrow. Lunch at 12.30pm. There was a lovely sight today when we saw about 20 kids coming home from school with bags on their back. Left site at 7.15pm for hotel. Meeting with Niall and Team Captains to allocate total no 5 teams aprox 50 to teams. Great to see some old faces on my team with some cats as well. I almost forgot hung KK Flag on lamppost today what a sight. The meeting finished at 10.15pm when we headed for dinner starved. Met Billy Murphy and Larry Cody. They were tired but unbowed. Finished dinner at 11.30pm went to bed as we had a 6am call.

Saturday 16/10/04. Woke at 6pm left for site at 6.30pm to set up 2no houses before the team captains met the 303 recruits. Left site at 10am to meet the 303. What a sight to see the Hotel Car park converted into a Breakfast area with 303 volunteers. Looked into the group to try and see the KK crowd could only see Pat Grace from the Rower. It was great to see the 80 lads who were back a second time. I was assigned one of the girls to look after the coach she is Fiona Brophy for Sutton.Left Hotel at 12.30pm to go to site and give some last minute instructions to the volunteers who I have the privilege of working with for the next week. As we come over the hill looking down on the site I showed all the Team the site. It will be interesting to see it in a week and note the changed.

The 303 volunteers all marched into the Township together what a sight and all the “Merry Ploughboys” went to meet at the house 27. Their we divided up into the trades and began work. At 5pm it began to rain everyone and everything was soaked. We all finished at 6pm with 2roofs 70% completed, 2 houses externally plastered, 3 bases with 6 corners laid, 2 houses ready for wall plates, 1 house with trusts and Facing complete not bad for four hours work and one hour wetting.Left site at 6pm. I had to say a few words to the volunteers before they left the bus at the hotel They all looked shattered and bearing mind that most of them had ½ hours sleep was not surprised. Dinner for all was at 8pm in a restaurant near the hotel. Lights out 12.30am.

Sunday 17/10/04. Alarm went at 6am and I woke very tired. Had breakfast and boarded bus at 6.45am. The buzz kicks in and tiredness leaves when you meet the rest of the lads. Got to site at 7.20am to access the damage due to yesterdays rain. Plasters patched up the damage but loose three hours doing so. The kids are lovely but we are afraid for their safety. The building is continuing at an enormous rate. At dinnertime Niall asked me if I would like to meet Arch Bishop Tutu tonight and I accepted. The work done is unbelievable with 4,000 tiles have to be man handled five times to get them on the roof, after been transported 600 yards on site with a scut truck that had a bad clutch. There is frustration from all volunteers on how difficult it is to get materials around site and everyone wants to stay busy the whole time. Text,s to find out how the Kilkenny hurling semi-finals are doing. Relief for the Gowran lads Dunphy and Drennans they had an easy victory in first semi-final but what a fight back our lads had in second semi-final 5pts down and time almost up, to eventually draw. I will be back home for the replay next Sunday.The final count on day two is three roofs completed, another two 70% completed two more houses ready for roofs, three houses plastered, three houses with internal walls, blocks completed 70% on another house. No bad for a days work.

Left site at 5.30pm to go back to change to meet Archbishop Tutu at 6.30pm. I spoke to Arch Bishop Tutu for twenty minutes and he was very interested in the effort made by the people of KK in the fundraising. He was delighted how the parish of Danesfort had come together as a community to help the community of Imizamo Yethu. I also told him of the effort the 3rd years in Callan had made in helping to raise 3,000 euros for the Township School and the Kids from Bennettsbridge National School also raising 400 euros for the school. He made a speech before he left and these stories were repeated by him. A very nice gentle man. Everyone in the room was totally humbled by him. Night finished at 12.15am.

Monday 18/10/04. Seorse work me at 5.30am thinking it was 6.30am. Panic over it just meant we had a big breakfast. My voice is gone from shouting at the kids to stay off the backies. We were hoping to go to the School today but work demands were too much. It was flat out altogether today from a 7am start.. As news come through that it could rain tomorrow afternoon. With electricians, plumbers and labourers giving a big hand to brickies and plasters and chippies it was great to see all the external work getting done. We lost Francis Jeffer’s one of our team of Foreman because of an old knee injury. I must have walked 40 miles today in helping the volunteers to have the necessary materials to get the work done. The result today is that we have all 9 houses roofed. The electrical and plumbing has started. Out of our nine houses there is only five with internal walls to be built. This is a great result as we will be roofing the last two tomorrow and hopefully we wont have any rain until late in the day. Left site at 6.30pm back to hotel at 7pm. The tiredness is now really hitting in. Went to Waterfront for some grub. Lights out at 12pm.

Tuesday 19/10/04. Today started at the usual time 6am with us getting to the site at 7.15am. The programme for today is external paint to commence, all interior block work to be completed with one exception, completion of some electrics and plumbing with all roofs completed. We are looking for paint and rollers. Loads of paint but no rollers or brushes. Went to shop with 500 euros to buy rollers and brushes. We cleaned out the paint shop with some funny looks at us when they found out what we were doing. Painting started at 11am and went on all day with some interruptions for human chains, which had 14 people at one time in it. This was some sight with the ladies being great. The plumbers and electricians got into full swing and at 3.30pm we were handed the keys to house 37. There was great excitement that in three and a half days we had completed a house. There was a great sight today when the backie came around the corner full with kids singing ole,ole, ole. The photo with the key house was taken at 5.30pm with everyone extremely pleased. The fact that we got no rain and all nine houses are now roofed was great. This now means that all internal work can progress and with 80% chance of rain tomorrow. This could be critical. There is a night out tonight with all the volunteers and everyone is looking forward to it.

Wednesday 20/10/04. Another 6am start and little did I think what a roller coaster ride I would have today. Rain was forecast and by god did we get it. Plaster and paint washed off the walls. Luckly enough we had all roofs on and work was available to all tradesmen. Internal walls, elec and mec, slabbing and doors. All the g eneral workers were given option to go home at 1pm and most did, as they were soaked through having worked for five hours in the rain. This puts a damper on the possibility of finishing the houses by Thursday evening. I went to the school at 10.30am today to hand over the money from Callan, and Bennettsbridge and a small donation total of 3,470 euros. This is possibly the hardest part of the trip. The Head Mistress Enid Davis was visibly upset and all in the room were also upset including myself. She could not lodge the money, as this would effect the Departments allocation to school. I was asked to go and buy school supplies, but as I did not know where to go I requested that Enid come with me along with our lady team leader Fiona Brophy. It was agreed that we would meet at 3pm in the school to go shopping. This we duly did and went to Game in Century City. This was the best therapy I had in my life. With 24,000 rand 1 euro = 7 rand. It took us four hours to spend the money in the store and the shop remained opened for one and a half hours extra to let us complete the shopping. This we did and we bought everything from a small pencil to a TV and Video/CD Unit. To see the joy on Enid face was undescrible. Shopping finished we were starved for some food and back to the hotel for some kip at 12.30am. Very hard to get to sleep with these school kids going around in your head and the repair of the school. Well all the supplies will be in the school tomorrow and looking forward to it.

Thursday 21/10/04. Usual call at 6am and in township at 7.15am. On the bus going out to the site I was told that all buses were having a collection for the school. What at jump-start for the day. There was 26,000 raised around 4,000 euros. There were supplies for school maintenance bought. Drills, pitch for leaking roofs and various tools for. This should help in some sort of maintenance. The builders also went down to the school and repairs four ceilings in the classroom. The ceilings were also painted. The work also continued on the houses and with finishing time fast approaching, it now looks likely that but for a small amount of snags we would complete all nine houses. The final touches continued at a great pace today after a plea on the bus this morning. Tomme and Pyke did a beautiful mosaic on the step of No 27 with a shamrock, Failte and Merry Ploughboys. The official handover of No 26 was done at 4.30pm with great delight from the whole team. Everything wound down now, and with only two houses not painted and two lots of doors not finished the volunteers want to go in on their final day to finish and this was agreed.

At 3pm the supplies arrived at the school and what excitement. We even had TV cameras filming. The volunteers were delighted. We now have and extra 6,000 rand to spend on supplies and I agreed with Enid to do this at 3pm tomorrow. We left the site at 6.20pm and had to be at a reception with Arch Bishop Tutu at 7.30pm. So back for a quick shower and shave and off. When Niall spoke he got an ovation, it seemed like 10-minute standing ovation, and then spoke long about the project. It looks like it could be doubled again next year. Then we had Arch Bishop Tutu and you could hear a pin drop when he spoke about Apartheid and the struggle to date. Told some funny jokes and thanked us sincerely. He also promised us a straight road to heaven. We than had the Gospel Singers from the Township and what a choir. Finally we had the night to ourselves and what a party as only Irish can. Lights out???

Friday 22/10/04. Woke at 7.30am for 8am bus. Just about made it. The longest trip of my life to Township, but I made it. Problems locating the backie but eventually did so. Finished off the two houses with doors and pained the last two houses. Job now completed at 12pm. The volunteers wanted to visit the school for the last time. A lot of the supplies that we got were already in use in the school and the caretaker was sealing some of the holes in the roof “Progress Yeah”. I finalised arrangements to meet Enid at 3pm at the hotel. This had to be delayed as we found it hard to leave the township. Shopping had to be abandoned then as the supply store was closed. Arrangements were made to have these purchases finalised on Monday. We then drove Enid the one-hour journey hone. She speaks from the heart the whole time and must be a saint. The journey only felt like ten minutes. We than headed for Table Mountain as our Foreman Francis and Fiona Team Leader had never been there before. Hughly breathtaking. We went to the Waterfront for a meal and back to the hotel to meet the volunteers for the last time. This went on until they left ay 5am. The hugh impression on all the volunteers is hard to quantify, but it is everlasting. Time for shuteye 5.30 am.