Friday 17th November 2006
Even though the departure time to Cape Town was 8.35 over 100 volunteers had arrived at area eleven as early as 4am. There was great excitement as some greeted comrades whom they met on previous trips. Warm embraces, hugs and handshakes were exchanged and peels of laughter as they recalled stories. Amid great cheers overseas development minister Conor Lenihan and his P.A. Sheila Duffy arrived. The minister greeted and chatted with the volunteers as Sheila joined the long queue which now stretched back to the entrance. She was very excited as it was her first trip. The media arrived. Alan Betson from the Irish Times immediately started ‘shoot outs’ from the next level in order to capture the size of the group. Alan was very familiar with the set up as he was involved in the first trip in 2003. Mick O’Neill from The Star who was at the airport last year was busy doing smaller groups shots. The Tribune Cameras were flashing and the crowd was cheering as they waved the Irish and South African flags, baseball hats were swapped for hard hats and they were almost on their way After the volunteers checked in, they rushed to the restaurant for breakfast. The excitement was mounting as more and more people arrived. There was an obvious bonding between them as they discussed the coming week. I spoke with Rose Whelan and Vera Smith who described the trip as magic – they had left their humdrum ‘celtic tiger’ life behind and were now a part of this wonderful project. John Laird who was on his second trip said it was the first charity he had heard of where his skills were needed and he felt he was giving back something from his good fortune. Eileen Murphy and brother Pat who were going out for the second time also were excited about the new township – Mfuleni – a fresh challenge for both. Patrick Cahill originally from Galway was going out for the first time and sadly told me he knew no one on the trip. Shortly afterwards I met him chatting to Ruth whom he worked with some time ago. As our group was causing great excitement at the airport a lot of people wanted to join in and Maureen Bolger from Cabra asked me to send her details on the 2007 trip. Rachael Kane from Castledermot also asked if they were still some places left and would like to go next year. Eventually the last volunteer went through the security gates and we sadly waved goodbye disappointed that we were not going too.
