Thursday 3rd November 2005
Spirits were much higher today at the township as the skies cleared and the teams were back on site. Last night all team leaders took their groups out for a slap-up meal in Camps Bay and this seemed to boost morale.
There is no doubt though, that Wednesday's storms have caused a serious setback to the Irish volunteers. However, all seem determined to double the work effort over the last two days of the first week to try and get the targets back on track.
The red team seems to be recovering well from the damage they sustained. One of their houses, which was tiled before the high winds, survived intact and is now nearly complete. Banter among the volunteers was back to normal level and the competition seems to be mounting again.
RTE's Des Cahill also landed in Cape Town today and was on site from early morning. Des weathered much slagging about his soft white hands - but it seems the volunteers are determined to see him do some manual labour during his time in Imizamo Yethu. Des is a veteran volunteer, this being his third Township Challenge.
Media interest is growing even more. The Cape Times, the broadsheet newspaper in the Mother City, carried a feature about the project and the damage sustained during the storms. So too did the Evening Herald at home on Wednesday and the Irish Independent today. Niall Mellon was also interviewed on 702 Talk Radio in Johannesburg, ironically by a fellow Irishman, John Robbie. John, a former Ireland international rugby player, heaped praise on the project and the selflessness of his countrymen travelling all the way to South Africa to help the poorest of the poor. He also had a chat with RTE's Tom McGurk, standing in for Pat Kenny on Radio 1.
Tonight the gala dinner marking almost the end of the first part of this year's Township Challenge is to be held in the President Hotel in Bantry Bay (another place name cogged from Ireland). The girls and boys will be out in their glad rags, but it seems almost everyone has committed to working again tomorrow, their last day, to try and make up for the damage caused by the storm.
