Monday 7th November 2005
Sunshine greeted the volunteers as they arrived on site this morning, but it was accompanied by the infamous Cape Town wind, the South-Easter. Gusts of 50-60 kilometres an hour meant that small dust storms circulated around the township. This didn't hamper the construction work, but made for a few pairs of sore eyes. Most volunteers though, were happy to have the sun smile down on them, even if accompanied by high winds.
This meant the medic crew had their hands full dealing with sunburn - still the most common injury on site. But thankfully, there have been no serious injuries to date at Imizamo Yethu. There have been a few cuts and bruises, but so far all the team leaders are very happy with the levels of safety and care on site.
Off-site in the evenings is much like après ski, as one volunteer put it. The "Bottle Olympics" were held last night in the Victoria Junction hotel. Dave Mellon was the main instigator of these games, which come with a health warning - don't try this at home. Essentially, this game involves using empty beer bottles used as 'legs', a start line and hard cash. Seamus Crawford from Donegal and part of the navy team was crowned champion of the Bottle Olympics and walked away with around R1,000, but was generous enough to make sure there was a drink for his unsuccessful competitors.
Many of the volunteers headed to the Waterfront for evening - including RTE's Des Cahill. Des took his son Paul, Gerry Nolan's son Paul and a third 'young' volunteer, Fintan, for a night out. He insisted that he was able to match the stamina of the younger generation, but he was looking a little peaky this morning!
Back on site, it seems that the volunteers will have their work cut out for them for the rest of the week if they are to hit their targets. Head foreman Michael Keogh is worried that the internal tradesmen are not able to begin their work like plumbing, wiring and hanging doors and windows, early enough to ensure they will be completed by the end of the week. Watch this space.
On a happy note, two volunteers from the yellow team got engaged! Phillipa and Conor did not travel with our 700 volunteers, but were supposed to be on holidays in Cape Town. They ditched their holiday in the sun in favour of labouring alongside their fellow countrymen at the Niall Mellon Township Challenge. To top it all off they decided to get engaged - surely a week they'll never forget.
