Wednesday 9th November 2005
Hot hot hot was the verdict on the weather today. The mercury hit an impressive 30 degrees, making all volunteers feel like they were definitely in Africa. The wind was blowing though too, which took some of the heat out of the day. Unfortunately, it also meant that there were mini sand storms in the township, with all the sand, cement and building debris around. The medical team were kept busy washing out sore eyes for the day.
While work levels are still impressively high at the township late nights and early mornings are beginning to show among the volunteers. Those who are on the Challenge for the entire fortnight are holding up well given the hard workloads and, in some cases, harder, play-loads. A well deserved lie-in was granted to a couple of those hardy volunteers this morning and those men and women were raring to go when back on site.
Painting is now underway in earnest on most sites. The Orange Team, as the only group who did not have builders working on its sites last week, is not quite at that point. But blocklayers and labourers from other colour teams are being seconded to Christian Hood's band of merry men to help bring their houses up to roof level. The Orange Team and the Red Team also had an extra pair of hands today in the form of a local reporter whose newspaper, the Daily Voice, dispatched him to be an Irish Builder for the day. The fact that he is British and a journalist did not stop him from mucking in with the Irish.
Media interest in the township project both in South Africa and at home is continuing to grow. Des Cahill produced a lovely piece for Morning Ireland, then he and three of the volunteers were on the Pat Kenny Show, before he dashed off to edit a TV piece for the Six O'clock News on RTE 1 - and there were some of the volunteers slagging poor Des for not doing enough work!
A rumour circulated around the township today, that Becks himself might have been headed our way for a spot of building. Unfortunately, this was just a rumour. Although Maeve Mellon, Niall's mum, did have a brief chat with him at the airport yesterday morning after she arrived with husband Pat. The Mellons were on site to see the work their three sons and another 697 volunteers have achieved to date. Safe to say they were extremely proud of the work done by all the builders.
