Monday 31st October 2005
Cooler climes greeted the volunteers today, as temperatures dropped to around 20 degrees and skies clouded over. It was a welcome change from the previous two days build, even for sun- starved Irish people. Work progress is good, according to the five team leaders with an even bigger effort put in today by the 200 volunteers.
With three days of building under the volunteers' belts, the change in the Imizamo Yethu landscape is becoming much more noticeable. Each of the five teams has built at least ten brick houses to roof height - which is bang on target.
Off site, the volunteers enjoyed the hospitality that the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront had to offer last night. It seems almost all 200 chose restaurants dotted around the Waterfront, the flagship what Cape Town has to offer the visitor. A few builders at least decided to have an early night, but many more stayed up until the wee hours.
Despite that, all volunteers were on site again today for Day Three of the Township Challenge. With the overcast skies - most t-shirts stayed on and thankfully sunburn was not a problem. However, the medics had to deal with another situation entirely, and one that was not quite foreseen when preparing for accidents on a building site. Colm Cahill from the Red Team tried to make friends with a local dog. Unfortunately, the dog did not give Colm the Imizamo Yethu welcome the volunteers know and love. Instead he got a nasty nip on the leg. Thankfully, he was more embarrassed than hurt but was brought to hospital nevertheless for a tetanus shot and proper dressing.
Interest from Capetownians in the Township Challenge is growing. Cape Town's evening newspaper the Cape Argus carried a feature and colour photo of the builders in today's edition. Two of our female team leaders were on SAfm chatting about the Challenge. Ruth Hearns and Fiona Brophy were interviewed on "Otherwise" about their fundraising, learning to build, the logistics of the challenge and the effect the African sun has on Irish skin. Speaking of the weather, the forecast for tomorrow is for rain. Raincoats all round - it'll be just like home.
