Wednesday 23 January 2013

Goodbye London, Hello Mongu!


January 22
We're finally in Mongu, safe and sound. Some of the team is staying with Rich and Laurie, while the rest of us are at a facility called Kids Alive. The Kids Alive guest house that we are staying at is quite nice, compared to the little shacks made of mud or plastic bags that we saw on the way here. The people are very friendly here. As we went by in the car, people looked at us and waved; and of course, we waved back. Lusaka is a fairly modern city in some areas. We saw two malls in Lusaka, and the one we went to pick up some groceries for lunch had a Subway restaurant, and a south-African version of KFC, called The Hungry Lion. Other parts of Lusaka are quite poor and dirty. We didn't stop here, but the roads were bad, full of pot holes. People were just sort of hanging around.
The road from Lusaka to Mongu is over 600 km. When we drove through Kafue game reserve, we saw a variety of animals. There were a whole lot of Antelope-type animals, monkeys, hippos, a bunch of different kinds of birds and baboons. We even saw a zebra and two lions! There were check-points along the road we just stopped at, and Rich or Laurie were asked a few questions about our destination, and wanted to see their driver's licence. 
January 23
Today we worked. The building site is only a few kilometres away. We started building a wall that eventually will go around the property to make sure the people are safe. I got to try putting mortar on the wall, which, by the end of the day, I was quite good at. The wall was around 30ft long and 5ft tall by the end of the day. There are some students working with us. They are very friendly and polite. There was also a thatched hut in the middle of the property, which belongs to the groundskeeper. Eventually they will move the hut to the corner of the property, but for now, it's in the middle of nowhere. Most of us are a little sunburned. I guess we didn't apply it enough.
January 24
Today we will go back to work while Helen, Julie, Reislyn and Elora stay home and cook (and play).


Time for breakfast!
Kayla

No comments:

Post a Comment