There is no I in TEAM

May I first start by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our fearless leader Jim Taylor! We would not be half as motivated as we are everyday without Jim's faithful supervision and constant check ups.. "Everyone working? Everyone got a job? Good." This may only be entertaining to our team here in Africa but I am laughing as I type that because Jim really has what it takes to lead a team and take control of such a huge project like this. We really take our hats off to you Jim, as these walls grow higher higher you take each day with an unrelenting ease. It is his laid back attitude that allows for us to work in a relaxed but controlled environment. But lets not forget to give our props to Safety Sammy! He certainly plays a major role in our daily decisions and now that our walls are growing to 8 feet I have decided to start to listen!

What is fun about our current working situation is that the outer wall height must match the inner brick walls. It is almost like a race and provides for some friendly competition between each team working on each wall as we should all be in sync with the height of each course and cannot lay our next course until the outer wall has been laid and so on. Now that we have all paired off into non-committal pairs to work on our walls the days fly by and you can really see the accomplishments of your hard work. I have started feeling the beginnings of carpel tunnel  gripping those trowels all the day long and was debating asking for another job until the men whipped out the homemade scaffolding and I just couldn't resist a new adventure. The saw horses that hold the "scaffolds" up are just 2by4s and pretty much tree branches that have been slapped together with a few nails, gotta give them credit for being creative with the materials weve been given. Safety Sammy and Dad stepped in though after I piled 2 saw horses with 2 forms and 2 large stones in between to add height and was climbing my way up a very wobbly rickety scaffold before I was halted. Its fun to be inventive with ways to get up high to lay those stones but once you get up there and whatever you stacked is not so stable , I must admit it's pretty scary. Especially when your only object to grab onto on the way down would be the unset brick wall that you spent the whole day laying. 

We have a lot of fun to match the lots of work we accomplish. Work hard play hard. At the end of each day, after a shower and dinner the Aunties always keep hot for us, it is so worth it. As soon as I step into the veranda I am surrounded by handfuls kids jumping for joy to see me and calling my name over and over until I acknowledge every single ones presence. I love it. They don't even know it but they make me so much happier then any happiness I could provide to them. I sat late tonight with Benny, Bafo, Brian, Grace, Churchill and George talking about "what we were going to be when we grow up". Their aspirations were enlightening and none of them were satisfied when I had told them I'm already grown up. Benny thinks I should be on TV and Churchill thinks I should be pilot. The best is that Bafo insists I will make an amazing singer since I did sing to him the do-re-me-fa-so-la-te-do song from Sound of Music. All the physical exertion that we put ourselves through every day is not so we can sit back and say wow were good, look at those walls. It is for these kids and for their future and for the staff who are here with them everyday to be the family they never could have. I have learned so much from my team, from our leader and from these kids. Even though I have a started having a reoccurring dream that Jim has instructed the team to mortar me into my mosquito net, I wake up so thankful that I am here and can have another day in this beautiful place, with ALL these beautiful people. And Mndyzi and Chewy our faithful guard dogs  :)
Love always, Zara