Journal — Project Updates

After 10 days, our hands were finally starting to get tougher but we used sledgehammers all day today and new blisters formed underneath the old ones.Break a handle? No need to run to Home Depo as long as you have a machette around!

Well today was really fun and exciting. We needed to fill the area where the slab was going to be with rock, in order to create a good surface for the slab to sit on. The best way to accomplish this was to create a chain, Yes! A chain is something I always wanted to do since I was a...

Today was a "Community work day" and we accomplished in one day what would usually take two. Community work day meant that friends we had made, plus friends of IPI volunteered their time to help. We finished constructing the 9x9 section of the foundation and began to prepare for the slab to be poured. It was once again difficult as...

All day, we carried heavy rocks and laid them in the ditch.  We're exhausted but it's cool to see it take shape.We had a couple of helpers come visit us today. 

More concrete mixing today...  As some of us continued to mix and to poor concrete into the trench, others were gathering the 9X9 stones that will go in, after the concrete has set. I think this illustrates fairley well how we were feeling at lunch today.Waiting for our ride at the end of the day.

We finally finished digging out the trench for the foundation.  I was very happy to move on to something else until we started mixing the concrete manually... Most of the workers here know English but because of our different accents, it is still a bit hard to communicate with them.  I would say that they are very similar to the...

The worst part about today was probably getting out of bed!  We were both extremely sore and our hands are covered with blisters.  After about 20 minutes of shoveling, our bodies loosened up and we were ready for another day of digging.. ..and digging is precisely what we did all day.

Well today was our first day of work, and man did we get worked!  Our hands are blistered and bleeding, our backs hurt, our legs hurt...  pretty much our whole bodies hurt.  We began to dig out the foundation for the kitchen and the dining room.  We have to dig 3 to 4 feet deep and as our co-workers keep...

Michele, Mikey's mom, has been involved with Karambu and International Peace Initiatives for a while now.  They are both in Meru at the moment and helping us with accounting as well as finding the materials we need, hiring workers etc. Today, Michele met with the the local construction company's supervisor to come up with a game plan that suits our...