June 10: Mixing cement - half a classroom to go

For some reason, we're all tired and cranky today. We get to the worksite and find out that we'll have to use sand and concrete to level out the floor, as opposed to adding the sand and cement mixture directly on top. That means we won't finish the floor until tomorrow when we had all hoped to take the day off on Thursday.

We carry sand from one end of the schoolyard to the other, taking turn to lug the wheel barrel. After 20 runs of this, we fetch wheel barrels of rock. Once we dump the rock onto the sand pile, we add cement and mix the whole thing with water. We bring the entire mixture into the classroom, balancing the heavy wheel barrel on a thin plank of wood. It takes three of us to get the wheel barrel up the steps.

By lunch, we're exhausted. My heart sinks because I know that we still have another half of the classroom to go. But after eating, we somehow muster up the energy to get the job done. We get a system going and by 2:30, we really are done. We say goodbye to Daniel and John, and as I walk back to Transit, I realize that I'm secretly relieved at the fact that we still have to come back tomorrow. I'm not ready to say bye to the fundis, and the thought of having only a few days left in Maai-Mahiu fills me with a tremendous sense of dread.