VTC Update December 2013
Latest news from Jillian Hopkins in Malawi.
Greetings from Malawi! The rains have finally come today, with heavy downpours all afternoon. The evening air is now a cacophony of insects and frogs awakened by the deluge! Fortunately, we have had a productive week at the construction site before the storms.
Our current focus is the two toilet blocks, while we wait for windows on the main building. The plumbing pipes and concrete floor slabs were laid a couple of weeks ago, so this week masons have continued building the walls. This includes internal partitions for toilets and also setting the timber door frames throughout.
We also poured the reinforced concrete septic tanks – the student toilet block has a massive tank and it took a whole day to pour the concrete. The mixing is done by machine, but all the water and concrete is carted by hand in buckets and wheelbarrows. I really appreciate the communication, kindness and team work of our labouring team which is apparent on these long busy days.
There have been many delays with materials supply so we won’t be finished this year – I hope we can finish by March.