Service- Under Construction Build November 30th 2013

My most recent Under Construction build has been to Morningstar Academy in Kangemi Slum. Last year was a similar story, where all the builds apart from the first of the year alternated between Harvest and Morningstar Academy in Kangemi.

We arrived at the school a little before 8 in the morning and were debriefed on our objective. Unlike the first build, here at Morningstar we had a variety of different tasks. The overarching goal was to clear space and gather materials for a construction of a separate branch of the school. Morningstar is much more decrepit than Harvest Academy, having only about 6 small tin sheds to house over 200 students. A lot of the kids in Kangemi go to Morningstar so this build was of great importance.

We were first stationed outside of the school, tasked with whittling away and clearing a large mound of dirt that would be transformed into a new classroom. It was work much like that of our first build, where we were clearing away dirt. After about 2 to 3 hours of digging and hoeing, we finally succeeded in clearing the land, and had a nice piece of flat land to begin construction. But first we needed supplies.

Truck after truck wheeled in and deposited large mounds of construction material. However, because the alleways of the slums are too narrow and slippery for a truck to enter, they deposited the materials about 200 meters away from where we were actually working. In teams of two we trekked through the back alleys of the slum to the drop of point, and slowly started transporting the materials to the school.

 

After transporting all of the construction materials, we finally thought we were done. Yet to our surprise, even more trucks wheeled in and dropped of truckful after truckful of rocks, forming a mound so large it blocked the alleyway and towered over us. A rotating crew of about 3 to 4 people were stationed at the mound with shovels. People would constantly be running up with buckets or wheelbarrows, whatever they could find to transport the rocks. Their receptacles would be filled up, then they would run back to the build site, unload their cargo, and return back for more rocks. This grueling work took about 3 hours. Finally, we couldn't believe it but that mound of rocks disappeared and our work was finally done, all materials ready and convenient for a more skilled crew to do their work. Overall, the trip was long and hard, yet incredibly rewarding.

Service- Under Construction Build October 5th 2013

On October 5th, I went on the first Under Construction build of the year. About a third of the Under Construction club and I went to Harvest Academy, a school in the Kangemi slum. After a short bus ride to the slum, the crew embarked, tools in hand, to the school. Upon reaching the school, the headmaster gave us our assignment, to transform a hilly piece of ground into a flat, usable plot of land to be used as a soccer pitch for the children.

Above is how the terrain looked before we got there, it was highly slanted. The mound of dirt that crops up in the background was where our battle was to take place. Maintaining the level of the ground in the foreground, we pretty much had to demolish that hill and move it back by about 4 or 5 feet.

This picture better shows the true nature of the land we had to flatten. At the bottom it was fine, yet about 80% of the pitch was covered in soil about 2 to 3 feet high, what I am standing on in this picture. As you can see, we had to cleave and relocate all the soil covering up what was to be our pitch and flatten out the land.

These two were my faithful companions throughout the trip. The tool on the left is a traditional spade, used for moving loose soil out of the way. The tool on the right is the African Jembe, my favorite tool. It has a flat sharpened blade and each swing cleaves and breaks apart the soil, making my life easier by tearing through all the hard soil in my way. I may have had some pent up anger during this trip because in my digging ferocity, i managed to break two Jembes, snapping them in half. 

The Jembe does not require much force to cleave through soil, yet by swapping with a partner and working in quick bursts of energy, we were able to clear much soil.

After about two to three hours of hard labor, we were at the point of the picture above. Exchanging sea shanties and work songs, we toiled until our progress was clearly visible, decimating more mountain than any of us previously believed we could.

After 5 hours of work, we  succeeded into transforming a large mound of packed earth into the flatland that you see in the pictures above. Through blood and sweat, a small team of 7 students persevered into terraforming previously unusable land into the beginnings of a soccer pitch for the kids at Harvest Academy to play on. The work was tough but incredibly rewarding, and the smiles on the kids' faces made it all worth it.