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.