Day 2 - Thursday

Today was the first day of working on the projects in the village which was done in two separate groups. The initial project was to clear and level the ground ready for the installation of the new playground equipment at the kindergarten for the local children.

This was a very physical morning with digging, excavating and levelling the ground in hot/humid conditions. The local school children looked on as the first team of 12 TBSHS students set to work and put a great work shift in to dig out foundations, clear building blocks and excavate the ground of the existing concrete footings from the previous playground. The work was going very well until one of the students struck water which we were unsure whether this was a positive thing for the village in discovering a potential new well until further inspection discovered that he'd put his pick-axe through a water pipe! This caused a little panic amongst the villagers but was fascinating watching them mend the pipe using some makeshift equipment which proved far more successful than the plumbers that I've had visit my flat!

The students have spent lots of time playing with the local children various fun games and football. The children love having the TBSHS students in the village and everyone is incredibly friendly wanting to say hello, hold hands and feel the hair on our arms!

Planning has been taking place for the sports day, dance & drama event which will be taking place next Friday and is a whole community event where potentially the Minister for Education will be in attendance.

Tomorrow we will be going to the National forest to do the canopy tree walk and also visit the monkey sanctuary with the students buddies.