9 September 10 (18:39 EAT)  

Community Service - Kidachini School - February 2010

We set out to go to Kidachini Primary School on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, on Saturday 6th February 2010. We left ISM at 8 o'clock in the morning, everyone full of energy and looking forward to the trip. We had no idea what was in store for us. As we boarded the big blue lorry, people were making jokes of who would get tired first, who would we have to carry on a stretcher, etc. Our minds were set to have fun.

After a short "journey", we arrived at the site. The villagers greeted us with faces full of life, smiles everywhere. We were going to dig a metre-deep trench where a clean water pipe was going to be laid, to provide water to the local school. We were briefed on what we had to do and divided into pairs. Each pair had a pick-axe and a shovel. We were working about five metres away from each other, alternating between the pick-axe and shovel. We began working enthusiastically, others struggling to break the surface of the hard soil. It looked easy when the villagers did it, but it required a lot of effort. As soon as we broke through the first few inches of the hard soil, time began to fly.

   

We progressed steadily and by the time two hours passed we couldn't believe we had done about 200 metres. We had a fifteen minute break, by this time people started complaining about blisters and had to get Band-Aids to cover them. Despite this we all went back to work with the same force we had started with. Surprisingly, no matter how hard the work got, when we were taking pictures everybody seemed to be smiling. Before we knew it, it was the end of the first day; we had now done about 500 metres. We headed back to the lorry everyone carrying their tools, others dragging them after a hard day of work, well half day.

Sunday, the final day of the hard labour, we were at Kidachini again. This time we had the end in sight, we had about 1000 metres to go. Armed with the experience we had acquired the previous day we started working, singing as we worked, it was a very lively scene. We advanced almost a further 200 metres before we had a break. It was Ms. Sandra's supervision and constant reminders to "Get back to work" that pushed us to our limits and enabled us to achieve what we did.

We kept at it for another 3 hours, digging, throwing dirt out of the trench, while others took some time off and ate bananas. Despite digging the trench for the village, this activity gave us a chance to socialize and get to know the villagers. It was good to know on whose land you were digging.

The activity lived up to its name, it really was HARD, but the satisfaction we got from seeing all the smiles of the villagers when we finished was worth every drop of sweat. At the end of the second day we had dug almost one kilometre long trench. It was very satisfying being able to walk alongside the trench and see how far we got. By the end of the second day we had finished about 90% of the trench, and only about 120 metres were left to go. All in all it was great fun, and we can’t wait to see the look on the children’s faces when they finally connect the pipe.
Kamal Seif (D1)

   



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