Zoom onto Day 2 when we reached Jo’burg.

After reaching Jo’burg, we had the joy of another 5 hours on a bus before reaching the school near Butha Butha. The border between South Africa and Lesotho had a section of no-man’s land where you had to stop at the South Africa border and get your passport stamped before driving 5 minutes down the road and doing the same again again at the Lesotho border.

First impressions of Lesotho for me was the friendliness of the local people who waved and smiled at the bus as we drove by. It was only after a while that I realised somebody up the front of the bus was waving madly at them in the first place :).

It was still warm when we reached the school and our campsite but the temperature quickly plunged as night fell around 6pm. We were very glad that the campfire was already lit for us. The week would continue like this, huddled around the campfire and drinking cold beer. That night we saw the amazing stars in the Lesotho sky for the first time. As much as I tried to photograph this sight, I couldn’t do it justice.

Bedtime came early that night after such a long journey. And it was needed, as we got our first 6am wake up call the next day…

“Good Morning! Good Morning”. It was far too early, and much too cold, to be waking up but this was our wake-up call each day.

Breakfast was served:

Work started in earnest that morning, clearing the gravel from the site while a small group went and gathered stones to use in the foundations. They returned when all the hard work was done…

We mixed the cement by with just our shovels, no cement mixers for us! We removed all the rocks from the trailer and placed them in the foundations. This was then covered by the cement and levelled off expertly:

Once the foundations were down, a local builder added the first layer of bricks. We needed this help because the whole building depended on how straight your first couple of layers were. We weren’t complaining mind!

We were shown how to make trusses for the roof and worked away for the afternoon doing this.

The kids thought we were doing a good job anyway

A job well done, the end of our first day.

See the full set of photos from Day 3.

The bricks were still being set at the start of day 4 so while this was being done, we carried on building trusses for the roof.

And even made a couple of benches.

Dave laid a path outside one of the existing classrooms before we could lay any bricks for our classroom.

The kids were still amused by our work.

That evening we went for a swim in the local river. The lack of a shower for the first two days work made this a welcome change and it was nice to see some of the local area. We had only been in our campsite and on the school grounds for the last few days.

See the full set of photos from Day 4.

At the start of the third day of work we had the bricks up to over waist-level but we needed to get it up to roof level so that we could put the trusses up the following day. We got quite a lot done this day:

And people took different tasks:

But it started raining so we had to take cover, and try and protect the cement as much as possible.

We had the bricks up to almost roof level

but then the rain and thunder and lightening returned. A few of us kept going until we were about 4 bricks short when work was called off. We were soaked and cold so the campfire that evening was very welcome!

See the full set of photos from Day 5.

Most people had not slept well the previous night as the thunder and lightening continued throughout the night. Day 6 started off with a heavy shower but it soon cleared up. It was quite cold this day and the heat of the first few days never returned. The kids were late for school as they had waited until the rain stopped.

We finished off the last few bricks that needed to go up and the trusses went up:

The window sills proved quite difficult, so it took a few people to get this job done.

We were quite proud of our one though

Finally, it was time for tea. We had to keep hydrated at all times during the week.

We took some time out too, all work and no play…

Back to work, and how many volunteers does it take a fit a blackboard?

That night, we were treated to the ultimate luxury: a shower! Baby wipes only go so far… We went to a local hostel not too far from the school. It must have been something to do with how clean Girl Andi was, because that evening while we were sat around the campfire, Boy Andy proposed to Girl Andi :).

She said yes! Best of luck to you in the future. It was a great way to end the week and there was quite a buzz around the fire that night.

See the full set of photos from Day 6.

The final day of work was upon us and we needed to get things finished off before the handover ceremony that afternoon. We got the window panes in:

And levelled off the floor:

And even signed the blackboard:

The kids soon gathered for the handover ceremony

As did the local women

We celebrated too

And Damien sang his Kentucky Fried Chicken song!

The handover ceremony began in the main classroom in the school and we couldn’t have expected what the school had organised for us. The kids put on a great show with traditional songs and dances.

While some of the kids were more interested in the balloons that Cel brought over…

I played a few tunes on the tin-whistle and we did a ceili dance for them. I’ll post a video of the dance itself soon.

All in all, it was a job well done. The teachers and principal can be seen below with us.

I think the kids were happy too

That night we were served up great food and had a great last night around the campfire. It was the coldest night of the week so I think we were glad that it was the last night of camping!

See the full set of photos from Day 7.