Shaun Nee has just returned from 3 weeks in South Africa where he has helped to build houses for orphans and vulnerable children. Sponsored by his employers Nottingham Community Housing Association, Clerk of Works. Here he tells us about the experience.
I set off for South Africa at 11am on Saturday 22nd September and eventually arrived at Pietermaritzburg at 4pm the following day – with just a missed flight and a broken propellor along the way!
I was met at the Airport by John McKay from Habitat for Humanity and taken to a bush lodge called The Gables at Scottsville, about 15 miles from where I would be working at Willowfountain. The project is part of the Thandanani Children’s Foundation. Fifteen houses have been built in the area and another five are almost complete.
All prepared for work, I was disappointed to learn that the following day was a national holiday, although glad of the rest after that flight! But the day wasn’t entirely wasted as I went to buy a few supplies from the local supermarket as the lodge was self-catering.
It feels strange – everyone waves even though they don’t know you. Which seems such a friendly action, but you also have to be very careful. I was nearly the victim of a carjacking later in my stay, so you have to be sensible about locking doors.
On the following day I was taken to Willowfountain where I was shown around 15 properties at various stages of being built. Unfortunately none of them were at a stage where plumbing was required. I was on the horns of a dilemma. My first instinct was to turn round and come back home but the best option seem to be to pitch in and help and become the proverbial jack of all trades. It was a shame because the people were very willing but they didn’t seem to have much organisation and everything takes much longer to do.
Throughout the week I was involved with labouring, mixing concrete, fixing roofs and block-laying as well as a lot of digging and helping out where I could. I found that due to lack of knowledge they were taking far too long to do some jobs. For example they don’t have scaffolding. A roof that would take 4 hours to do in the UK took 3 days – mind you, a tip from me on roofing soon cut the time the job took by 50%.
But as no-one is trained to use a digger or heavy machinery, everything has to be done by hand. They are also short of supplies and tools – even a ladder is a luxury. Although they use a local builder’s merchants, it would be good if next time we could organise for them to have some money in advance and then we could order more equipment and better gear.
The local people including the recipients of the houses being built and those giving ‘sweat equity’ (they owe their time and labour for a house they have received) helped out as well. They are mainly women and a few men (either the very young or very old). The majority of these also have children to look after – most have been orphaned through AIDs.
A prime example was a brilliant young chap called Thebbe. He was only 21 and had 2 sisters and 2 orphans that he looks after. As well as working on the site he also works part-time at a local supermarket.
The local women also do the catering for the volunteer workers – even though they are poor their houses are spotlessly clean and the catering is to the same standard. The idea is that they can then expand their catering to local businesses. The orphans come down and join us for lunch and they love having their photo taken.
The volunteer workers come mainly from local churches and one of the weeks I was there it was ‘Building on Faith’ week where quite a few came out. Unfortunately, it rained too heavily to work for the first couple of days but we eventually got going. Strangely enough, the heat gets to most volunteers. They are, after all, mainly white and not used to working on the land, so it takes a time for them to acclimatise. It can be very humid and even I lost a stone but I am not sure if that was the heat or the tummy bug I caught first weekend!
After the work was done the orphans put on a song and dance to say thank you and it was a wonderful atmosphere. They have so little. One of their prized possessions is their school uniform. They go off to school looking crisp and clean as you are not allowed in school without your uniform. As soon as they come back home they take their uniform off and wash it ready for the next day.
It made me realise how much we could send there – they are short of baby clothes and even nappies are a luxury. The sort of stuff we casually throw away would have a whole new use in South Africa.
Looking back I would definitely go again but I’d like to be part of a team. Apart from the loneliness, I think we would achieve much more as part of a co-ordinated unit. It made me realise just how very, very fortunate we are here – we take electricity and running water for granted, let alone a roof over our heads. I wonder how many houses we would be able to build if we had similar conditions?
