Workers

As the anticipated opening day (Feb. 2011) of Timothy Girls College approaches there is all kinds of work happening on the site. We have over 100 men employed to do the building, landscaping, wiring and plumbing of the school buildings, so from Monday to Saturday the site is a very busy place. The local community is very appreciative of the work we are providing for these men, and we appreciate all their hard work on our behalf.

All the buildings are constructed with locally produced bricks, covered in plaster with wooden roof trusses and iron sheet roofing. They are fairly basic structures, but there is a great deal of man power that goes into each stage of the construction. Landscapers have levelled huge piles of dirt with only hoes and pick axes; porters mix cement by the wheelbarrow full, men carry jerrycans of water by hand from the pump to be used in cement mixing; bow saws are used to cut the roof trusses and hammers pound the nails into them (the wood used is tropical hardwood that is very difficult to cut by the way.) Each brick has been laid with a hand trowel and the septic tanks, trenches for foundations and retaining walls have all been dug by hand. The only real machinery that has been used is a small bulldozer that was used to grade the sloped land. An electric skill saw has also been used to speed up the roof truss production process, but there is only one.

So, as a tribute to all the hard work that goes on each day, here are some photos of the workers doing what they do best. Thank you, guys!

making sidewalks behind my house

loading extra slate into the "tipper"

raking gravel

preparing for the installation of the roof trusses for the dining hall

shovelling gravel

digging a trench for a retaining wall

binding the joints of the dining hall roof trusses with metal bands

nailing the beams together for the roof trusses

all the workers change their clothes in the morning when they arrive and hang them outside the big storage building, then change back at the end of the work day