Dan and Will’s Blog: Continued

Mon 26th Nov
At 7 am Brother comes round and wakes up the sleeping crew for breakfast (Curry). The motley bunch stumbles out of the kitchen keen to start there first day of labour. Luckily for us the morning consisted of the usual prayer with Brother James, followed by a tour from Saravannun (our energetic guide) of RTU’s facilities and our new dig sites. After half an hour of touring the sites the team grew thirsty and were rescued with a drink of “mirinda” the best soft drink in India (Picture a diluted Sunkist). The afternoon wasn’t so easy. The Group was split into two and while half stayed at house one to detach a roof the other half was sent up to the main building site to take apart 9 houses in order to replace them with new ones. The owners kept there roofs as a temporary huts whilst the body of their “houses” were dismantled.
Tuesday 27th
The next day was much harder. As temperatures soared to above 40 degrees the majority of the team began the seemingly never ending task of digging the foundations of the new houses, whilst Dan M, Will O’B and Ben H were assigned to house one to begin demolishing the brick MONSTER. That morning was arguably the hardest morning we have faced yet. Even the fittest of the herd were unable to keep up with the locals relentless efforts. After what seemed like an eternity, the pack returned to their humble dwellings and enjoyed a well deserved break after an extremely testing day. Unfortunately we all knew this was only day one.
Wednesday 28th- Friday 30th December
From Wednesday to Friday we gradually became accustom to trudging up the long hill to the building sites and eventually the weather and work. Few dared to strip down to the waist whilst others took the more sensible option and covered up there torsos, although the locals must think that Wife Beaters (Blue Singlets) are part of our uniform. Even though we slowly have become adjusted to the demands of the work, we are always relieved to hear our shining knight Seravanun with his beautiful motorbike arrive with biscuits and soft drink for all.
Saturday 1 December
Sat was our first half day. At least one of the houses is near completion and many more will soon follow. Just to ease the mind of all the worried mothers, we are all looking after ourselves by drinking plenty of water and eating well. Although we all miss home very much we are making the most of every fantastic opportunity. Tomorrow in celebration of our first day off, we will be travelling to the busy city of Madurai for some shopping and site seeing.
Wishing you all well,
More to come soon,
Your friendly updaters Will O’B and Dan R, who of course send their love and kisses to their parents.