Tower goes up!

Alex directing Jason and Duan constructing the first section

Up...

Up...

Keep it coming...

Today is a Saturday which means no school, so the crowd is bigger than ever.

It takes two days to get the tower up. We start from the bottom (obviously) and build section by section. Once the first section was up, Jason climbed onto the horizontal bracing that would be the bottom of the second section, Duan took his spot on the first section and we carried on. The chain reaction continued until Jason was on the top (fourth) section, Duan on the next, then Alex, then Mark. I offered my assistance from the ground. I’m scared of heights, leave me alone.

Piece by piece, the steel angles came together.

About mid afternoon on the first day, young Elizabeth came up with hard boil eggs and salt for a lunch (and warm soda, of course). Eggs have never tasted so good. No one had the energy to climb down either, so we tossed the eggs up 30 ft to Jason and Duan at the top. Then Khanjan felt confident and gave the salt shaker a go. The end result: a shattered saltshaker that belonged to a family who lived off a $1 a day; whose wall clock had probably said 10:37 for years since they didn’t even have money to purchase AA batteries. Who woulda thought one could feel so much guilt over a saltshaker.

As I might have explained before, the tower was 3’ x 3’ with an 18” x 18” smaller tower protruding out (see photos). We worked until it was nearly dark again, and the clouds for the 630 showers started rolling in. None of us want to quit, as the tower finally had substance, the adrenaline of it all was stronger than ever. However, standing on a 30ft metal tower, in the middle of nowhere, on top of the highest hill didn’t sound like the smartest idea when lightning and thunder was nearing by the second.

By the time we had our dinner it was pitch black and the first drops of the evening rains were beginning to fall. A whole lot of good my raincoat did sitting back at the hotel! Needless to say, the long walk back to the bus was muddy and drenching, but it was a beautiful evening and the day felt like our first TRULY successful day, so I don’t think anyone minded the walk. If anything, we all welcomed the cool summer shower, washing away a hard day’s sweat.

There must have been at least 20 children ranging from 2 to 13 by the end of the day. Therefore, our usual handful of handful of children that followed us back to the bus and chased it down the road for almost a mile, we had over a dozen. And just like in any group, there’s always that one that just won’t give up. In this case, it was a young boy of probably 8 or 9, and was determined to stay with the bus as long as far as he could muster. And I mean, quite literally STAY with the bus.

That boy grabbed onto the rim above the tire, raised his knees to his chest and held on for the ride! Remember, this isn’t a smooth road. In fact, we’re not even on a road. This is a field, a very muddy field that we almost got stuck in on more than once that night. We’d get to a narrow stretch, too narrow for even the bus to get through without the branches and bushes scraping along the side, and the boy would jump off. Or so we thought. Low and behold, as soon as we got into a clearing he was back again—holding onto that rim! Gone again, back again! We couldn’t lose him or shake him off. My God, we are going to be known as the students who got an innocent African boy killed by a school bus… (Don’t worry, nothing ever happened, eventually the brush got the better of him and he gave up).

Tomorrow, the windmill will be complete. The inner tower will go up, followed by the generator, blades and tail. Everyone in the village will be coming and maybe even the chief. Mr. Masango will give his big “success” speech again and will re-iterate to the village how the business-side of the windmill wil work. Tomorrow is the grand finale, and I only pray everything goes according to plan.

But for now, time for some much needed Tuskerrrrrrrrrr!!!