We start to build...

After a good night's sleep and a good solid breakfast, I grab an apple and plenty of water and wait patiently for the day’s briefing which starts the day by separating us all into two groups, those who want to build a house and those who want to decorate newly built houses. I elect for the construction as I am itching to get my hands dirty….and we did not have to wait long.

Not knowing what to expect, we arrive and see a concrete area that is the foundation of “our house” and after Misty, our forewomen provides advice for the day, she announces “go grab your tools” and off we go. After hammering planks of wood for what seems like hours, we realise only an hour has passed but we can already see the progress we have made. Two hours later we finally have one wall up, east facing, result. We also have the pleasure of meeting the couple whose house we are building and it is gratifying to see the joy and excitement on their faces as they see us working on their new home. This makes all of the hard work so far truly worth it as we are able to provide part of their future for them.

We stop for lunch which is a blessing as the sun and humidity are relentless and energies are starting to wane so once we are all fed and watered, we head back ready for action. Within 20 minutes, another wall goes up and 20 minutes later, another wall is erected. Wow, and this is only after half a day’s work, the house is slowly but surely coming alive in front of us. The camaraderie is great as everyone is working as a team. Everyone works well, there are no casualties and by the time we finish at 4:30pm, we have the makings of a house in front of us. “Good job guys”, we tell each other as we return dirty but proud of our contributions.

After a quick shower, we head out to a dinner evening hosted by Hancock Bank, one of our sponsors. We arrived exhausted and aching following our days work but not too tired to devour the delicious hamburgers served. After a short presentation, we present a quilt of squares created by SEI employees to Hancock. This quilt has been donated using squares created by SEI employees and I can see the creativity involved, I notice two flags, a rather impressive GB flag and a US flag courtesy of SEI’s finest (SEI Security) which represents some of the employees on this trip - well done for everyone who contributed to this effort.

Signing off for today as I, and everyone else following today’s efforts, are exhausted and will need to get a good night’s sleep as today is only the beginning…..