Stairway to Heaven !!

Hi,

Back at house 4 today, the first job was to build a stairway from the blocks so we could use it to pass the blocks up over the lintel for the next row of blocks. (I know it's a day too early, but the St. Patrick's Day shirt is just the build up to tomorrow !). We built a lovely silver stairway ! and used it to pass the blocks up overhead (definitely a tricky proposition). Again, we were left in the half-penny place by one of the local lads, Maggi, who could lift and carry them over his head one handed ! I think he enjoyed impresing us ! but we didn't care. We were delighted to have him. He doesn't live at the house. He's a friend of Santosh, Sonara's son and he's definitely in demand along the street as an extra builder. So today, too, involved a lot of lifting blocks and pans of concrete - but this time they had to be lifted higher and higher each time as the rows of blocks increased. So we had some creative solutions, like extending our stairway and building a new one .. on top of a barrell ! All good fun, and we did eventually get the blocks up and in place. Here's Sonara collecting some mangoes for our break. I have to admit, they weren't a lot better than the one I had in the restaurant last week ! but nevertheless we enjoyed them. And here's Cathy working as builder's mate for Sonara on the roof. We had a mad rush at about 4 o'clock today as we tried to get the top row of blocks in place before we had to leave for the bus back. We were a few minutes late, but we got there.

Tonight we had our Closing Ceremony, which was really touching .. just a few simple words from Joseph and Mahesh and some of the other leading Habitat personnel. We saw the professional photos that had been taken during the build and footage that had been broadcast on TV. The build attracted a lot of attention and there were a number of items. Well done to American Cathy from our House for an excellent TV interview .. and wait till you see Liz hurtling a pan of sand through the air .. priceless ! I think we will get copies.

We then had a very nice meal in the garden and took the opportunity to take some photos of our new friends. Here I am with Lynn and Hugh, whom I worked with on House 13. They had lived in India for 2 years when they were in the Peace corps and they definitely look the part. And here's two of our wonderful bus leaders who looked after us so well .. Diana and Amalia.

It's really hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day building. The time has gone so quickly and I'm sure we will all be very sad to finish up tomorrow. But we've had a wonderful time building alongside the families and the Habitat staff in Bangalore and at the end of the day, some very lovely families will have a new house .. and that's what it's all about ..

More tomorrow (probably with a few shamrocks involved ..)