We woke up at 6am to find the sky a beautiful, cloud free, blue. We quickly got dressed, ate breakfast and met up with Stefan, Andi, Brom, Nhlanhla, Stuart and Bee - the GGA volunteers who worked with us and taught us everything we needed to know. We loaded up a truck with our tools and water, and set off to the plot of land where our new house would be built.

We arrived at the site to find a plot of land at the top of a hill with a beautiful view of the valley below. We unloaded the truck and took a good look at the foundations - which we had arranged to be laid in the weeks before we arrived.

The volunteers explained what the house would eventually look like and then our group split into two. Half went to the brickyard to collect 300 bricks and the other half stayed on site where they were taught how to mix cement, set up levels and cut bricks.

When the group collecting bricks arrived back at the site we formed a human chain to unload the bricks from the truck. After this we took turns mixing cement, cutting bricks to size and laying them.

Our first day building was extremely productive. By the end of it we had built the first two layers of the house and we had all learned how to mix cement, cut bricks and lay bricks.

The GGA volunteers were genuinely impressed with our efforts - as were some of the local kids who paid us a visit after school. We got back to the rondavel at 5pm - exhausted, hungry but so glad we had finally got our hands dirty and eager for Day 3 to begin.

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