Back with the work gang

First day with a proper work gang today – 4 masons (who happen to be men), 4 masons labourers (who happen to be men), 6 general labourers (who happen to be women). Great to be working with people who know what they are doing when it comes to checking levels, digging trenches, marking lines (we are constructing a drainage channel). To some extent it's a novelty for these people to be working with a bruni (literally: white person but normal applying to non-Ghanaians so a black Londoner would also be a "white person"). They ask questions: about are clothes dried in the UK, do white people fish? When it comes to get the cement from the yet-to-be-stocked-with-books library it becomes apparent that all the cement is missing. Much exclamation on site about this "stolen" cement which is worth about 170 Ghana Cedi (equalling 110 1 litre bottles of Star Beer, 850 portions of rice and stew, or monthly pay for a teacher). The assembly man, who is my interface with the local people, borrows 4 bags from the village to keep people going. Things continue in a manner typical of construction world-wide when it is discovered that there is a wheelbarrow but no wheel. Man cycles off to next village with a wheelbarrow wheel in need of repair but by the time he comes back a complete wheelbarrow has magically appeared. By now it is 1pm so assembly man (in true construction style) is off to the woman who makes fresh doughnuts and returns with 25 of them – very nice too. Work carries on to good standard with me constantly encouraging, "less cement, less water, more mixing". By the end of the day, about 2 tonnes of concrete has been laid which is about a third of the way through.

Enquiries regarding the missing "stolen" cement lead to the suggestion from a child that the cement has been moved for safekeeping. Sure enough, but to my surprise, through the shutters of the primary school storeroom, I see 18 No. 50kg bags of finest Ghana cement.