Day 143 - 144 Workers

The job site is a busy place most days. There are about 50 workers who were hired when the project first started. There was no place for the guys to post an advertisement or somewhere to submit a resume, so the opportunity for a job was spread through word of mouth around Serenje and over 100 men came to see if they could work at the site. The guys really had to test run the workers the first week to see if they could perform and some passed and some were fired. What a process to go through, but all the workers seem to do a good job with their daily tasks. Here are some quick facts about the workers: (pic: the American and Zambian workers)

• Work beings at 7:00 hours sharps and ends at 16:00 hours each day, because there are men who travel over 20 km each way to the town. Thankfully most of them have bikes, but they still need to leave their homes by 4:30 and don't return until 18:30 riding on awful, dirt roads.


• There is a 72 year old man who does this daily. Amazing! First because the average life expectancy in Zambia is somewhere is the 40's and second because he is in great shape!


• Each worker earns between 10,000 - 20,000 Kwatcha ($2 - $4 US) per day depending on their skill level (this is average pay in the area).


• Most workers have never used power tools before, so after lessons they have enjoyed the efficiency of the tools on the site. However, they still do most of the work by hand.





• I mentioned before that there is one woman on the job site who paints with me. Grace , has a 6 month baby girl who comes with her to the site everyday. The baby is watched by Grace's niece and nephew, 5 and 7, who were orphaned and that she is now supporting. They sit on the grass day after day playing and napping. They are very innovative with their toys and games. They have a checker game drawn on a piece of card board with glass pop tops as their pieces and they have a kite made out of plastic grocery bags. Daycare is a little different here. (pic. Grace's nephew and daughter)
  

• Typically at noon the workers have a little maize and some greens they cook over a fire to eat. However, one day last week they were thrilled to find a branch with two beds (they call birds beds?!?!), because they could cook them to eat. They also dig for caterpillars which provide a lot of good protein in their diets.
  

It has been a lot of fun working with the Zambian people. Although their can be frustrations with communications, work ethic and sometimes the standard of work (well to American standards), the relationships that have been made are much more important.