After the long journey from Johannesburg to Ramabanta, the group was prepared to finally begin working. Half of the group sojourned to what has been termed “the worksite,” where we began construction on a house. We instantly connected with our Habitats for Humanity cohorts, with some lucky workers from our group being gifted their Sesotho names. What is best described as a drill team initiated the process of mixing cement to create mortar, only breaking the seal once during the continuous process of shoveling dirt up and into the delectable mixture. After an assembly line transported piles of cinder blocks to the building site—and resisted the seemingly uncontrollable urge to sing the classic “Whistle While You Work”—construction commenced. Another group was kindly introduced to pickaxing 101, and the neophytes emerged as being slightly less amateurs. Among the dancing children ala Catie Oerther, the 3:1 ratio was drilled into our impressionable minds. The other half traveled to the community center run by our admirable language instructor, Lorado, and began to perform some touch ups. The rejuvenation process jumped into action as we reapplied coats of blue paint and sketched a wondrous new map in the neighboring library—which had been erected by a previous collection of Witt students. Overall, the day was a resounding success.
Danny