By Kasia Mychajlowycz

You’d have thought our fifth week of the project was going to be quiet. Maryse, Guillaume and Max were on Mt. Kilimanjaro (which they ascended successfully), Caitlin and Meredyth were gone for 3 days on safari in the Ngorongoro Crater, and Frédérique left at the weekend for a week of mosquito net distribution in Kenya (where ROTH erected the Piave Maternity Ward in 2007). On-site and in the office, however, it was full speed ahead.

At the School, the septic tank has now been closed, and the brick triangles that will support the dormitory’s roof are now up on each end of the building. The volunteers this week were engaged in still more digging, as well as moving into each classroom the required materials for plastering the rooms: sand, water, and cement, which is then mixed together and smoothed on to the walls to prepare them for painting.

In only a few days, the workers have almost finished plastering the classroom building. They work quickly and expertly, wetting and smoothing the mixture, and filling in any holes. Standing on the hand-made scaffolds, they really do look like artists, their faces inches away from the wall as they scrutinize each inch for imperfections. The work is made more difficult because of tiny insects that come in the sand and burrow their way out of the plastered wall, marring its perfectly smooth plane, but the workers seem undeterred by the pests.

The wood for the roof has now been treated with the necessary solution to keep away termites and other destructive pests, ensuring its durability. Though using chemicals on the site required careful planning to ensure safety, treating the wood ourselves was a big cost-saver, and was completed without a hitch.

Back at our office, the volunteers brought our Silent Auction online; now anyone can go to our Silent Auction page and bid online for any of our amazing lots, from a hockey stick signed by Guy LaFleur to an African-inspired floral arrangement to a pair of tickets to the sold-out Jerry Seinfeld gig in Montreal. The Silent Auction will close at the end of our “One Night, One World ” soiree in Montreal this Wednesday, which promises to be a wonderful evening at the Montreal Science Centre. Tickets are still available to anyone who would like to support and celebrate ROTH’s Tanzania project !

Finally, World Cup fever has been running rampant in Arusha, and the ROTH house is no exception. Our TV set’s bunny ears have been fine-tuned to bring us the matches from South Africa and the volunteers, along with Mila, our security guard, and other guests, have been cheering and jeering along with the rest of the world!