The Centre of Good Deeds

Charity sent this update on yesterday's work:

"This morning (Tuesday) we went back to the project, the name of which apparently translates as The Centre of Good Deeds.

Firstly we finished seeding the ground that we prepared yesterday in the refuge for the homeless where news of our work seemed to have got around, as we had a bit of an audience for a while. The residents seemed pleased to have us there and were friendly and welcoming. Fortunately the heaviest work was all done yesterday as some of us had bad blisters, so were still suffering a bit today.

We then had a tour of the other part of the centre, which is where they train 15-18 year olds from very poor homes in a trade such as hairdressing, carpentry or woodwork. Today they were interviewing for the next intake as they are always over subscribed.

After that we set to work helping to put in the 4 showers that they had bought with the money donated from our trek costs. They then fitted a calor gas water heater (to the outside of the wall believe it or not!) which was also paid for by us, so they now have 4 more showers for the youngsters to use, which is wonderful. The Director of the centre couldn't stress enough the fact that this was Isabel Hospice's legacy to the centre.

After lunch which was lots of lovely fresh vegetables, lamb and fruit prepared at the centre, we departed by minibus to Ouarzazarte which is where we are now.

We are spending the night in a basic but wonderfully authentic hotel* before travelling for a further 3 hours in the morning to the start point of our trek. Whilst it is undoubtedly going to be challenging, particularly given how very hot it is, everyone seems to be excited at the prospect of it now, and the apprehension seems to have diminished. That is probably because we have bonded as a team whilst working on the project.

Everyone is in good spirits x

*

Just an interesting bit of info. I mentioned that we were staying in a very basic but authentic hotel. It is in fact an old kasbah. Essentially it's a square building with 4 turrets which were used as lookout posts back in the days when the tribes used to fight, and they would also have livestock living in here with them. Sadly we weren't rocking it last night as we were shattered and went to bed at 9.30!