days 4 & 5 digging

half our group (the 2-monthers) have gone to a marine park for the week and boy, our dutch beast-man (whom i call bear), is leaving for tanzania on wednesday so we basically have 2 days to finish digging our pit. we have at least 3ft to go in depth and a good ft around the edges to carve out because the walls have steadily sloped inwards despite our best efforts.. we all jumped in eager to smash it all out in a day and had reached 14ft before lunchtime.. we were ecstatic. we'd definitely finish today!!

after lunch we toiled on with renewed drive at being so close to our objective.. those bucketing with skin shredding from their hands as the haul upwards became harder and longer.. those in the pit dripping with perspiration in the thick, humid underground air, digging shovel after shovel into the hard earth as our backs and arms begged us to relent. the sun climbed higher in the sky then fell again, burning down onto our backs as flies drank at the rivulets of sweat streaking down our dirt-smeared faces.. and finally, after 2hrs of solid work, the tape measure was thrown down again.. only for us to realise the pit still measured just under 14ft?! how could this be..?? whatever the reason for previous error in measurement, it was terribly disheartening news and we reluctantly realised there was no possible way to complete the pit in one day, especially with the walls not completely straightened out yet.. the bucketers pulled up their last loads of earth and the disappointed diggers climbed back up the ladder and out into the open. we called it a day and went back to camp.

for the first time since my arrival at camp i crawled into bed early.. by 8:30 i had passed out.

------

after a solid 12hrs of sleep i felt amazing and ready to conquer the pit before lunchtime. i think every member of our crew was feeling the same way and we advanced to complete our task.. we decided on 3 rotations between bucketing and digging and i started on a bucketing shift heaving up load after load of earth. i'm fairly scared of heights and dangling over the edge to grab the bucket handle was pretty nerve-wracking at first to be honest.. the bucket channels had slowly scraped away more and more soil until there were veritable tunnels in the earth at the two hauling corners. if one of us were to fall in it'd be a few broken bones at the best and death at the worst, especially if we happened to fall on someone at the bottom.. i was so grateful to the plank of wood we fixed over the hole and held onto it for dear life each time i bent down to pull a bucket up.

after a while i was itching to get back down and dig and gratefully went down with the second rotation. from then on, i refused to climb out of the hole until it was completed, and for the next 2hrs or so my life was dirt. i've found this kind of manual labour to be so restful to my mind; all you think about is pulling your shovel up, digging down, lifting, tipping into a bucket and starting again. a routine settles in and eventually your muscles work of their own accord.. it was terribly hot and my back was aching as my shovelfuls steadily got larger and larger.. eventually the third rotation came about and joe and boy got in the pit with me and from then on it was all out. most of the sides had been shaped, it was now a matter of scraping and leveling out the floor and removing every last scrap of loose earth at the bottom. there was a huge cheer from the top of the pit as we leveled away the first half of the foundations and from there til the end i couldn't even feel my arms anymore.. all was pure excitement and drive (:

as the pile of earth in the center of the pit grew smaller and smaller, the work seemed even easier. we were so close to the end.. the last few buckets were pulled up a whopping 15ft from the base of the pit in order to clear out the last remaining corner and i don't know how that bucketing team managed but they were amazing.. and finally the last load came out and the pit diggers collapsed into a sweaty, smelly bear hug at the bottom (: beer was passed down and the three of us opened up our local 'tuskers' and drank to the huge feat we'd just accomplished.. digging a 15ft x 10ft x 7ft pit in the hot kenyan sun using buckets, ropes, shovels and hoes.. i never thought i'd be able to say 'yep, i did that'.

after lunch a few of us went to the supermarket to buy various food bits and pieces and beers, and that night we built ourselves a fire to celebrate the completion of the pit and boy's last night (: turns out jerry has an absolutely amazing voice and is nifty on the guitar so it turned into a campfire sing-along which i think was a perfect way to end such a great day (: