St. Columba's College Habitat for Humanity Project Hungary: Day 2

Day 2 began bright and early with a 7:00am (6am back home) brekkie time and a 7:30am bus to catch. We arrived on site at 8:00am, met by Levi and Sandoor, to begin our site safety orientation. Levi had everyone carefully listening as he outlined the necessary precautions which needed to be taken by everyone during the build. After the site safety orientation, we all received a tour of the affiliate, a centre for children and adults with serious mental and physical disabilities. The centre has two sites in Miskolc, a restored school in the city centre and a purpose built centre outside the town, where they also run a small farm. There are permanent residents in both centres but they also cater for day visitors, providing facilities for over 100 disabled people from the area. The centre allows it's residents and visitors to explore their creative skills and have a series of workshops aimed at providing a stimulating environment as well as raising funds for its day to day running costs. We were treated to a tour and display by the residents of the various workshops (paper, wood, fabric & gifts - which includes candles and decorative goods) as well as some of the residents rooms. It was clear to everyone that the work of the centre in providing care and stimulation for its residents was excellent.

After the tour, the team were split neatly into Team A &Team B (Mark Agar did suggest the teams should be given numbers - he suggested W for one of the teams). Team A (which stood for awesome) remained at the city centre site, removing the frames from a foundation of a new room being constructed in the centre (which will be a massage room for the residents) and preparing the concrete floor. Team B (which stood for brilliant) were transported to the newly built centre outside of town, to build a new wheelchair accessible pathway to replace one destroyed by a flood over the winter. Both teams worked extremely hard in ideal conditions (a balmy 24C) and deserved a wonderful meal in an Irish Bar & Restaurant of all places!

The two teams elected in remain the same tomorrow in order to finish the work started today. The teams will be mixed up throughout the build. That's all for now. Keep following our Twitter feed for more banter from the site, including Mr. Jameson's Miskolc Fact of the Day! Here are some pics, mainly of Team A (because Team B forgot to use their cameras - they were working that hard!).