The work continues

This week, we mainly worked on the installation of all the sockets, lights and switches. Together with our fearless friend Chris we climbed the structural skeleton of the roof to lay all cables and junctions, while wending of the devil’s servants, locally known as the Big Black Wasp.

At the end of the week, we were able to finish all of the electrical facilities in the classrooms, kitchen, administrative buildings and toilets and we connected everything together.

With the future in mind, a power line was laid for a community ICT classroom, as Father Tom plans to increase the digital skills of the pupils and his community.

 

As a first step to accomplish this goal, we brought 4 laptops from Labdoo, a global collaborative social network of volunteers providing schools in need with donated computers. These laptops have already been used by teacher Chris during his math classes.

Trouble in paradise

On Thursday, Eveline started feeling ill so she went to the mama Sabina health centre nearby.  It turned out she was infected with typhoid, a very common disease in this region, but nothing we cannot fix with antibiotics! After a few doses and a day’s rest, she smiled again as before.

Due to this inconvenience we spent our Friday Eveline-less, and we noticed that although we’ve only spent a week at the school grounds, everyone was quite worried about her. Our average interactions with the school personnel were reduced to questions like “How’s Masika?” and “Did Eveline have lunch?”.

On the bright side, Eveline’s absence resulted in some amusing discussions with the male teachers concerning the interesting side-effects of coffee.

Work hard, play hard

The next day, we went for a Friday night drink at Vienna hotel together with teachers Chris and Bennet. A few beers (coffees for Eveline), and dancemoves later, we returned safely to the hotel thanks to BOB Yaro.

Saturday, we took a day’s rest from the physical work to update some financial and administrative paperwork. As always we met with the members of the church on Sunday to sing, dance and listen to bible verses (read by Pieter this time). In the afternoon we went for a refreshing swim at Vienna hotel, where we unwillingly participated in the Big Muzungu Show, as we received a lot of attention.

A new week: testing…

Monday we had our first meeting with our CE certified, 6.5 horsepower, dual cylinder, European plugged petrol generator, previously known as coffee table. Some slight design enhancements, definitly resulting in a loss of the CE certification, facilitated our testing strategy. Apart from some defective lights, we were happy with the results.

In the afternoon we visited a primary school in another town, founded by a church member. After a warm welcome (2x lunch!) we wished the P7 class good luck with their final state exams, needed to enter the secondary school.

… and drilling?

Wednesday the drillers arrived with their convoy of trucks and workers. After a short inspection of the school grounds, they realised that a special permission from the government was needed to drill a borehole. Therefore we invited the ministry of water to visit the school the next day. After a meeting and an inspection of the site, we all went for a meal at the Hard Rock hotel. After some fish, chips and a wedding proposal to Eveline, the deal was done.

 

As we were waiting for the documents to arrive, we fixed some electrical issues at Mama Sabina health centre. In addition, we stored 100 boxes of donated medical supplies and made an inventory for future reference. Again, we had to fight the Big Black Wasps, which had made themselves comfortable on top of the boxes and had built their nests using the descriptive paper on the sides.

Safari

On Saturday we went on a safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park with our designated driver Jimmy, Father Tom’s brother. In order to spot the animals which like the cool morning hours, we woke up at 5 am. Unfortunately, due the rain we weren’t able to experience an African sunrise above the savannah plains, but the abundant wildlife didn’t disappoint

Among others we spotted a lion family with their 2 cubs, some African elephants, a herd of Ugandan kobs, a safari van filled with some fellow Belgians calling us “eikels” (embarrassed to hear we spoke dutch as well) and large groups of African buffalo’s.

The park is also famous for its volcanic features, like the deep crater lakes from which salt is extracted.

Afterwards we went for a boat ride on the Kazinga channel, the connection between Lake Edward and Lake George. During the boat tour, we spotted groups of hippo’s, a crocodile and a large number of bird species.

We ended the week with a church visit. Afterwards we held a meeting with Jimmy, who is going to marry the 13th of August, as he wants us to be maid and men of honour.

Stay tuned!

Stay tuned to see how our work evolves, and in the meantime: enjoy some more safari photo’s and our light-art

Humasol