Solar Building Ingredients

The Supplies Arrive

Today was a good day.

We purchased the bulk of the supplies today for the solar school, threw them in the back of a truck, and took them up to Buyaya.  All we need to do is mix the ingredients together and we will have ourselves a school.

Megin and dad travelled inside the truck’s cab, and I rode outside on the flatbed of the truck.

As I rode on the truck and watched Buyaya zoom by, I couldn't help but reflect on our arduous journey to get our first school built.  There have been ups and downs, tears, and joyous shouts as we nailed seemingly insurmountable problems.

And now it is finally happening.

Today was a good day.

You’re Wasting Your Time Teaching Evelyn to Read

Evelyn, Esther and Alamazan.
A waste of time?

Recently a respected member of the community came to visit our phonics class for kids who struggle to read letters, let alone words.

One of the students in the class is called Evelyn.  Evelyn loves studying with us.  She is often early, always enthusiastic, and a pleasure to teach.  Evelyn is about 12 years old.

The aforementioned community member pointed her out and said: “You’re wasting your time with this one.”

He went on to explain that we’d be better off to teach the 5-6 year olds so that they could hit the ground running when they enter primary school.  Evelyn is just too far behind.

His point does seem to have some truth to it.  Looking through Evelyn’s science book shows that she is learning about different species of birds, variations in bird beaks and diets, and so on.  Well, I say “learning”, but I really mean “copying from the blackboard”.  She has no idea what she is copying down.

Even if we had a magic wand and could instantly teach Evelyn to read, she would still struggle to catch up in all her subjects.

On the flip side, Evelyn is a wonderful human being capable of making tremendous change in this world given the right tools.  The ability to read and write is the first tool that she needs to unlock her potential.

What do you think?  Are we wasting our time with kids like Evelyn? Are we better off focusing on a much younger demographic?

Busting Rocks and Saving Eyes

Some cool dudes

The solar-powered school we are building requires a lot of concrete and concrete is expensive.

In Uganda they use aggregates to reduce concrete costs.  Aggregates are small pieces of rock about 3cm wide.  These are placed inside the foundation of the school before the concrete is poured in, thus saving on expensive concrete.

As I type this I hear the sounds of rocks being busted.  Just across from the guest house are a couple of guys we have hired to gather aggregates for us.   It’s a very simple technique.  They take a big rock and turn it into a pile of small rocks via the use of a hammer.

The going rate for a wheelbarrow full of aggregates is about $US 1.75.

One problem with this technique is that small splinters of rocks fly into the worker’s eye and they sometimes lose the eye.

I want a cool school, but not if it requires the loss of an eye.  So, as a very primitive safety technique I gave the workers some sunglasses.  They were most pleased

How to Acquire Land In Uganda

Meaningful Volunteer is a registered CBO (Community Based Organization) in Uganda.  A kind soul has donated land upon which we will build our school.  To get an official land title for the land (which will be owned by the CBO), this is what we need to do.


Misc things needed

• Printed copy of constitution of the CBO
  
  
• 3 colored passport photos of people authorized to sign on Meaningful Volunteers behalf
  
  
• CBO Certificate

1. Evidence of donation/consent to donate land.
   
   This is in the form of a memorandum of understanding.  This must be signed by representative of Meaningful Volunteer and the owner of the land (the Minister).  It must be witnessed by
   
   The LC1 of the community
   
   The Land Committee of Nalusala
   
   Note: The Minister is a busy woman… Maybe she can sign the form and then call the LC1 and so on to confirm that she was the person to sign it.
   
   
2. Fill out Form 4 – Application for Conversion from Customary Tenure to Freehold Tenure/Grant of Freehold.
   
   
3. Attach a copy of the CBO certificate to the form, along with constitution of the CBO, and 3 colored passports of MV signatory.
   
   
4. Hand over all forms to Nalusala Land Committee.  There is a 20,000 shilling filing fee
   
   
5. Land Committee post forms in community
   
   
6. Wait 30 days to see if anyone objects
   There is some confusion here.  It might also be 14 or 21 days.   We’ll wait 30 days just to be safe.
   
   
7. Land committee holds a public meeting.
   The neighboring land owners are the most important people to have present.
   
   
   They make an approximate sketch of the land of Form 23.  The size of the land must be included.
   
   Note: At this stage the CBO (Meaningful Volunteer Organization) is the customary owner of the land, so a representative of Meaningful Volunteer signs in the “Customary Owner section.
   
   
8. The Land Committee writes a report recommending the application to the Land Office (located in the District Engineer’s Office in Sironko).
   
   
9. The District Land Board in Sironko will then meet to discuss the application and (hopefully!) approve it.
   
   
10. A private surveyor is then contacted.
    
    
11. The surveyor constructs a certified deed plan and sends in to Entebbe, which eventually winds its way back to Mbale
    
    
12. The District Land Board in Mbale should then (hopefully!) give Meaningful Volunteer a deed to the land.

Wish us luck!

Bricks are Heavy

Jimalee works hard while I take pictures

Following on from my startling discovery yesterday that solar panels work better in direct sunlight, I bring you further news:

Bricks are heavy.

Hard to believe I know.

I started today with the intention of ensuring that we have enough bricks to build the school.  Turns out we do, which is good news. As an added bonus, all the bricks are quick close to the site of the school, so we will need wheelbarrows to move the bricks, as opposed to trucks.

The locals make bricks from mud.  They have a metal mould which shapes the mud. The bricks are fired inside of a large kiln, which is also made from mud bricks.

Today, some locals and I deconstructed a kiln so we could use the mud bricks that it is constructed from.

This is when I made my discovery that bricks are heavy. For about four hours we slaved in the hot sun turning the kiln into a neat pile of bricks.

And now – ugh – I am exhausted.  Constructing this school is either going to make me the fittest man in the world, or kill me.  I’m not sure which at this stage…

Final (?) Solar Lesson

Hot spotting the panels

Pop Quiz: Where’s a good place to put your solar panels?  In the shade of your porch, or out in the blazing hot sun of Africa?

If you said “blazing hot sun of Africa”, then you are smarter than me.

For most of the day I had the panels in the shade of the porch.  I was wondering why we just weren’t getting enough juice to power all our gadgets.  Perhaps – I pondered – I could make the panels more efficient somehow.  Maybe I could tilt then towards the sun?

And then it hit me like a ton of stoopid. Put the panels in the sun!

Ugh.  Idiot.
I am currently powering up four laptops, playing music, and charging one cellphone.  This is so much better than what we could do before

Negotiating with Sore Feet

The Streets of Mbale

I’m the first to admit that I am terrible at negotiating.  I’m happy if the price hasn’t increased when the deal is sealed.

I have to make adjustments here in Uganda though.  We are trying to build a solar powered school with not-enough-money.  I just have to toughen up.

I recently walked all over Sironko and Mbale looking for good deals for the doors and windows for the school.

I started in the dusty streets of Sironko where I found a guy welding a canopy onto a truck using a sprite bottle (!) as safety goggles.  He said he could do the door for 450,000 shillings (~ $US200).  “Fine,” I thought, “I have a point of reference now”.

Then it was off the much bigger town of Mbale where I found a similar establishment.  They said they could do the door for 500,000 shillings.  I pointed out that I lived near Sironko and that there was a guy there happy to do it for 450,000.

“Fine,” they responded.  “We’ll do it for 450,000.”

I further pointed out that I still may as well get it in Sironko if they price was the same as I wouldn’t have to worry about transport.

I suggested that if they do it for 400,000, and do the windows for us as well, and transport them to Sironko for free, then we have a deal.

The agreed!  I was quite proud of myself.

My next step is to ask the guy in Sironko if he wants to do it for less than 400,000.

Maybe, maybe, I can get it for even less.

Not Feeding the Hungry

Under what circumstance would you not give a hungry kid food?

This question pops up every day for everyone working here at Meaningful Volunteer in Uganda.

Numerous studies show that kids can retain much more information when they are operating on a full stomach.  For this reason, we give all our students a jam sandwich and a sugary drink before the lesson starts.

Our students are always keen to get started on their lessons and often turn up quite early.  The mzungus (white people) are quite interesting to the local children, so they turn up as well.

This places us in a tricky position.  We want to feed the students, but we don’t want to feed every child.

Why not?

We just can’t afford it.  If we were perhaps nice to a random kid and gave them a sandwich as well, then no doubt that kid would turn up the next day with their buddies and expect to be fed again.  The process repeats and we end up feeding the whole village!  We just don’t have the money for that.

It does mess with you mind when you give the students food while hungry kids look on.

It will be a bit easier when we have our own self-contained classrooms and no longer have to operate on the front porch of the guesthouse.

Do you disagree? Do you think we should be feeding all the kids?  Great!  Send me some money and I’ll make sure it will happen.

Solar Lessons

Cool and Not COol

In news that will surprise no one, setting up a solar powered school is hard!  We are already making some mistakes and learning lessons.

Take the much vaunted solar system for example.  The thing has been driving me nuts over the last few days.

The damn battery just would not charge up.  Even a measly cell phone charge proved too much for it.

So where was the problem?  Was it the battery? The panels? The solar controller? The inverter? The cabling?  The African sun being too cold?

At one point or another, I had myself convinced that it was at least one of those things.  Well, except for the African sun being too cold.

Turns out it was none of those things.

Remember back here when I watched the Champions’ League final with the locals via a solar-powered TV?

Turns out that I had drained too much power from the battery.  There is a certain minimum voltage that you just shouldn’t go below and I went under it.  This meant that the resistance of the battery became too high for the solar panels to effectively recharge the battery.  It would have eventually got there, but it would have taken months.

So I had to lug the extremely heavy battery all the way to Mbale to have someone recharge it for me.

All is well now!

Evelyn Surprises

Non-discarded books

When I was in Uganda about a year ago, we were making great strides in increasing the literacy rates of children who couldn't even recognize letters, let alone read words.

Due to various unforeseen circumstances, the program had to put on hold for a number of months. 

Now that I am back, what did I expect to see?  Not much.  I had imagined the kids would have forgotten all that we try to achieve and had recycled their books into something else.

And then Evelyn turned up.  Not only with the books that we issued her, but even the original pencil we gave her.

Eveyln

I was so touched!  Not only that she had kept her book, but that she had been asking about me and when I would return for months. 

People like Evelyn are why we do what we do at Meaningful Volunteer.  She wants to learn and is keen to learn and hunts me down so that she can learn!

Esther also turned up not long after Evelyn.  And then Alamazan.  And then Brian.  And then the rest of the motley crew.

Jimalee - the new meaningful volunteer, is running the new classes and is making great progress.