The Tools Have Arrived

We have been waiting for months for the tools, sent out from UK via the splendid organization, Tools With  A Mission (TWAM); they arrived in Kampala in about May 2013, but various negotiations and arrangements had to be made before they could be delivered the 350 kilometers to Kasese. But they have at last arrived! Here is the truck delivering them to the SKILL Hostel.

And here is a lad carrying a toolbox, obviously heavy with the tools it contains - no doubt going into the store room just now; but hopefully it will not be long before this boy and others will be learning how to use them, and acquiring basic mechanical and carpentry skills.

Another bit of good news - the new road!
Back in March 2012 when Mary went to see the Mayor of Kasese (I was meant to go too but had a tummy upset!), he promised that a new road would be built to connect the SKILL Hostel to the main highway. Months went by and nothing happened - but at last work is being done, and Enos tells us that it has reached within a half km of the Hostel site.
It looks a bit like a dirt track, you say? Well, you didn't expect tarmac, did you? It has been buldozed level and will be surfaced with marram.
Those crops
The last post mentioned (and showed) the crops being grown on the land around the Hostel; Enos tells me they are not for sale, but for food for the Hostel, to save expenses. As well as maize I expect there will be cassava - a root crop widely used in Africa  as a major source of carbohydrates, which when we were there we were served alongside other food (chappatti, meat, vegetables, rice) to bulk it out. We didn't like it much! But it is part of their staple diet; it makes a heavy kind of dough. 
chriscjenkin@aol.com

Crops being planted in Hostel land

We have been sent a few photographs by Enos, the Director, to show how well they are getting on with growing crops on the land around the SKILL Hostel. The picture above shows a good crop of maize - I can recognise that one!

 But I am afraid I do not know what these plants are, but we are glad to see one of the boys working hard at planting or weeding. It has always been one of Enos's intentions to grow crops on the land we bought in 2009 - partly to help to grow food for feeding the children, and partly as a cash crop.

 Above you can see the nursery beds under a shelter, being watered by another young man.

And here you can see part of the new wall which has been built all around the compound; this was a requirement of the local authority before a license to operate could be given, but it also has the vital function of protecting the crops from marauding animals. (Two or three years ago an earlier nursery bed which Enos started was devasted by goats, when the fence proved inadequate to keep them out!)
You can also see the water tower, vital for both crops and people.

Another part of the wall. We are glad to see that completed - it was quite an expensive item.
chriscjenkin@aol.com