Work, work, work.....

Is it any wonder the building has taken so long with the builders doing this every day?!

Well, to be honest - they deserve the rest! We have worked them very hard over the last few months and its thanks to them that we have such a superb structure. These are the last remaining builders from a large group of guys who have worked on the building since last year. Look out for photos of them when we throw the enormous 'end of building' party early in 2007 - apparently to truly celebrate this momentous occasion we have to slaughter one chicken for every man who has worked on the job.

Watch out the poultry of Uganda, your days are numbered!

Let there be light...!

THE most exciting development on-site in recent weeks has been the installation, connection and final switch-on of our solar power system!

Dave worked with Joseph, our electrician and general know-hower, for a long and slightly worrying week. They twiddled with wires, connected this to that, tested and retested connections and generally scratched their heads and painstakingly checked everything over and over....

But then at the end of the week, in a Frankenstein's monster-like scenario, they cranked a lever and lo and behold, the Centre was flooded with lovely, renewable, sun-given electricity!

Here are our lovely solar panels....(in a rather arty shot!)......

The panels generate a load of power (email Dave for exact kilowattage) which is stored in our lovely batteries (kept secure at the back of the building in a little cupboard!)


The power then travels through to 'The Magic Box' (as I like to call it - I think its a actually called an 'exchange switch'?) which enables us to change from solar power to the generator (should we be in a position where there hasn't been enough solar energy to generate enough power for our batteries we will use our back-up generator)

And, with the switch turned to 'Solar', in early November we turned on our first light! Yay!

This is Joseph, our master electrician (on the left) and Sam, Joseph's right-hand-man testing out our very first working light bulb!

It is amazing that we are situated deep in the heart of the bush and yet we will have our own power to be able to run our computers, microscopes, lighting systems, music systems, projectors etc. and be able to provide amazing educational experiences for so many people!

BIG thanks to Leeds University (again!) for stumping up the cash for this system - it didn't come cheap and we thank you!

First things first....

To whet your whistle before we get into the serious posts full of information....this is how the Centre is currently looking.

Wow!

SLACKER!

In response to the many people who have - quite rightly - berated me via email I would like to send a million apologies to all and sundry for the shocking lack of attention I have been paying to the development of this blog.

It was SEPTEMBER 16TH when I last entered a post. I am shame-faced and sat in the corner facing the wall as I type this. I am very sorry. I would like to blame being too busy but there are no excuses when it comes to this blog and all I can say is that I am very sorry for the lack of recent posts.

However, like all good things, it is about to come to those of you who have waited...and its going to be worth it. Oh yes.

Coming soon...posts about solar power, electricity (yes, electricity!), pathways, successful recruitment, project development and then probably some posts about rain because we have had SO MUCH of it I can hardly begin to tell you.

So...Ugandan internet connection allowing...please revisit over the next two weeks for continued and exciting updates - which, finally, will start to include photos of people and not just of roofing materials or guttering.

I hope its worth the wait! Thank you for your continued interest and for all the tellings off - I deserved them.