Yes, you guessed it, more about the tower....

Andy-the-builder, who headed off to Australia a few weeks ago, emailed me some photos and even though the chronology of the blog will be in tatters if I post them I can't help myself!

This photo is of the tower...pre-plastering and pre-roof. Here you can see some of the builders, Peter, Fred, Richard and Jimmy, gearing themselves up for a few days of mixing plaster....and you can see Andy doing something (?) with the poles on the roof.


And here we have a ma-har-ve-llous photo of the Centre! Roof done. Tower plastered. Building undercoated. Sunshine. Blue sky. Lovely! The roof looks amazing, doesn't it?

Memory jogger....

For those of you who have as bad a memory as I do, here's a little reminder of how far we've come since this blog was started in March.

And, also, here's a little reminder of how far we've come since the blog was started in March (did I already say that? I forget).....

Photo 1:At the end of February the building had some walls. The only other thing that had been completed was that we had laid the slab at the top of the tower (the slab acts as a ceiling in the tower and as a floor to the platform above). It had been laid by a team of 15 burly men who mixed the cement by hand, filled mortar pans with it and passed each pan through a chain of men standing on some dodgy scaffolding to the top where the pans were tipped into the base at the top of the tower. It took two full days (10 hours each day) of continuous, monotonous, back-breaking, hand-wrecking, knee-bending torture...nothing else that has been done on site has caused so much misery but been so rewarding (apart from chiselling, maybe. everyone HATES chiselling).

Photo 2:
This photo was taken at the end of April. Biggest difference to note is that we had finished the walls and added a roof. The roof was a really big, complicated job and was another head-scratching/beard stroking period for Dave and the builders, especially the guttering aspect. But they got there and we haven't had a single leak all through the rainy season so all the deliberation and headaches paid off! This photo also shows that the window frames had been designed, made, varnished and fitted (with only minimal shouting at carpenters on our part...oh, alright, loads of shouting, but we got there) . The rendering had begun on the outside, inside all the walls had been plastered and the electrics had been installed. Then came the chiselling....but I won't talk about it because even to talk about it brings back images of very manly-men holding their just-walloped thumbs, tears glistening on cheeks and chisels being launched across rooms angrily. It was a very difficult time for everyone.

Photo 3:This was June....as you can see all the rendering and plastering is now complete on all the walls. We also have windows in the frames, the doors and doorframes have been fitted and varnished, the tower had its first 'hat' fitted to dry out the walls ready for plastering and the water catchment tanks had been installed and connected. We had even started on the landscaping by trying to remove the bricks and rubble that lay like a carpet all around the site. What you can't see inside is that the floor has been laid in one-half of the building and the science lab has had the concrete workstations built.

Photo 4:The latest incarnation...wow! Obviously we have an incredible roof and platform in the throes of being built at the top of the tower (please see previous excitable and detailed post about this) and the tower has been rendered and plastered, but we have also started painting the building inside and out. The landscaping is coming along with most of the site cleared. Unfortunately you can't see the rest of the site but we have also built some new walls and trenches that connect the water catchment pipes to the enormous underground tank. Since the last photo the building has also housed over 50 student volunteers, seen over 150 meals cooked by our amazing Ugandan chefs, one instance of malaria, many bouts of dodgy-tummies, hangovers galore, lots of clean pants drying outside in the sunshine and, mainly, loads of smiles and friendships formed between volunteers and builders!

And that's that...hasn't everyone done well?!

We still have a fair way to go...and this blog will be here to keep you informed....but for now I reckon a quick thank-you wouldn't go a-miss to....

ALL the Soft Power builders that have worked on-site
The lovely, hardworking, fundraising-marvels of Leeds Uni
Johan-the-plumber
Andy-the-builder
James-the-digger
John-the-artist
Julianna-the-American
Countless volunteers who have helped us out for a day
Our chefs-extraordinaires Isaac, Fred, Porciano, Santos & Julius

Painting frenzy....

Can you believe we are already painting the Education Centre?

Seems only a few weeks ago that we had nothing but partially-built bare walls, and now we're PAINTING!

These are the passengers from an overland truck company Exodus.


Whilst on their trip through Africa, they spent a day volunteering with Soft Power and luckily for us they came and spent the day working at the Education Centre! I am reliably informed that they worked their socks off all day long....and I can believe it, just check out how much painting was done!

Here they are in action...



Big thanks to them all for their hard work.

The Tower Gets A New Hat.....

If you have seen the previous post about the tower, you'll understand how integral it is to the Education Centre (if you haven't seen the previous post, just scroll down and have a quick look, it's worth it...I promise).

In terms of the work that has been done this year on the Centre, the only thing we have done with the tower so far is to lay the ceiling in it (which is also the floor of the look-out platform above). Other than that, the construction work has focussed on the two sides of the building rather than the tower...until now!

Over the past few months we have enlisted the help of Andy, a volunteer builder from the UK, who has helped Dave to design and construct our look-out platform and roof on the tower. It was a tricky job, so I am told. One problem was that the tower is circular - so decisions had to be made about whether to have a circular roof or a thatched cone or a flat thatch or a blue metal roof to match the others or a glass dome or a retractable stadium-type roof or yadda yadda yadda. This alone was a major decision but we also needed a roof and a platform that would allow people to see the amazing view but not get soaked when it rained. It also had to be 100% safe and secure, so little children wouldn't topple off the sides. And if all that wasn't tricky enough...we also needed to be able to use our telescope at night, but we couldn't have a hole in the roof because of the rain, so some kind of opening/closing hatch needed to be factored into the design too. Phew!

It was a confusing and head-scratching time. Andy and Dave grew long beards to stroke and practised nodding with their eyebrows furrowed...but eventually from all the discussions (which mainly took place in the bar, of course) and the dodgy drawings of roof designs, they came to some decisions and the work began.

Here we see Andy, Dave, Joel and Ed (two other volunteers who pitched in to help) in the throes of roof construction.
Doesn't it look ACE?!

It is almost finished and this is the view from the front of the tower as the roof looked last week (end of August 06).
Work has already begun laying the final layer of the floor in the platform and the telescope is itching to be hoiked up into its new home.

BIG thanks to Andy from us for all his invaluable help with this aspect of the building. And also big thanks to Joel and Ed for their labouring!

The Tower......

The Education Centre is a funny shape. Everyone comments on it and they're right; it is a funny shape. It isn't your average-shaped building, especially in Uganda where buildings are usually very, very square and very, very straight.

Our Centre is a sort-of V-shaped building but with curved walls. The central point of our funny-shaped building (the bottom of the V, if you like) is in itself also quite a funny shape (well, ok, it's round - but round is funny, just look at the Rolly Pollies). This post is to explain in some detail about our tower, why we have a tower, what we will use it for, how it will amaze and astound our visitors and ultimately be the 'high point' (geddit?) of a visit to the Centre. The tower has also recently received a makeover (which has prompted this post dedicated solely to the tower), but you'll have to go to the next post to see news/photos of that!

For now, to refresh your memory....this be the tower (as it looked in July)....

The tower will have many purposes. It's the main entrance to the building for one thing (framed by some really large and incredibly beautiful hand-crafted wooden doors, thanks to Nile Vocational College). The tower is also the foyer of the Centre and will hold information about the Centre, what we do, where to go, who to talk to and where to talk to them. The curved walls of the tower will act as a gallery space where we will hang artwork and photos to show some of the work that has been done and to inspire visitors to get involved. The tower, being the central point, really is the heart of the building as it connects everything with everything else!

The piece de resistance, the cherry on the cake, the vodka in the coke, however, is the rather spectacular, locally made, wrought-iron spiral staircase that will lead children and adults up and onto our look-out platform above.....

The staircase might not look spectacular from this photo but once the walls have been painted and the floor laid, it will look superb! It also might not look like much to you because stairs are, well, just stairs, aren't they? And stairs are inherently not very exciting, this is true. However, when you think that the vast majority of the children that will visit the Centre will never have climbed stairs you see how, of all the staircases in the world, this is a pretty exciting staircase!

Not only that, but the staircase leads to this view....
Imagine never having seen the view above your village before, even though you have lived there your whole life...and then seeing this! This staircase idea just gets more and more exciting doesn't it!

And not only THAT (can you believe there's more?!), thanks to the lovely George.....

...we also have an amazing telescope. There will be amateur astronomy a-go-go from this tower with teams of local children and adults able to stargaze and get to know the universe around them....and all from our little tower thanks to our little staircase!

So, I think you'll agree that the tower is a special part of the building and deserves some pampering and attention...please see the next post where the tower receives not only a makeover but a new hat!

p.s. any budding astronomers out there are very welcome to come and lead these star-gazing sessions...contact us if you're interested! And huge big thanks to George for his extremely generous donation!

OK, brace yourselves for updates.....

Are you ready for an onslaught of visual treats? Are you ready to be wowed and amazed by the Education Centre in all of its current glory? Do you think you can handle it??

The following few blog entries are loooong overdue and as blog-doer, I apologise for the delay. However, I think you'll agree that it was worth the wait when you see how far we've come and how incredible the building looks at the moment.

There is one important blog entry that is missing and it should, by rights, be the first one I put on. It's the entry about Team C, our third and final Leeds University group of volunteers. Unfortunately, I am unable to post an entry about them as I don't have any photos to show you, and what is a blog entry without photos? However, I have sent out an emergency email to all members of Team C requesting photos and so very soon I will hopefully be able to complete an extra-specially-long post all about Team C. I don't want them to think we have forgotten all about them or didn't appreciate them or liked Teams A and B better or anything like that....Team C, you will get blogged very soon!

For now, check out the next post as we fast forward to the past few weeks and the construction of the ROOF on the tower....I can hardly contain myself....