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Published: March 2nd 2008
The carpentry team stayed at Moshono and continued to make furniture while the rest of us piled on one of the schools many colourful buses and went off to landscape the new school that had just been finished at Usa River.
The school gave us two traditional African 3 prong hoes and 4 dubious shovels to do all the planting. The shovel blades were worn well down and in some cases the handle was no more than 2 foot long. We decided that this would not be suitable for our delicate western backs. On the way to Usa River we called into town to try and get some shovels. Asher took us to the same hardware store where we purchased the paint. They didn’t have any shovels in stock, so I purchased the only two spades they had, but at least they were solid steel including the handle. Denis went to a hardware store a couple of doors up and was able to purchase two more spades, but with wooden handles.
As we left the shop, we had to fight our way through the throng of souvenirs sellers that had quickly congregated. We then drove a half a block
down to a small café so we could buy some lunch to take with us to Usa River. By the time we got off the bus, the boys had caught up with us were there trying to convince us that we really did need their goods.
We finally set of for Usa River, along a good bitumen road, but had regular speed humps to keep the speed down to a reasonable pace. We could see Mt Kilimanjaro through the clouds and haze in the distance.
The Usa River Campus is even more incredible than the original one at Moshono. Some buildings were still under construction, but those that were completed were very impressive, much better than any school in Albury Wodonga. The boarding dormitories were all 3 stories high and the class rooms were all two stories high. The whole 30 acre site is surrounded by a 10 foot high brick wall. The school was built from a single US$8,000,000 donation from a family in the USA, who were very impressed with what Gemma is trying to achieve.
The donation only paid for the buildings, funding had to be found elsewhere for all the fit out, furniture,
computers etc needed to turn it into a school.
After a quick tour of the school we started planting. In places the soil was reasonably soft and workable, in others it was rock hard and full of building rubble. We broke the handle on one of the cheaper wooden shovels.
We found the best way was to break the soil with the African 3 prong hoe then shovel out the loose dirt with a spade. It was very hard, hot and tiring work.
We managed to get one half of the planting completed. When we arrived back at Moshono there were another 27 benches completed ready to be painted.
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Jan
non-member comment
good to see all!
just got back from New Zealand Mark and the modem is here...now back onlione and can wade through 84 emails . I will takem more time to read all you have written and look at the photos but it all looks good.........School looks amazing..............does not look like they need anything..................maybe an Australian Literacy teacher ??????? Hi to all Jan