Hey everybody, we are hitting interesting times here in Manzamnyama village. Aidan has successfully fixed the beetle while I was away at a conference, so finally we've got wheels again! Which means, we can drive to the city and buy matierials again. (Allthough the guys at the hardware store looked a bit puzzled when we told them to load the 3 bags of cement into the beetle ..) Last week we were in Mthatha to buy stuff again: black piping, electric cable for the water pump (that was donated to the project by Jenny and Earle Lawrence, thankyouverymuch!), light switches and fittings and bulbs, a new spade, a big shear for gardening, cement and some other small things. The villagers have been helpful these last few weeks and build some bricks up at the hilltop. Now we only need building sand - we are still waiting for the guys with the donkeys to bring it from the river - and then we can actually start putting up the first building! I'm so excited! But that's not all the good news. The last meeting with the project committee was also very fruitful. Not only were we informed that the thatching we ordered will soon be ready, but, they also found a translator for us! We wouldn't have thought it possible any more, so it came as a big - and very pleasant - surprise. Babalwa, a 22 year old girl from the village, will work with us from today onwards, 5 days a week. She will act as our translator, teach us Xhosa and just generally help with whatever we are doing at the moment. I'm sure it will facilitate our interaction with the village a lot.
We are doing quite ok with funding at the moment, friends and family from Switzerland are helping out, but anyone is welcome to donate to the project. This blog will be kept updated weekly with info and photos, so that you can see directly where your money goes. Every help is highly appreciated! You can make a difference right now. We still need funding for bigger things like several water tanks, solar panels and stuff like that.
Today Aidan was setting up the pump - our little generator can just about power it - and installing pipes from the treehouse up to the hilltop, to connect all our dams. Right now only the dam at the bottom - at the treehouse - is full of water, because we can fill it through the pipe that comes from the spring. But to get that water up to the hilltop, where the lodge is, we need the pump, and that's what was set up today. It's working!
Photos: bottom dam, just above the treehouse, putting the plastic in, filling it from spring, and using the water!
