2018 Found the Mixson clan in a hotel room in Kigumba, Uganda. It was a little quieter New Year’s than we are used to in the USA. We heard some ululation from the adjacent houses and maybe a car horn honking, but no fireworks. And no dogs barking at the said fireworks!
We were up early the next day to start our work day at the Kiryandongo Camp. The camp was a beehive of activity before we got there and stayed that way all day. The church had planned a prayer service to begin the new year. They had also butchered a cow and had a big meal planned for midday.
The guys started work on digging a trench for the water lines for the new cisterns. It was hard digging in the dry ground. Blistered hands ensued.
Another group started measuring and cutting drip irrigation line. We had 1000 meter rolls that had to be cut into 30 meter lengths. We were able to prep 85 kits with the drip line.
Did I mention that some of the line was a mangled, tangled mess? No, well it was! Kind of like trying to untangle spaghetti. The rolls with the silver duct tape at the lower right are the 30 meter lengths that are distributed. And yes, that is my dirty boy, working hard!
Sometimes we had a little more help than we needed and a few of the Sherwood folks helped with some fun diversion.
Kristin spent some more time with the camp ladies. After lunch, she demonstrated how to make the Luopads that we have been distributing.
Ben and I also had to sort through the half-acre drip kits that we brought up. Unfortunately, some parts were missing. Neither location is ready to install them right now, so at least we can get the other parts to complete the kits.
Sherwood Baptist Church and With Open Eyes provided funding to put in a rainwater harvesting system on several buildings. Pastor Sosthen had gotten a contractor (a South Sudanese refugee himself) to start the installation. This is the system on the large school building.
Note the gutters on the eave of the building. At the far end, there are pipes that direct the rainwater into the large 10,000 liter tank. The Sherwood youth helped dig the trench for the pipe that will take the water from the tank up to the elevated tank at the garden area.
With the three buildings that we installed the systems on, enough rain can be harvested to provide water to the half acre garden for about a month. EDEN also supplied a small gasoline pump to move the water from the cistern tanks up to the elevated tank, which is 6 feet off the ground.
A very tired and very dirty group headed out before sunset to rest and clean up.
EDEN in Africa 