Hi everyone, As always, we hope that you are all well! I’m sure many of you would appreciate a much-needed update!
Well probably the biggest news over the last few months has been the successful construction of Upendo’s roof!! Our thanks go out once again to Emmaus Mossley for their amazing help with this. Emmaus provided us with a sizeable donation for construction, which covered the entire cost of materials and labour, and they offered guidance and reassurance when it was needed last summer- Emmaus, thank-you once again!
As most of you are probably aware, the roof was a long-time coming. We initially scheduled to begin construction way back in August, but after careful consideration and a frustrating experience with the local planning department in Mwanza, it was decided to delay until our registration in Tanzania was fully complete… We just didn’t expect that to take us until January! Registration with the authorities in Tanzania had to take place in Dar-es-Salaam. Unfortunately Dar is twenty hours by road from Mwanza, which makes movement of the relevant registration documents an irritatingly drawn-out process.
Nevertheless, patience (we can assure you) is a virtue, and with registration finally complete, Carly, James and I returned for a fleeting visit to Buswelu at the end of January this year. After four months away from Buswelu it was fantastic to see all the Upendo family again, and although the visit was too short in duration for our liking, it certainly did not fall short in productivity! Between overseeing construction of the roof and playing badminton with the kids, the daily 3 hour round-trips to the bank in Mwanza were, well… tiring.
We were more than spurred on by the progress with construction however, and we still found time to take the kids swimming (just!) Their confidence in the water by the way, has improved impressively since our first swimming lessons back in summer 2010, which is great to see.
Construction of the roof was wonderful after having waited for so long, but it was also logistically challenging: In all, it required 260 sheets of corrugated iron, 1.34km of timber, sixty litres of timber treatment, and almost 120kg of nails! Transport ranged from motorcycles and trucks (which are always exciting in my view), to strapping iron sheeting onto wheelbarrows and just pushing it from the market to the building site (which I have to say rarely is.…especially when the return journey is 4 miles over bumpy ground and needs to be made three times!) It’s always good to get your hands dirty for a change though and we made the trip to site everyday to watch as the roof’s skeleton grew (thankfully, usually on a motorbike!)
The roof's completion has also enabled us at last, to connect our brand-new rain-water harvester to our water-storage tank. The roof should be able to collect easily enough water to keep the tank topped-up through the dry season. And with only the windows/doors and fitting out to go before the kids can move into their new home, I think its time to prepare for the next project in our self-sustainable children’s home… Cue engineers and your solar power plans (if any of you happen to be reading this!)
Best wishes,
Matt and all the Upendo team :)