EARLIER NEWS

20th December 2005 - Extract from a message sent to Mr. Teece from Alan & Oriel

Just thought I would update you on recent progress with the school.

It's a good job that I had so many problems and delays with the first drilling company as I heard last night they had gone bankrupt, taking some peoples money down with them. It's strange how things work out sometimes and is probably an explanation as to why the revised estimate was so high.

The new drilling company have now drilled a borehole for us, which provides both good and bad news. They drilled to 68 met and did not get great flow, not really enough for the hand pump we wanted to install at around 30 met. so they declared it a dry hole and capped it. However there is a flow of 0.13 litres a second at 60 met, too low for a hand pump but ok for a solar submersible pump. If we trickle pump into a tank twice a day this should be enough for the school. As it was declared a dry hole they refunded half the deposit.

Alan will go up to Lusaka on Wednesday and try to buy a suitable pump. Along with the storage tank we are hoping that it will be no more than the original quote, but we don't know enough about pump prices to be sure. If we do get a solar pump however we will have to spend money on making it theft proof as a friend of ours had a solar pump stolen. The friend who had the pump stolen runs a mission school in western province and she has invited us to visit and look around, which we will try to do. She has stacks of knowledge and is extremely helpful. One of the things she mentioned as a good possibility for the students to do when they are here is construct a playground, as this has proved extremely popular with their kids.

We have had to spend quite a bit on transport lately to get all the blocks, sand, cement and aggregate on site, but this expense will reduce a bit now and, providing we don't have too much rain, building progress will be much more visible now we are out of the ground.

I will keep you updated, but in the meantime have a very happy Christmas and a good rest before the new term starts. Please send our best wishes to all at Coopers.

20th October 2005 - a message sent to Mr. Whomsley from Alan & Oriel - part of which reads:-

As from Monday we are starting building proper and the building inspector and workers will all be on site. Work up to now has been digging sand, transporting water and chasing paperwork.

This means that there is an imminent outlay of quite a lot of money to buy the first batch of building materials and transport things to the site. once building is underway I would like employment to be as continuous as possible, so that means a regular supply of materials and equipment.

To date we have not been able to get any food aid for the workers, so in the first instance, we will need to supply food for lunch from the school funds.

We have had a few additional donations from some of our guests and also from Alan’s brother and mother, so this should help.

<< Latest News

Another source of news on the project can be found on Nomad Africa Travel’s own AFRICAN DIARY