African Roads

In the western world, we take good roads for granted, and complain loudly when we hit a small pothole or bump in our journey. We often hear from visitors that the most shocking thing they experience in Africa is the shaking and near misses they undergo while on journeys to the North. This lack of road infrastructure keeps communities isolated and cut off from development. Well, this week we invested our manpower in solving our road challenges at the Connect Africa Hub. We have 20 acres of a valley that we have begun to develop, carving out the jungle. I always give visitors a 3-foot long knife-like machete and let them hack away as we wind down narrow paths, partly to use the free labor and partly to have a handy tool if we encounter any snakes. Earlier this year, we killed a 7 foot Mamba on the land. Since then we have become highly motivated to slash the path clear, and make a bunch of noise in the progress.

February 2009, a team of 6 surveyors and architects from EMI Canada came to the CA Hub and in a one week (a whirlwind of long days and late nights) produced a 3-phase site plan for the Hub’s completion. (Let’s give a shout to the EMI team!) So, with these blueprints in hand, we have started putting in our road, shovel full by shovel full. The mountains of fill produced as we dug our Hub conference center out of the dirt have to be hand shovelled into the multi purpose crusade truck, and then backed up onto the hillside and hand shovelled out, trip after trip, day after day. I have a few blisters, but as I write this, we are seeing the first 150 meters of road starting to wind its way down into the valley.

We have a real “hands on” approach to problem solving at Connect Africa. One of the core values that we promote in every community we come into is to find out what resource is available on that ground and use it to help them transform the situation by “putting our hands to the task” together. Recently, I had our guys weld together some scrap steel into a road-levelling machine, and by dragging this behind the old Land Cruiser, we have our own road building equipment that we can use to build our own roads. I think the most amazing thing is the transformation that happens in our Connect Africa team as we face a problem, such as African roads, and within a week get to walk on the solution we created with our own hands and a little sweat, a road in the jungle. Now only a few hundred loads to go and we will be driving, pole, pole, (slowly, slowly) to the finish.

Trev out

HUB Update

Sometimes the simple things like having enough water are the least appreciated. As we moved onto the Connect Africa Hub construction site, we cut the jungle back, killed off poisonous snakes, fought off the hostile bandits and built ourselves a compound from the dirt under our feet. But, it was the carrying of water that really helped us understand what life was like for most of Africa. A 5 gallon jerry can of water weighs 50 lbs. There is no easy way to hike down into a muddy stream and fill it, then sweat your way back the mile or so to the Connect Africa Hub. I personally found that a bucket shower, and a bit of water boiled for tea was all I could stretch before I was off for another round with the jerry can.

We’ve really tried not to just promote a solution; we live with the very technology we promote. So this week when the 25 thousand liter rain water harvesting tanks were filled with rain from the sky; the Bio Sand Filter cleaned the water for the coffee; I had my first "non bucket" shower and then flushed the toilet! Well, life just got a whole bunch happier for me.

We head north this week to bring these same technologies to some friends in the former IDP camps. Life without the jerry can…life with clean water…life is good!

Trev out

Connect Africa Opens Atiak CARC (Connect Africa Resource Center)

Last week Connect Africa hosted the grand opening of the Atiak Connect Africa Resource Center (CARC) on the Sudan Border. The grand opening included a meal, which was attended by local pastors, tribal-leaders, politicians and police. This was an excellent moment in bringing together community leaders who rarely, if ever, communicate with each other.

Five weeks had passed without rains until the crusade began with two nights of downpour. This is becoming a norm with our crusades! Joining us on this event was a team from Samaritan’s Purse, UK, as well as our partners from Wine to Water, a North Carolina based group, led by Doc Hendley.

With so many varied accents floating around, our interpreters experienced the challenge of tuning their ears to a Liverpool accent and Southern drawl to interpret into Acholi. This turned into good laughs during the talks. Significant response to the Gospel followed the talks; forty adults responded the last night, along with hundreds of children coming forward.

As we stood at the memorial stone of one of the worst massacres of the whole LRA war, the significance of the CARC center was really brought home on the third day. One of the massacre stories shared told of over three hundred high school students who were taken out of class and slaughtered in the valley. The rebels had threatened the community with death if the bodies were recovered. For over a year, the valley became the place of dry bones, until the parents could no longer bear it and gathered them together. My heart was pierced as one local gentleman thanked us for bringing new life and clean water.

Afterwards, we went to the local pastor’s church facility that was destroyed by the same storm that destroyed the CARC center roof three months ago. Gathered around the rubble, we talked about the common hardships and that we’re facing them together!

On a development note, the Bio Sand Filters started being produced in Atiak. As well, the ISSB bricks are being produced to make four 15 K liter water tanks.

Thank you to all of our friends and partners that stood with us in this venture. Though there have been many valleys, storms and troubles, we faced them together. A renewed sense of hope and clean water are flowing.

Trev

Rainwater Harvesting Tanks

The Connect Africa Team are busy in June training community leaders in the process of making rainwater harvesting tanks using the ISSB bricks. The exciting thing for the community is the local sourcing of all the elements. We made the bricks from the subsoil on site with local labor, providing not only a much needed source of clean water, but also the skills and tools to solve their own problems.

Welcome to Connect Africa News

Welcome to Connect Africa News, our new blog for keeping our friends and associates current on ongoing developments in Northern Uganda. We encourage you to share this link with your friends who have an interest in sustainable, local, community development in the war-torn northern region of Uganda. For a comprehensive overview of our programs, visit our website: www.connectafrica.us.