We arrived back in the UK last night after an amazing yet busy few months. As I said in the last blog, our summer teams worked hard and achieved a lot but I didn't mention the ongoing progress we were also making with organising the building of our new school. I am still processing the fact that we were able to leave Kaniki on Friday with everything in place and ready to go! It can only be God and for sure the faithful people he put in place to help us. Pictured left are Simon and Samuel who have both been an amazing blessing. Simon has from the beginning (when we first decided to try and purchase land for the school) been offering us his advice and incredibly long man hours. The land we bought was essentially farm land and had massive furrows across the whole area which would have taken a team of Zambians months to level with their traditional hoes but Simon, who works for Baluba Valley Farm - opposite the college, came with their digger and did it in a few days, clearing ant hills as high as 4 metres tall as he went. Simon has also helped me find workers to finish our security fence and allowed us to order the necessary materials through the farm. If you're reading this mate, we couldn't have done it without you - THANKS! Samuel has come on board in the last few weeks as our builder. While we had used a Zambian foreman to assist us with our wall fence, we weren't convinced he would be able to build our school to a high enough standard. Samuel, however, has a long history with Kaniki and has proven his high standards in building through projects he has done for friends of ours. Most importantly he shares the same vision and heart for our school as we do. We are extremely grateful to both Simon and Samuel!
The first thing we did once we had bought and leveled the land was to secure it by building a wall fence. (Don't forget we are only 1-2 km from the DR Congo border.) Again this was something the first 3 summer teams helped us with. Once the fence around the perimeter was finished (sometime last week) we then had to actually make an entrance! As we are in effect expanding the college grounds it makes sense to use the main college entrance (which already has a security/gate man) and then have an internal through-way from the college into the school grounds. Above you can see where yet again Simon and his digger came in very handy!! Again I was very relieved to have this entrance made before I left Zambia so that building can begin even in my absence. Having that access meant we could also mark out exactly where Samuel should begin building the first classrooms.
Samuel will begin building before the end of this month and on our return to Zambia in February next year we should find the buildings (2 classrooms, offices and a toilet block) up to roof level. We will continue to give updates of progress on this blog and of course our new baby and its safe delivery! God is good, all the time!
RSS Feed