November Newsletter about St James & I’m off to Uganda on 6th December!

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Dear Friends of St James

Thank you for all your interest and support during the past year and in fact since I first got involved with helping to build a school in Nakakabala, Uganda. The progress we have made has been beyond my wildest dreams and I cannot emphasise strongly enough the difference you have made to the lives of many children, their families and the wider community. I am so very grateful to you all.

I hope those of you who bought kilos and kilos of our Discovery apples in September and the children who picked them, enjoyed them! You donated well over £100 to St James for the apples!

Several of you ordered the St James ‘Happy’ Christmas cards too and I am still busy making them. Profits from card sales are well over £150 already! I enjoy making up the cards as the happy faces of the children at St James always makes me smile!

There is more good news from St James. Two weeks ago the oldest children sat for their National Primary Leaving Certificate in the completed Hambridge Hall and James is expecting good results again. What is different this year is that the children did not have to travel miles to another school for their exams as St James is now registered as an Exam Centre therefore saving money for their transport and exam fees. Also two other schools came to St James to sit their exams and paid St James for the privilege. Next year James is hoping many more schools will use the facilities we have provided which means more much needed funds for St James!

James is constructing a new piggery. The poor pigs have been a bit neglected so this is good news as the animals projects are so important. The chickens in Georges Den are doing well and the goats and cows too. James has other ideas for raising money for the school so I am looking forward to hearing about them when I see him. All aiming towards self-sufficiency for St James.

It has been a real pleasure recently being able to share all the fantastic news from St James. I am really looking forward to my trip to Uganda to see for myself all the amazing progress that’s been made since my last visit a year ago, especially to see everyone enjoying the fresh clean water ‘on tap’ so to speak!

No longer will I feel guilty having my ‘shower’ each evening because the children have had to carry my water from a distant borehole. The only downside is the water when I bathe is going to be freezing as it will not have been stood around all day in jerrycans!!

I’m also can’t wait to see the completed classroom block ‘Hambridge Hall’. I still smile at the thought of a hall being named after my family, though they certainly deserve the honour with all that they put up with from me!! The hall when divided by sliding doors, provides four classes of children with a safe and comfortable place to have their lessons sitting on the 200 new desks you bought.

I will be emailing photos of all the changes that have taken place and of course keeping you up-to-date with all that I get up to during my five weeks stay. Yes, I only intended going for three weeks to attend James’ eldest sons wedding and stay for Christmas, but the air fare was going to be £1200! If I wait to come back until 10th January it goes down to £656 so I’ve just got to stay! The prices fluctuate so much because it is Uganda’s main tourist period when many come to spend time on the banks of the Nile and Lake Victoria; to visit the various National Parks and view the Mountain Gorillas.

I am very grateful to my wonderful husband for letting me go and spend Christmas in Uganda. I won’t be cooking his turkey dinner this year but I can guarantee he will have a better meal than I will! We plan to go out for a pre-Christmas meal the weekend before I leave to make up for it!

Thanks again for all the interest and support it makes my ‘job’ so much more fulfilling. In the next newsletter please read about our next challenge which is to build and equip a clinic at St James! We would be so grateful if you could help with this.

Love Gerry x

Drilling the Borehole

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Dear Gerry,

I hope and pray all is well with you and your husband is recovering well.

Sorry for keeping you waiting. Surely this sort of excitement can keep you awake. The good news I have for you though is we struck water at the point we surveyed and all is going on well. Yes you are going to give them a gift any person alive would wish to have. We all know that water is life….so you are giving them a lease of good life. This dream soon is to become reality and all thanks and praise go the Lord for using you to make it happen.

It is indeed an honour working with the less privileged because it is more or less a calling from God. I wish many people with the capacity to help would share the same vision with you. You are such an inspiration. Thank you so much.

Meanwhile here are some pictures taken by the field head during the drilling process. I was unable to travel to Kamuli due to engagements at office. I also took some yesterday when an excited James was talking to the supervisor and also for you to see where the borehole will be exactly. That blue pipe is the hole we drilled and its where the water is.

Later on I will upload two video for you on you tube. Right now the internet is very bad yet I need some good connection.

All in all we are progressing well. Right now we have given the hole time to dry up and the gravel to hold the (casings) pipes together before we do pump testing and borehole setup. Friday is when we plan to do this phase.

Because we were so cautious about the water quality and yield/quantity to last for many years no matter whether the water table rises or goes low, we drilled exactly 80meters and cased it to the depth of 36meters. With this we guarantee you a good quality borehole to last for a very long time.

And if in future you happen to put an electric pump, there will be no need for a change in design. This design is for a multi-purpose water source as required by government of Uganda.

Here are the pictures and I hope you will enjoy them:

Borehole Siting

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I’m including the messages from Thaddaeus the engineer who gives a little more detail about the photos and what is going on:

Dear Gerry,

I am here in Kamuli with James and he is learning some hydo-geological skills. We are doing the survey and I have taken pictures of how things have been unfolding. I was so touched when James narrated the whole story about the school and how you have really supported them. I and on behalf of our company we say a very big thank you for loving Uganda and our children. May the Lord always bless you.

Here are some of the pictures. To be exact the borehole will be located in the sides of Hambridge Hall after the water tank near the fence. You will see that the two pegs that is in picture 89 and 90. As for me, I am the one in a checked short sleeved shirt with glasses.

Yes I can explain briefly what was happening. We were taking measurements at different points of the earth where James had proposed the borehole to be located. Each and every point we surveyed presented a different set of records, but we had to look for at least two spots which were consistent in terms water availability or yield.

In other words we were determining the water table. That is how we came with those two i mentioned in photos 89 and 90. That digital equipment was helping us read all the coordinates and profiles of the different areas. The gentle man you see taking notes is our technician who is now preparing the report.

I believe when the report comes through, you will get a more clear picture, but precisely that is what we were doing. So at least now we know where water is and when time to drill comes, we know where to do it. For the rest of the photos it was James taking around the school.

The Report will be available in two days.

Thanks again for the chance to work with you.

God bless you.

Thaddeaus

Water, water everywhere and now… Geminy Maw brings water to St James!

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Dear Friends

You may remember at the end of last year when Geminy Maw contacted me. Geminy is the granddaughter of the late Maria Maw MBE who was and still is my inspiration for everything I do in Uganda. Gem is an amazing young woman, a bit like her grandmother, and while she was spending time in Queenstown, New Zealand she offered to raise funds for St James and in particular she desperately wanted to provide a bore hole as she knew the children had to walk a long way for safe drinking water.

Geminy held lots of events in Queensland and I supported her by doing a sponsored 5K swim here and many of you sponsored me, so thank you!

Unfortunately at the time, we didn’t raise enough money for the borehole, but to improve the situation at St James we invested the funds in a big rainwater harvester which would give some relief. It was erected beside the Hambridge Hall, the classroom block with its big metal roof, ideal for collecting rainwater. We had the harvester up and running in time for the following rainy season and it has been a great help, but only when it rains!

Geminy carried on her hard work to raise funds for the borehole and then in June I received this Face Book message from her:’i have the most AMAZING news ever, i have managed to get my big, big boss to donate all the rest of the money we need for the borehole!!!!! at the moment i have $1,860 in the bank from my fund raising in the north island, i also have a collection pot at home so i will count that out then add onto the total but it should take us to over $1,900… cant wait to hear back from u, sooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!! 🙂

Gems spirit and dedication was noticed by Lindsey, her boss in New Zealand. He emailed me with the following ‘The work you are doing is quite inspirational Gerry, I just want to let you know what a great advocate you have in Gem, her passion and enthusiasm is just over flowing and quite contagious I must say!’ He goes on to ask for details about St James and about installing a borehole and then adds ‘We would like to help here and the bore seems to be quite high up on the list of things that would be of benefit and indeed a goal of Gems.

I have committed to Gem that we will fund the well but I would also be willing to spend some time on assisting in the process if needed as the outcome we want to help with here and I am sure your goal is to provide a long term water supply for the village.’

Since this amazing offer was made I have been busy over the summer inquiring into the best company to carry out the work for us. With James’ help I got quotes and details from three and decided on Thaddaeus and his company Steadfast Supplies and Services Limited in Kampala, who had done a good job installing the lightening conductors into St James earlier this year. Fortunately I have an acquaintance in the business so was able to check things with him as this was unknown territory to me!

At the end of July work started with a ‘Hydro-geological survey and borehole siting to determine the water table or volumes’, followed by the drilling of the borehole at the end of August to a depth of 80 metres then the installing of pipes and hand pump. Fortunately the children were on holiday during the drilling process, which was good for ‘Health & Safety’, though of course there is really no such thing in Uganda!

When the children returned on to school on Monday 8th September they were amazed to find a borehole on their school compound and even happier on Friday 12th when they had their first drink of fresh, pure, clean, safe water! There was much celebrating! The water has been tested for its quality and projected to give many years yield whatever happens to the water table. And even I can drink it!

The last comment from Thaddaeus was ‘Let me once again share this great moment with you about the completion of our work of drilling and installing a borehole at St. James Nakakabala. All went well and we thank you again for giving us the opportunity to work with you and also supporting the school and children at Kamuli. We hope and pray that many people will benefit from this enormous water source and you can also use it to turn around many lives of people around there.

We have been very honored to work with a person like you and James. We had a very wonderful time with James, the children sang and danced for us, there was even time for games…. Oh!!! Our time at St. James was filled with total joy and happiness.  Wishing you all the best with this borehole and please enjoy this fresh water. Have a blessed day.’

Thaddaeus was very kind and agreed to take photos of the work from start to finish and I will attach them to the following emails. He also took video which is on YouTube!

So did you enjoy this wonderful news? I still cannot quite believe it! This is what I wrote to you in my March Newsletter: ‘I hope, in the not too distant future we will be able to afford to sink a borehole in the compound to serve everyone at St James plus some of the families who live nearest to the school.

I cannot remember if I told you the answer the children gave James and I when we gave them the choice of completing Hambridge Hall, the block of four classrooms, or putting the money you had all helped me to raise last year towards a borehole. Well, they chose the classrooms, saying they could cope with collecting the water from the distant borehole. Shows how much they really value the education they are being offered!’ Never did I ever imagine that there would be a borehole at St James six months later.

Miracles do happen!

August Newsletter

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Dear Friends

I hope you enjoyed reading about James’ visit to the UK in my last newsletter. I have recently received a letter from him where he says

“Dearest Colleague, Sister, Friend, Relative Gerry, best wishes from me and the school community!! How I miss you too much as I have got used to staying with you and Norman!! Sharing our jokes, ironing, cooking, etc. Oh Gerry, I hope I will live to come back to the UK once again. I know you are anxious to look at St James especially the new developments since you last visited us. Indeed a lot has been put up and St James looks so changed to a growing fantastic school! I will try to get some photos to you soon.” 

He continues in his letter to tell me the “best news of all”, confirming that St James has been awarded a UNEB CODE by the Government. (Uganda National Examination Board). This is amazing and means that the children of St James can take their National Primary Leavers Exams at St James and not have to travel long distances with the transport expenses that incurs and also pay a ‘sitting fee’ for every child.

Gaining this qualification as an Exam Sitting Centre means other schools will now be paying for their pupils to take their exams at St James paying the school a fee, therefore earning money for St James! In addition to this the results of the Primary Leavers Exams will be awarded to St James instead of being given to the previously used Sitting Centres.

St James will be on the National League Table for the first time and as we know schools are judged by their position on the league tables! Though James and I will never lose sight of the fact that St James is very different from many ‘private’ schools in Uganda as the children attending are from very poor families and often haven’t had the full seven years of education.

Their needs are more complicated and even getting to school can be a real challenge for them when the demands of their families weighs heavy. Often they have to do a days work before they leave for school and occasionally a pupil will have to bring a young sibling to school with them if there is no one too look after the child at home! Gaining the UNEB code usually takes a school 8-10 years so I am very proud of James, the children and all the community involved.

Of course, it would not have been possible at all without the hard work of you all to raise money for the building of the block of four classrooms, ‘Hambridge Hall’, and the furnishing of it with the 200 single seat desks, blackboards, etc. So thank you so much!!!

Yes, we have raised the money needed for the 200 desks, many through personal sponsorship and I will make sure your names will be added to your desk when I go out to Uganda in December! The remainder of the desks were paid for by various events and individual donations.

The Race Night that Neil, who works for Life Leisure at Hazel Grove Leisure Centre, kindly organised was enjoyed by quite a few of you including James himself who won several races adding his winnings to the money raised during the evening.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter James and I were invited to attend a rehearsal with St George’s Singers as they were practising for a concert of music of Africa. We were encouraged to sing along and enjoyed trying! Jean Egerton one of the choir members had invited us to attend the actual concert at Gorton Monastery as they had offered to use the concert to promote St James. Unfortunately it was after James had returned to Uganda but he was given a CD of the music which he really enjoyed. To hear ‘Zimbe! Come, sing the songs of Africa!’, by Alexander L’Estrange, in such a wonderful setting was amazing, incredible! I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and over £500 for St James was raised, with many people taking an interest in the school too!

Then recently my friend and tennis companion Angela, opened her beautiful garden up to the public where we served afternoon teas and had a relaxed time sitting in the warm sunshine. The only downside was that three different wasps decided to get their own back on me when I was guarding the delicious cakes from them!

Other funds were donated from several of the Friendship Schools. Vernon Primary who hosted James for a whole day of sharing, crafts, music, fun and friendship including James and I taking part in English Country Dancing, raised a lot of money for desks! Cheadle Heath, Marton and St Paul’s Primary Schools also gave James a wonderful welcome and contributed to the desk challenge.

Hollies Pre-School that has a playground named after it at St James were very excited when James and I took part in their ‘Growing Week’ planting seeds with all the children, singing songs, playing games and having fun! A den made of sheets and curtains had been built for the children and James was invited to ‘tea’ with them in the den. I have wonderful memories of James surrounded by children, lying on his side so he was at their level, sipping pretend tea and having his face gently stroked by one of the little girls! A moment I will never forget, and nor will he! Everyone young and old love James and he loved them! It’s no wonder he makes such a great teacher, head teacher, colleague, friend and father to so many in Nakakabala.

Several desks were also bought with money donated by groups of children from Vernon, Lower Park and other schools who had held their own events at home. It warms my heart to know how thoughtful and caring many children are for others and makes me very proud to know them, as they are our future.

Most recently, as you may have read, Ewan and his little sister Holly, pupils of Lower Park and Hollies Pre-School, set up a stall outside their own home selling Loom Bands and refreshments for dog walkers and their dogs! It was a very successful effort!

So quite and accomplishment to be able to provide the 200 desks for St James. So BIG THANK YOU’S to Neil, Jean, Angela, the schools as well as all of you who have given personal donations and of course all the children who have made an extra effort for their friends in Uganda. Asante sana! See photo of desks arriving at St James!

Now to other news from St James over the last few months. It’s always exciting for me to be able to share the progress you are all helping to make at the school. As well as good quality classrooms, the desks, blackboards, etc. two other requirements to achieve and keep the UNEB status was for the security to be improved around the school compound and for specific books to be provided for the children in Primary Seven.

James says in his letter

‘I went to Kampala and signed for our code it is 146425. The officials were happy the way we are organizing our school and said they would come for another inspection specially to see that desks, text books and the gates plus fence repair have been done for security purposes otherwise will nullify our Centre.’

The government officials had visited the school while James was in the UK. So a further 2,550,000 UGX (£637.50) had to be spent on making a strong gate and repairing the fence around the compound. Gaining the UNEB code cost 350,000 UGX (£87.50) which included James’ transport to and from Kampala. We have been able to fund all the requirements from the hard work and generosity of you all. See photo of James with the wonderful new gate!

Last bit of news for now. James sent me a text recently. He wrote

‘we took part in Zonal Music though we lacked instruments and in Zonal Netball and Football. good news my team poynton fc at st j beat Bugul fc 3-2. big thugs.’ I’m sure he would want me to pass on his ‘big thugs’ to you too!!

Before James signs off he says

‘As I conclude I wish to thank you for building St James, brick by brick. I am not overworking and you should not too!!’

Before he flew back to Uganda we had promised each other that we would take regular breaks from all the challenges developing and running a school demands!He also added:

‘Best regards to Great Norman, Mrs Windsor, Nicola, Annick and Davy, Patricia and Andy, Lionsheart, Christine, all at Vernon, All, All, All that I have not mentioned. I love you all.’

Love and many thanks to you all from me too and everyone at St James, Nakakabala, Uganda.

Gerry

Extra – As I take lots of video footage when I am in Uganda I thought I would try to put two on YouTube and I succeeded, eventually! To view ‘Children build their own school’ & ‘My early morning walk to the bore hole’ please click on the link below. Enjoy!