Following is an email from Dave Bennett, who has preceded the team to Uganda.


Hi all,

Greetings from the Pearl of Africa. My travels to Uganda have gone quite smoothly, arriving at Mukono’s Colline hotel on Friday 1:30 am local time, only about 30 hours after I left Dulles airport.

Monday was my first day of work here. Vincent Ochaya, the engineer, Chris, the construction supervisor and I reviewed the scope of the work at hand. First up was to walk the entire length of the wall that will be constructed, at approximately 2100 feet, this will be a huge project that we will be helping with. We spent several hours just locating the survey markers that were installed about 9 years ago when the property was purchased. Several markers were completely covered by growth of the jungle. Our second task was to define a realistic construction schedule, taking into account purchasing and delivery of the tools and materials to do the job, hiring of the labor force, and all the logistical concerns to complete this project. We are expecting to have as many 45 to 50 people working at the height of construction. Early tomorrow we will meet with the surveyor and verify all the wall segments are aligned correctly as to the master plan. One segment of the wall will be built directly through an existing home that will have to be removed within the next week or so. There will also be an additional 500 feet of chain link fencing to be installed later. The mission team that is to arrive in a week will be mainly tasked with the movement of materials from the stockpiles of bricks, bags of cement, aggregate and sand to the different areas of work in progress. The movement of water from the well to our efforts will also be an important and necessary task for us. We plan to strap 4 water cans to a bicycle to help move the water up the hill to where it is needed. This should be fun, aargh. There is no way the wall will be completed during our stay, but we all will make a huge contribution while we are here. I am looking forward to the arrival of the whole of the mission team. May you all travel easy. And remember, that extreme patience is the key to an enjoyable trip.

That’s all for now,

Dave (Musai) Bennett