Wednesday 22nd October

Breakfast was pancakes this morning followed by our 2hr drive to Lubbe Farm.

On route today we had some great fun singing and dancing in the bus and when Paul, our guide, boarded he joined in with a rendition of S Club 7’s ‘Reach for the stars’.

Today at the worksite we were mixing more cement for the columns as well as making more shuttering. There was an issue that the boarding that should have been delivered hadn't been and so work was some what slowed but this gave us a chance to sit and chat with some of the workmen and find out about their lives and families.

More columns were built out of shuttering during the morning and at lunchtime scaffolding arrived so that in the afternoon we could fill the columns with cement. Johnson, the cement mixer operator, spoke very good English and Joe was able to have an extended conversation with him about his life and work.

Lunch was the regular Peanut Butter and Jam sandwiches followed by fruit.

Uganda has some amazing fruit, Pineapples being one of them. We have been told they were brought here by an English explorer, presumably after travels to the Caribbean and it was discovered that they grow very well in Ugandan soil. Since then Uganda has been known for the sweetness of its pineapples and, though the group is missing some English foods, we will be missing Pineapples when we are back in the UK.

The concrete columns are made straight and true by using a rock hanging via a piece of string from an overhang at the top of the column. The distance from column to string is measure at top, middle and bottom and then the structure is propped up using long branches to keep it straight as the concrete is poured in and set

By the end of the afternoon we had filled several more columns with cement and the group left happy but tired! The sun was very hot again today and we had to take regular breaks from the heat in the shade of a tree and drink lots of water.

We arrived back at the guest house after a 2hr 30min drive through some of the Kampala traffic but having stopped for some cold cokes from a stall at the side of the road.

When we arrived back at the guest house the group had the opportunity to look again at some of the crafts for sale and dinner was at 6pm.

During the evening we had our usual debrief session and played a couple of games of consequences. The group is learning a huge amount about construction- I am now thinking of ways we can use this new found knowledge in Homewood and beyond!!