We have much to thank the Lord for as we review progress of the building work at Saidi so far. Thanks to the hard work of the building team, and brother Goodson’s diligent oversight, a lot has been accomplished since we started less than two years ago.
Current Phase of building work
The following details building work presently underway, or planned for the next few months.
With MGO 2022 rapidly approaching, by now we had hoped to have already built dormitory accommodation for the visiting team. We intended this to be used later to accommodate people attending the teaching conferences we hoped would recommence later this year.
Unfortunately, we had to revise our plans. A lightning strike and fire destroyed the Msasa earlier this year, and it needs to be repaired. We are also concerned about security due to the deteriorating economic situation in Malawi.
Repair Msasa
The msasa was a thatch-roofed structure used mainly for children’s outreach. The traditional design meant that it was cool and quiet. Torrential rain is very noisy on a metal roof, and it gets very hot inside! The fire made us rethink the use of thatch in future buildings. However, although much more expensive, the benefits make it worthwhile to rebuild the msasa as it was before.
We want to complete repairs soon, now that the rainy season is over. It is difficult to do such work in the rain, and thatch is only available seasonally.
Security
As we do more building work on the site, so it becomes more attractive to potential thieves. We have already suffered two thefts. Ironically, the thieves stole a section of our security fencing! The area was unlit and they were able to work unseen and unheard during a heavy rainstorm.
Since those attacks, we had been planning security improvements and recent events emphasized the importance of this. We had already planned to add extra lighting around the site, but following a recent review we are implementing additional physical and electronic measures. The local police informed us that we cannot rely upon them to respond to any incidents.
Although we want the site to be secure, we also want it to remain accessible and welcoming. So we need wisdom as we proceed.
Perimeter & Main Gate.
We need to complete several hundred metres of perimeter fencing and install a main gate to control vehicle access (particularly at night)
Electrification.
We want to improve security of the inner compound, housing the container bay and Goodson’s home, by electrifying its fence. This delivers a mild deterrent electric shock, but more importantly sounds an alarm to notify our night-watchmen. God willing, we intend to extend electrification to the rest of the perimeter as resources permit.
Grille/Gate for Container Bay.
The container bay area is somewhat vulnerable. It houses our office and stores and is also used as a parking area. This makes it attractive to potential thieves, so we want to enclose it within its own steel grille / gate.
Installation of Lighting & CCTV.
Over the past few months we have invested in additional solar street lights and CCTV equipment. Some remote areas of the site were unlit, and intimidating for the watchmen to patrol. Additional lighting and CCTV should considerably improve their capability. Goodson’s team have cast some concrete posts for this gear. We hope to hire a crane and get the equipment installed and operational soon.
Alarm / Siren system.
It’s important that our night watchmen are able effectively to raise an alarm. The final security improvement for now will be to install a panic button and siren system, and to equip them with effective radios.
Print Room & Office
SALT recently acquired printing equipment which will enable us to do short-run booklet printing. This is too bulky to fit in our existing office space so we’ve decided to build a separate print-room. This is a good opportunity to expand our office space slightly and provide a staff kitchen & toilet. We will do this in a way that will allow the space to double up as a small studio apartment which Bro Stephen can use while in Malawi.
Septic & Soak-away
The race is on to be ready for MGO 2022 in August. We are expecting a team of around 24 volunteers from UK, USA & Canada. Although we normally spend most of our MGO time on the streets, we expect this year to be different. We want to give the local work a boost by running a Bible club for children and having Gospel meetings for adults. As this will be based at Saidi, we need to have suitable toilet facilities for the visitors. This (and the studio apartment), in turn requires installing a septic pit & soak-away.
Toilet Blocks
With our plans for conferences and children’s day camps we will need adequate toilets for those attending. We intend to construct composting toilets around the camp site as this reduces demand for water and produces a very useful by-product!
Staff Quarters
Wages in Malawi are very low, so it is a major benefit for workers to have basic living accommodation on site. This helps us too, as it means we can populate remote areas of the site, thus improving security. We hope to construct simple low-cost dwellings for our ground and security staff over the next few months.
“Brown Water” Storage & Site Irrigation
Our borehole now provides a reliable supply of water to meet present needs. However, we anticipate much greater demand when we have large numbers of people for conferences etc. We need to irrigate vegetation around the site to keep dust down in the dry season, and prevent a mud bath in the wet. Recently, we purchased some additional land to grow maize for our feeding programs, and want to be able to irrigate it. There are a couple of streams nearby which have water all year round, so we intend to build another storage tower to pump water into for this purpose.
Next phase of the building work
The work outlined above will likely keep us busy for the rest of 2022, Lord willing. Which means that building accommodation for conferences will unfortunately have to wait a few months. Bible teaching conferences are such an important aspect of the work, that we can’t afford to delay that much longer. Thanks for praying!