Although we recently had to make adjustments to our schedule for the Saidi Development Project, we are still encouraged by the progress made so far.

We are grateful for Brother Goodson’s diligence as he has supervised the work, and for the energy and skill of the building team who have done so much with limited resources, but much hard work and African improvisation.

We also express our thanks to Joel, our local Mr Fix-it. There are apparently no limits to his engineering and fabrication abilities.

Goodson’s House – starting the development project

The project began less than two years ago when we bought the first parcel of land. Since then we had acquired more land and the site has grown to around 7 acres.

Work began in August 2020, even though travel was impossible then due to pandemic restrictions. Nevertheless, Goodson and Harold sourced a shipping container and located it on the site. This served as secure storage during the construction of a house for Goodson, who has supervised the work ever since.

Perimeter

The next task was to begin to secure our boundary.

We have a considerable perimeter, and that task is still a work in progress, partly because the site has grown.

The boundary at the northern end of the site is fixed, as we are bounded by a road on one side, and a graveyard on the other. Securing the boundary with the graveyard was a high priority, to prevent encroachment from villagers wanting to use our land to extend the cemetery.

Borehole & Water Tower

In the early stages of the construction project, we employed ladies to carry water from the nearby river. However, this was obviously not a viable long-term solution to our needs. In May 2021 we had a borehole drilled and in August installed a solar pump.

Unfortunately, the first borehole did not perform very well and often ran dry. We were glad that we had paid the little extra to use a more reputable drilling company who offered a 12-month guarantee. In November, after thorough testing, they drilled a second borehole which has performed well since. We are still to install and connect the water storage tanks, but that is planned for the near future.

Container Bay

Our first major construction of the development project was to build a concrete base for our storage containers. These form the backbone of our literature storage and distribution work.

The foundations were dug during Stephen’s first visit to the site in May, and the first phase of the job was finally completed on his next visit (August 2021) when the containers were moved into position.

Once the three containers were finally in place, the next phase was to install a roof. Joel (mentioned above) has been a real help with this. He has also helped us greatly with the subsequent conversion of the middle container to be our office, in the mean time. The container bay has already been a tremendous help. It is a multipurpose space, for parking, meetings and a host of other uses.

Msasa

Once the concrete base the containers was completed, Goodson and his team immediately began work on building the msasa. This is a thatched shelter intended for our all-important children’s work. The team had gained plenty of experience working on the container bay, and the concrete base and pillars of the msasa finished within a couple of weeks.

Constructing a traditional timber & thatch roof requires lots of skill and hard work. It is a dying craft, but we were glad to be able to find and able craftsman who did a really wonderful job.

This kept Goodson busy for several weeks – sourcing eucalyptus poles and buying literally thousands of bundles of grass from villages around. This is not a cheap form of roof, but we were glad to put much needed cash into the local economy. Doubtless many villagers who cut the grass would otherwise not have been able to buy fertiliser for the maize they were about to plant.

We had a wonderful Open Day during my visit in November, followed by a short series of Gospel meetings. On Christmas Day, a large crowd of children and others gathered to hear the Gospel and enjoy a meal together.

The Msasa proved so useful for this purpose – cool in the heat, and quiet in the rain.

On 3 January, we had a lightning strike. The subsequent fire razed the msasa and in just a few minutes, months of hard work was gone!

Landscaping

Landscaping the 7-acre site will be an ongoing process. After removing several large anthills, our first priorities were to eliminate soil erosion during the wet season, and to minimise dust in the dry. To achieve this we spent some time to find the land contours and then planted vetiver grass along the contour to reduce rainfall runoff. We did some more serious mechanical landscaping in the inner compound to produce flatter terraces. A large area or earth between the container bay has been partly paved and the remainder will be covered in quarry stone to prevent dust.

Workshop

Goodson has really helped us make our funds go further, not just by ensuring that we get a fair day’s work for the workforce, but also by keeping a lot of the work “in-house”.

He has been supervising casting concrete lamp posts and kerb stones, and most recently system of pavers to make a parking area. However, one of the real time and money-saving activities has been the production of stabilised soil blocks. Using a manual block press I sourced from the University of Zambia years ago, a team of men has was producing construction blocks for the most of the dry season.

Unfortunately the onset of the rains in December brought this to a halt as the soil became waterlogged and incapable of being mixed. Over the past month or so, the builders have been erecting a block-making workshop which will enable them to continue moulding in all-weathers.

Later posts will explain further about the work going on at the moment, and what’s planned for the development project in the longer-term.