Groundbreaking and Village Update

Today we broke ground on a 3-bedroom staffing house for the teachers of Kisangaji. At a meeting last week, District officials promised us at least 2 more teachers when the Boma is complete, targeting September 5th. About 200 villagers showed up this morning. We all moved bricks and participated in the work. The engineer marked the outline, we dug a 4-foot deep trench around the parameter of the property line and dug the trenches for the support beams and walls of the house. It is hot, dry, hard, dusty work with hoes and shovels--all manual labor except for the field tractor that moves loads of excavated boulders and stone for the foundation. The excavation site is about 2 miles outside of the village and people are donating the petrol for the tractors. Even loading the boulders onto the trailer was done one by one and it was completed by about 100 of us over the weekend.
While we had some competition for the head contractor job, it was ultimately decided that all 3 contractors would work together and split the fee. That way, the job is more likely to be completed by the deadline the Project set of September 5. It is becoming clear that this is truly a village-wide effort and the labor costs will be donated by everyone. The materials for the construction will comprise about 90 percent of the funding for the house and 10 percent goes to the contractors. Bartering is also taking place in order to get things done.
The construction site has a mascot. It is a 5-foot long, 1 foot wide poisonous lizard that took up home in a pile of bricks that we will use for the house. Someone took it by the tail and threw it about 50 yards away. It went up a tree and 4 hours later came down. It made its way back to the brick pile. Someone had attempted to stone it before I stepped in. It was maimed but did get into the pile. I hope it sticks around for the duration of the project.
Food distribution was postponed in the village as the village secretary has been seriously ill. The secretary is required to be present at all distributions. They say he has malaria. The medical needs and food needs are overwhelming to witness, especially in the elderly who are unable to go out and search for food or work in some capacity. The water pump has been temporarily fixed and is producing some water. There have 2 deaths in the village in the last 2 weeks from malaria.
Despite this, the resiliency is remarkable and the desire to improve is clear.