Went for a walk around the village this morning and even with this early start it soon got incredibly hot. Everywhere we went we were greeted as honoured guests especially Mikey who was known to many villages as "Mike Solar Panels" an account of his previous visits to install the panels in many of the villages.
Next item on the agenda was to ride our bikes to the actual Calum's Road. Flags and bunting had been hung over the start of the road and "Welcome" banners erected. We rode a short distance down the road and then parked up and joined in a group of people who had all come together to talk about the construction of the road. This group included Heather from GH&DT who are handling the finances of the road and many elders of the nearby villages. They each gave a speech in which they they thanked us profusely for helping them with this project. One elder explained in detail how the new road would significantly improve their lives in three key areas by allowing them to reach the nearby town. Firstly, it would improve the income of the villages as it would allow them to tend to their rice fields and then get their crops to market. Secondly, it would improve the health of the people by helping them get to the clinic in the next town. Some of the women spoke movingly about how a child had died as they had been unable to reach the clinic in time for treatment. Thirdly, the education levels would be improved as the children would be able to go to the secondary school in the next town without the parents having to worry for hours if the children would make it safely home or not.
One chap told us how last year, he was wading back through chest high water, when he encountered a hippo! He thought he was going to be killed by it but obviously he survived to tell us the tale. More people are killed in Africa by hippos each year than by any other animal.
The official party then decided to walk along the road to meet up with another group who had walked from the village at the other end. John decided to ride his bike on the road so I elected to join him to ride to the end of the road where a river crossing connected to the next village. Villages used horse and carts to transport goods and all these horses were left in the shade to rest whilst the owners travelled across the river by boat. We were given a perfect demonstration of how difficult the current road is when donkey and cart attempted the return journey. The donkey fell down in a deep mud pit and had to be released from the cart which had to be manually dragged through the waterlogged ground. A local woman who had fallen into this stagnant water in previous years had subsequently died as a result of the infected water.
We had great fun riding the bikes back along the sandy tracks as today the bikes were completely unloaded of luggage and could be ridden as originally intended. We were still glad to get out of our hot biking gear as soon as we returned to base.
We had a quiet afternoon just relaxing during which I walked down to the local school. Barclays Bank who have generously sponsored me with £750 to the appeal, also gave me two boxes of pens to give to local schools so it was great to be able to give this small gift to the school's headmaster.
During the evening we could hear the sound of partying coming from the village so we went to investigate. The villages themselves had paid for drummers to attend for our welcoming reception but the drummers had decided to stay on a bit longer and party a bit more. It was amazing to see women of all ages with tiny babies strapped to their backs partying and dancing energetically whilst the babies slept on their backs. Not much call for a babysitting service in this village.
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