Boxes and Boxes

Monday Sue had to go to Kampala again so Pross, Maureen and I unpacked and loaded shelves with books and more books. We have had to order more shelving but we still won't get all the books on shelves if we want people to be able to move around. After a "team meeting" we have decided to sort out some of the triplicate copies (How many copies of Daniel Steels and Tom Clancy does one library require?) and we will try and partner with the folks in Jinja and get them their library now. This will give us two substantial libraries in different parts of the country, a real accomplishment for our "little" Club's first major international project.

My goal yesterday was to personally inspect every box that we unloaded and unfortunately I did not find the missing items. I have sent an email to the shipping company requesting compensation for the missing computers and tools.

We had a wonderful meeting with the mayor last evening. Sue and Jackson were held up in Kampala due to traffic (nothing new) so we had a dinner meeting of fish, potatoes and matoke. He was very interested in the garbage and composting ideas and we suggested that the composting centre could actually be a "micro-credit" job opportunity for someone. We have offered the expertise of Ottawa in providing the theoretical and practical challenges that need to be surpassed in changing not only the present process but the cultural shift. I really hope our councilor, Shad Qadri, supports us on this idea or I will have to a lot of research to do instead of just using the combined knowledge of the city employees.

Sue was on a role so she decided to see if the mayor was in the mood to discuss a vocational school "centre of excellence". He most certainly was and we are off on Wednesday to look at some city land that could be used for a nominal lease amount. We have been encouraged but his desire to push Luweero to the Uganda forefront in recycling, composting, and technical education.

Maybe we will get a "twining of cities" between Ottawa and Luweero and we will all make a substantial contribution to this area of Africa.