Solar Panels Bring Light to Orphanage Dormatory

The Lukobe Project has been very lucky to have some very active and inspiring volunteers working on site these last few months. This is an excerpt from one of our favourite volunteer's (Who are we kidding - they are all our favourites) travel blog which gives a modest review of some of the great things he was able to accomplish.

With a limited budget and an infinite amount things that needed/need to be done we started getting quotes from people all over the city and found that it would be feasible to finish nearly everything in the kids house (security grills, windows, tile floors, solar lighting,etc)& also have some left over for some extras.  To go into the details of what it took to get all of this done would probably be boring for you and take up way too much of your time so simply put, it was frustrating, tiresome, trudgingly slow, completely rewarding and succesfull work.  We completed all of our plans within about a month and right on budget.  At the end of the month Ryan and Dawn went back to their respective corners of the globe leaving me with just a few loose ends to tie up.  I decided that with some of the extra funding that I would attempt to build a shed that is desperately needed for storage of food, clothes, pots and pans, gardening tools, etc.  With a bit more last minute running around everything was completed.  Well, somewhat completed. More accurately everything was underway and I was needing to hit the road as I had planned to leave for Uganda so I left the remaining bit of work for the director of the orphanage before heading out.  I also forgot to mention that we were able to buy and have donated a considerable amount of books and much needed school supplies.  And what good are these things without proper desks for the kids to study at?  So books and desks. 

It was an amazing process to watch unfold and especially the priviledge to see the kids'reactions to the new changes-considering we kept the whole thing a secret throughout the construction.  Each day was like a new suprise for them.  The children would try to coerce our plans out of us but we stayed strong and tried to maintain that sense of suprise.  I think the best part of the process was when we installed the solar power unit.  About a week before the installation the kids had accidentally broken their only kerosene lantern one night while fumbling around in the dark.  So, the lights and solar panels were installed but we didn't expect to see any results for the next day or so as it needs time to charge up.  That first night we were returning to the kids house just after sundown with a few of the children and as we came over the hill you could see a mass of light coming from the house.  Just witnessing the kids' reactions as well as our own as we stared at the first electricity in the village was pretty remarkable.

-Except from Zach Swett's Travel Blog, May 2008