Hello world - I'm back :-)This is my first update (more to come) of where I've been and what I've been up to whilst Si has been honing his writing and blogging skills (tough act to follow).
So, after a stint at Jungle camp with our intrepid new particpants learning many important life skills (something I have learnt 18 year olds really don't have many of), I headed off with Maddie (my partner in project management crime) to build a gravity water feed in a pretty Muslim village of about 200 people 1500m up in the mountains called Kampong Sosondoton.
We spent a lot of our time baking in a biscuit tin oven, learning Malay traditional dancing, singing Karaoke and eating the great meals that the village provided us with more often than not. We also found some time to successfully install the gravity water feed. This involved an hour's trek each morning uphill to the source (which had the most amazing views of Mt Kinabalu each morning), building a dam (with gabions and cement), laying 2.5km of pipe, connecting 2.5km of pipe, putting two new tanks in their village and then holding an opening ceremeny with Coca-Cola, the village, local press etc.
Reconnecting all the pipe the day before the opening ceremony wasn't in the plan (but we discovered at the last minute that they were all going to leak when we turned the water on - due to some bad guidance from a vegetable man) but we got it sorted without having to resort to plan H (which involved many bottles of water and some strategically hidden members of the team).
It was a brilliant place to spend 3 weeks which was rounded off with the ceremony with Coca-Cola for which we'd spent 2 weeks rehearsing the local dancing and got to wear traditional outfits for the ceremony which I felt pretty lucky about.
The team we had were great and we also had help from the village each day (except when they forgot to mention that they had a fishing competition on the day we desperately needing to start cementing the dam and we couldn't start without them setting up this amazing diversion with some bits of bamboo. Something I've learnt is that you can do anything with a bit of bamboo and a parang (the local long knife)). 
Even the village head was out helping in his wellies.
Even the village head was out helping in his wellies. Unfortunately we re-paid him by cutting through his own existing water pipe line when we were burying some of the pipe. Ooops. Fortunately by this point we'd got to the point of being pretty practical with stuff and managed to temporarily rescue it with some pieces of blown out tyre that were on the track.
We held a brilliant sports day in the village (something we also did in the next phase in Miruru) and Raleigh vs Village tug of war ended in a draw despite their all round additional strength and fitness compared to us. Teaching at the school was one of the most interesting experiences - not only English but also maths and
some of the guys taught science including the birds and bees.... Not quite what Matt was expecting when he went to teach a class of 6 Muslim girls. The school was a 2 hour walk from the village (we got a lift with the teacher) but the kids have to do the trek every day. The good news was that at the opening ceremony they announced that there would be a new school built in the village. It was a pretty cool place although having chickens stroll into the classroom and the kids running out to attack the dogs was a bit random.
The moment we got water through the pipes the evening before the opening was great. I was walking up the pipeline as the water was coming down - there was the noise of bits being pushed through the pipe before a faint gurgle and then the pipe gets heavy when full of water. We followed it back down to hear the team waiting at the end cheer as the first bit of water came through. Knowing that it worked and we'd done it was such a relief and a very happy moment.
The following day was the opening ceremnoy with lots of speeches, singing, bamboo dancing, gong playing, food, karaoke and the whole village out. It was particularly good because Si had been released from fieldbase for the afternoon and evening with our admin girl Vicci and they got to come and enjoy the evening and our inappropriate karaoke renditions that Si had mentioned before.
We held a brilliant sports day in the village (something we also did in the next phase in Miruru) and Raleigh vs Village tug of war ended in a draw despite their all round additional strength and fitness compared to us. Teaching at the school was one of the most interesting experiences - not only English but also maths and
some of the guys taught science including the birds and bees.... Not quite what Matt was expecting when he went to teach a class of 6 Muslim girls. The school was a 2 hour walk from the village (we got a lift with the teacher) but the kids have to do the trek every day. The good news was that at the opening ceremony they announced that there would be a new school built in the village. It was a pretty cool place although having chickens stroll into the classroom and the kids running out to attack the dogs was a bit random.The moment we got water through the pipes the evening before the opening was great. I was walking up the pipeline as the water was coming down - there was the noise of bits being pushed through the pipe before a faint gurgle and then the pipe gets heavy when full of water. We followed it back down to hear the team waiting at the end cheer as the first bit of water came through. Knowing that it worked and we'd done it was such a relief and a very happy moment.
The following day was the opening ceremnoy with lots of speeches, singing, bamboo dancing, gong playing, food, karaoke and the whole village out. It was particularly good because Si had been released from fieldbase for the afternoon and evening with our admin girl Vicci and they got to come and enjoy the evening and our inappropriate karaoke renditions that Si had mentioned before. 
The next morning the ladies from the village came and recooked all the leftovers for the breakfast along with fresh donuts - bring it on! You can see how small pleasures have been quite a highlight for me in the last few months :-) Leaving was sad but I knew I had more to come.
Every changeover went too quickly - they were great because I got to see Si, we were staying in a lovely beach resort and it was one phase closer to the end but there was hardly a moment to switch off. Which is why I feel so exhausted now - mentally it's the first time we've been able to relax since we started.
Every changeover went too quickly - they were great because I got to see Si, we were staying in a lovely beach resort and it was one phase closer to the end but there was hardly a moment to switch off. Which is why I feel so exhausted now - mentally it's the first time we've been able to relax since we started.
So, after the French bakery project that was Sosondoton it was on to the gentically modified village of Miruru.....
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