Medway to Mpumalanga 2011 - Preparing to Go

In 2011 we returned to Mpumalanga with a group made up entirely of our own Explorer and Network Scouts and Leaders. Our plans were complicated slightly when Dudley's daughter Claudette (remember her?) and Skip's son Robert announced that they were planning on getting married, on the day we were due to leave for Mpumalanga! So everything had to be put back a couple of days. We also had to be back in time for those members of the party who are hoping to go to university can get their 'A Level' results.

As we began our planning for the trip we discovered that Sandzile School was being supported and helped by an automotive company, so we enquired if there was another school that needed some help. We were asked to consider Mlilo Primary School which is not too far away from Sandzile and in teh same township of Kabokweni. Here one of the most pressing needs was for a library, they had a room but that was it and they needed school books to support the curriculum.

After much discussion we agreed to create and equip a library while we are at the school. This will entail welding tubular steel to make table frames, making the table tops and also shelving units from wood supplied by a nearby processing plant. We now we had a project to focus our fund raising on.

We also planned to to take the Scouts from the school Troop off on a long weekend camp.

When we get back we will write about how we managed with our projects, about the camp and all of the other things that we hope to fit into our time in Mpumalanga 'the Land Where the Sun Rises' in the Rainbow Nation.