Over July and August this year EHRA has provided development to A.Gariseb Primary in the form of a plant nursery and vegetable garden to supplement the hoste'ls food supply for the 250 borders, and have renovated 8 classrooms internally and painted the exterior of the main classroom block at Frans Frederick Primary School in Fransfontien.  We are also very happy to announce a partnership between EHRA and Frans Frederick Primary School.  EHRA has committed to providing assistance to the school in the form of renovation work over the next 5 years, with the aim being to renovate dormitories and classrooms, provide computers and mattresses and work in partnership with the government to update ablution facilities.

EHRA has been working with A.Gariseb Primary for the last 7 years and together with King Alfred's School from the UK formed a partnership which has been responsible for the total renovation of the schools buildings, installation of a library, computer room and this year the construction of a 30m x 6m vegetable garden and 12m x 6m nursery.  Responsible for the design of the garden was Annalise Ras, a Swakopmunder with green fingers who has constructed a similar garden on a sustainable farm in South Africa.  Together with Rachel from EHRA and based on the fundraised monies the students from King Alfred's raised all the materials for the garden were ordered, in the main from Builders Warehouse in Swakopmund, who were able to provide discounted costs and delivery.  The garden cost over N$22,000 in total. 

The first task was to measure the plots and then cement in poles.  Lots of rocks were collected to help support the poles and the students hand mixed barrow loads of cement! Another team was in charge of collecting nutrient rich sand from the Ugab River, which was going well until elephants were spotted down river! Once the elephants had passed the team were back shoveling sand into EHRA's old landcruisers. 

In addition there was an elephant dung collection team, elephant dung is known for being a fantastic fertilizer.  We had purchased bags of compost and manure from the Swakopmund Municipality but as this was expensive we needed to supplement what we had.  At first the students from King Alfred's thought we were crazy asking them to collect 'poop' but in true King Alfred spirit they got stuck in to the job! 

Once the wire had been spanned across the poles it was time to start lacing the shade net, our measurements were nearly all perfect with only a couple of poles slightly out, which meant some serious stretching had to be done to get two pieces of shade net to meet.  Matt, the teacher from the school and Dan one of the students, started work on the doors for the gardens whilst others started digging foundations for the beds.  

We were very grateful to Mr Albert Wiese from NamClay Bricks in Uis who donated 5 huge bags of bricks, around 5000 in total.  The brick laying for the beds took us a bit of time, mostly just to get the hang of how to do it, but the team soon got the hang of it.  Once the shade net was tied up we then had to secure the bottom.  We did this by burying the cloth into the ground in trenches that we dug about 30 cm deep.  We then threw rocks and sand on top of this.

Once the brick beds were layed the compost/sand/elephant dung mixtures were put into the beds.  In the nursery we left out the manure so that the school could immediately sow seeds, if you plant seeds into manure you run the risk of burning the plants roots, Annalise advised us.  We saw that we had enough bricks to lay pathways inbetween the beds, so another team started with this, which was brilliant as it really finished the garden off in a very professional way. 

Annalise helped us to plan a rotation plan of how to plant the various vegetables in order to avoid alot of the pests and bugs that can demolish any harvest.  A team of students took on the job of painting this on to the wall next to the garden for the school to follow.

One of the last jobs was to lay and bury the irrigation pipes. We had to devise a plan for the watering of the garden,and we had bought enough black piping to provide each bed with its own water source, meaning the whole garden could be watered with a turn of a tap.  We had read about an ingenious way of flood watering the beds using old tins which you then put on the end of the pipe.  If a bed did not require water you can just bend the pipe and pop it inside the tin!  The students managed to bury the whole pipe for both gardens in about an hour!

The students had bought a room full of donations of clothes so on the last day every took it in turn to help hand out clothes, shoes, underwear to the school children.  We were able to make sure that all of the children on the vunerable list and infact most of the students received something, which was fantastic. 

After this was done it was time for our goodbye assembly.  Both King Alfred's and A.Gariseb Students gave performances, from Shaikra's 'Waka Waka' to A.Gariseb School's choir, to a rather funny performance of 'We are the cheeky girls' by the boys from King Alfred's to Emerald's amazing voice singing 'I'm yours'.

After the farewell's at the school we headed back to our camp just down river from the school where we prepared a big Lamb Potjie, that evening we were being joined by the teachers from the school.  We were very honored that evening as all the teachers came in their traditional dress and they looked stunning! We had a really special evening with lots of singing around the camp fire.

The next day the students started their trek through the Ugab and embarked on a week's navigation training, which culmulated on 'challenge day' where the students had to walk alone from one camp to the next, a distance of around 25km!  Needless to say that despite some bad blisters the group managed perfectly and were back into camp by 3.30pm so we headed to the White Lady Lodge for a celebratory swim and were treated to a sun down to remember, when a herd of elephants walked across the plain in full view!

The most amazing thing about this trip was the dedication, enthusiam and hard work from the students of King Alfred's.  We were at the school from 7am every day and even took short lunch breaks, sometimes just half and hour so we could get the job done.  We didnt leave the school before 5pm every day.  It was back breaking work and the winter sun was still scorching!  Throughout the entire trip the students were always happy, there were no arguments or moans and we were really struck at what an amazing thing it is to be perfectly happy for such a long period of time.  The students are a real credit to the school and their parents, and a great advertisement for King Alfred's.  We can't wait for next year's trip!