Читать книгу The Song of Mawu - Jeff Edwards - Страница 9

3

It had been one of the most exciting and fulfilling moments of Eliza’s life when she had climbed down from the small airplane that had brought her to the silent village along with Nori and Ali Akuba and the two South African engineers.

Depositing their luggage in the nearest living quarters, the South Africans led the small group to the top of the valley, where they found a small scrub covered ledge.

The engineers pulled aside some dead branches and lifted some rocks to expose a large brass spigot.

‘Would you like the pleasure of turning it on?’ Ali asked Eliza. ‘After all, this is your project.’

‘No, I’m quite happy to stand back here and watch it flow. These gentlemen did all the hard work.’

‘In that case I declare Project Eliza under way,’ declared Ali, ‘Turn the handle.’

With a nod the men turned the handle causing a sudden gush of water to pour out onto the dry earth. The rush of water flowed over the rim of the ledge and down to the channel which had been cunningly disguised in the side of the hill. They all watched a miracle unfold as the water came to the first of the man-made depressions.

‘How long do you think?’ asked Eliza.

One of the engineers replied, ‘It will take a few hours for the first hole to fill, so the entire length will take days, possibly a week.’

‘How often will we have to top up the water in the system?’ asked Nori.

‘It depends on usage and evaporation but I should think that the spigot will have to be opened for two or three days each month. That way it will save the water from running to waste. We’ll stay up here for a couple of weeks to monitor the situation.’

‘Let’s get back to the village and we can begin work,’ grinned an excited Eliza.

Over the following week, Eliza and her friends were kept busy moving as many of the refugees from their diseased camp at the valley’s mouth to where the fresh, clean water and ample shelter now waited.

In a short space of time, schools and medical clinics were established and staffed from among the refugees themselves. All in facilities unknowingly supplied by the British engineers.

***

Aboard their aircraft, Ali closed his eyes and tried to drift off as well but thoughts kept flitting through his brain.

Uppermost in his mind was what he had left behind in the camp. It was his pet project and what had surprised him most was that, with all the money that The Fund had made available to them, it had been the personal spending money that he had been carrying around in his wallet that had gotten it all started.

Originally they had concentrated on initiating programmes which would ensure long term survival for the camp’s internees. Survival in its most basic form, water first, then food, and finally shelter. It could only be that after these had been achieved that civilized life would return.

With water now supplied to their new camp, food was the next priority and making rations available.

He set about by employing a group of the camp’s idle males to work with him and with the only land available around their camp being rock strewn and unable to be tilled, he set most of the men to collecting the rocks and using the rocks to build solid walls enclosing areas of wilderness. When the men wanted to know why he wished them to do so, he explained that it was to keep the herds of goats and wild animals out.

Then, with the newly constructed walls offering protection, the area inside was cleared of rocks and the earth tilled. The fields were then seeded with barley that could now grow with out the risk of destruction by grazing animals and ensuring future food needs would be taken care of.

The most difficult blocks were those that were so rocky that they could not be tilled. These he fenced with high wire fences and inside had the men plant eucalyptus saplings. These were trees that were conditioned to the harsh climate and were very fast growing. In a few short years, Ali believed that the enclosed areas would contain a thick stand of trees offering shelter to birds and other animals and which could be selectively harvested for their wood. The wood could be used as building material and the unwanted off-cuts used to create charcoal for the cooking fires.

Ali was hopeful that the men he had left in charge of the various blocks would maintain them and not give in to short sighted gains by cutting whole trees down before they had matured. In an attempt to stop that from happening he had arranged for the men to be paid bonuses by The Fund for the amount of growth their tress achieved.

However, his greatest success had come in lending small amounts of cash to needy females. Many were widows and the money enabled them to achieve a measure of independence. For some it was used to buy a loom and cotton, enabling them to start a cottage industry, or a female goat to mate with a neighbour’s male, and form the basis of a herd for milking.

No loan was for more than a few pounds, but all were gratefully accepted and he was surprised how the repayments were assiduously met.

Ali considererd these loans to be his greatest success, and the highlight of his efforts.