Two schools
This past week we visited two MCC partner schools–St Monica’s in Gulu and Stella Matutina–to discuss past and future plans. Remember the “bottle” house at St Monica’s we saw in April–made of dirt filled plastic water bottles? the house is now completed and presently used as a guest house. It is amazing! The school is now collecting bottles to build a nursery school at a second site. It is not only environmentally helpful, it is also a source of income for students. They are given UG shs 100 (about US 4 cents) for each filled bottle.
At Stella Matutina we visited their “gardens.” Students are learning to grow a variety of vegetables and in the process are learning organic gardening techniques–mulching, natural methods of fighting insects, etc. They also are getting more nutritious school meals. They were growing beans, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, eggplant, and the popular sukuma wiki (greens). The school is also working on a more energy efficient stove. The one they have been using uses 15 truckloads of wood per term. The one they are building has a smaller opening, thus keeping the heat where it is needed, and will use a third the amount of firewood. Plus it is better vented and will not smoke as much.
