Following mass and breakfast Augustine spent about two hours working with me on the script for the Collaborative Drama.
Onencan Simon Peter, a young student we support to go to Lacor Minor Seminary, stopped in for a visit. We chatted for about an hour about school, which he has now finished Senior Six. That is the last grade in Ugandan High School. He now anxiously awaits his grades because if he passes he will then go on to the Major Seminary for 8 or 9 years to be ordained a priest. I will have lunch with him and his mother on Saturday.
The St. Francis Sunflower Press is having a very busy time of the year right now. Many people line up every day to purchase the precious oil, while others drop of large sacks filled with sunflower seeds. You can see the people lined up to buy the oil.
A Very Busy Day at the Sunflower Press
Here is the very busy, but excellent accountant.
Very Busy Accountant at Sunflower Press
The storage building is bursting at the seams with the large sacks of seeds waiting to be ground.
The Very Full Storage Room at the Press Full of Sacks of Sunflower Seeds
Onekalit Michael is a very hard working man. He works full time at the press in the welding department, has his own carpentry shop, and also does concrete work based on methods learned from the MSOE professor and students on their last visit in June 2014.
One of the employees built himself some new clothing from the seed sacks that he wears during cleaning the filters and other very dirty and oily parts of the plant. Then they just get thrown away and he doesn’t ruin his uniform.
I walked down to the market area and met my friend Richard who is an excellent tailor. His shop has two machines with two helpers inside, but is only about 7 ft by 5 ft, very small! He helped me fix my sunglasses when a lens fell out and we needed a very small screwdriver.
Richard the Tailor Helped Repair My Sunglasses
What Next! A small establishment has a pool table! If you win three games, you get a free bottle of soda. Needless to say, being the visitor, I let the young man beat me
There are at least four grinding mills in the local area for guiding millet and other grains. Most people do not have access to a grinding mill and the women and girls do all the grinding using a special stone on another special kind of stone. This has been the tradition for centuries.
Grinding Mill (CLICK HERE)
At night trying to sleep it is very hot and stuffy in a closed room, under a mosquito net so I bring a Coleman camp fan that takes four D-cell batteries. It has been a life saver on my other trips. But, ALAS, it finally quit and nothing I do can make it go again. So if anyone is passing this way and could drop one off for me, it would be greatly appreciated.
A dead fan with 8 new batteries.
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