Construct three new fire places

Greetings form the Heart of Scouting

We, that is Chris, Dale and Brendan arrived at the Park shortly before morning tea time and if you know me, then you know that tea time is anytime after breakfast, so that doesn't really give you a clue as to when we arrived. Tough. Having had our tea, we immediately started on the first of our tasks, that of selecting six of the longest gum poles that we have at the Park to use as flag poles for the Provincial flags that will be flown on the Skipper Knapman Training Ground during the Centenary Camp. The digging of holes to place the poles in did not take very long and by the time members of the Camp service team arrived from town, we already had two of the flag poles in place.

When, the service team comprising seven Scouts from the 87th Bulawayo, arrived, I divided them up into three groups, gave them the tools that they would need, instructions as to what had to be done and left them to get on with their respective projects. One group was tasked with placing a section of an old water tank into the top portion of the new rubbish pit to prevent sand from collapsing into the pit. Hopefully this new pit will be ready for use in a weeks time. We can then close the existing one as it is now full. One fellow was sent to the entrance gate to clear the debris out of the trench extending from the gate to the vlei, which trench acts as an obstacle preventing people from driving around the gate when it is closed. This task is best tackled when the vlei has been burnt, which it has been. The third group where given the task of sawing up the trees that had been blown over in the Bowl several years ago and could now be used as fire wood. Then there were those trees that had been blown over recently and were obstructing activity areas. These fellows worked well and can be proud of what they achieved.

My Scouts, besides having to position the flag poles, also had to dig a one hundred foot long trench on the Skipper Knapman Training Ground for one of the activities planned for the Camp and then to construct three new fire places in the campsites to be used by our visiting Provinces during the Camp. Although we did not finish the fire places, a great deal of work was done. Next week should see the fire places completed and new projects commenced.

During the morning we were visited by Harry Ncube, our former Provincial Scout Commissioner who now lives in Botswana. He will be visiting us again during the Centenary Camp.

Temperatures for the week ending 19 July: 39F or 4C and 81F or 27C

Cheers

Norman
Bulawayo, 20 July 2009