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Defining moments - Africa
In the summer of 2000, when I was in the air cadets, 15 of us raised £1000 to go to Swaziland in Africa. Our mission was to install a water system that we had purchased. This water system was a new technology, a response to the need for low-tech rather than high-tech solutions, and it's main feature was a roundabout that children played on, which provided the force to pump the water up to a water tower we constructed. We install the system in a primary school in one of the most impoverished areas of the country. The scheme took about three weeks to complete, and involved digging over 70 metres of trenches in the hard African soil. As well as the main project, we were also involved in many "mini" projects, including digging an 8ft hole for new toilets and fixing showers that had not worked for 10 years. We had chance to teach the children in the school, but the biggest lesson was learnt by us - the children taught us that you don't have to be rich or important or have lots of material possessions to be happy. These kids had virtually nothing, and in many ways they were richer than anyone I know. The expedition turned out to be a big success - the system is still working, and we won the "Shackleton Trophy", the most prestigious adventure training trophy in the air cadets.
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Leaving
the school
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My
tribal dancing
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The
finished thing
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