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Grumpy Old Women

· Why put your bin out on Sunday at 7am when they are not collected until Monday?

· When approaching parked cars on your side of the road you should give way, that is what the Highway Code says!

· Why do parents insist on cleaning their children’s football/rugby boots on the Community Centre car park, a few steps and the mud could be put back whence it came and not all over people’s shoes when arriving for events in the Community Centre?

· Please remember your choice of music is not always mine!

· Securing the lid on your recycling box should stop the rubbish being left in the street especially on a windy day, let’s keep our village tidy.

· Have you ever slipped on frozen spit? It’s not nice.

Bugbrooke Cricket Club

John Mundy: Chairman & Treasurer  830725 (H, B  & FAX) 07850-084535 (M)   

Lesley Bird: Secretary       832630 (H)                       

Our season starts with Friendly matches on Saturday & Sunday 14th & 15th April with 1st & 2nd X1 League matches from Saturday 28th April.   The last Indoor Cricket Net for Juniors (under age 15) will be at Bugbrooke Campion School Sports Hall on Thursday 5th April.    If you want more information or you wish to be involved with Junior Cricket this summer contact Roger Stone (01604-842961),   there will be league matches for Juniors for various age groups with the Fixture List yet to be announced.  

 We are running 2 Saturday league teams as well as Sundays,  Junior & Midweek sides so get in touch with any of the above officers or myself if you wish to join a progressive Club at its picturesque ground by the brook.  Have a look at our websites www.bugbrookecc.co.uk & www.bugbrooke.play-cricket.com for further information & chat.  

Peter White President 50 High Street, Bugbrooke (830452 H.B&FAX)   

Bugbrooke St Michael’s Football Club

We are getting towards the interesting part of the season in terms of league positions and achievements. At the time of writing the Reserves lead their division of the United Counties League and are pushing for promotion. They still have almost half their fixtures to complete as do most of the other teams in their division and it begins to look like poor fixture management by the U.C.L when most reserve sides have to play half their fixtures in the last 2 months of the season.

The A side is also riding high in Reserve Division One of the Central Combination and are currently in second place. If they can hang on they will be getting a runners-up medal for their efforts although they cannot be promoted as they are at the top of the Reserve Teams section of the C.N.C.

The first team have shown a marked improvement since Christmas and are beginning to move up the table. With luck they might edge towards mid-table, but their performance since a disruptive start to the season has been encouraging. With the new facilities at the club, the U.C.L is keen to see Bugbrooke pushing for Premiership status, so perhaps next year may see a move in that direction.

The B side has achieved some good results with a mixture of youth and experience and will finish in a respectable position.

The youth sides have all performed well, especially up to the 13 age group. Some of the young players have been given the chance to join the Cobblers youth scheme which seems to indicate that Bugbrooke youngsters are benefiting from some good coaching.

The senior youth side at under 18 level is performing well in the Northants Senior League against some of the biggest clubs in the county. They have currently won 5 and lost 6 with a best win of 8-2. All but 2 of the side will be able to play in the age group next year so there is optimism that they could do well in 2007/08.

Off the pitch efforts are being made by an excellent group of volunteers to upgrade the social facilities. As soon as the current season finishes there will also be moves to improve and upgrade the main pitch. This will include a fence and walkway all round the pitch, improvements to floodlights and improved pitch drainage. When completed the facilities at Bugbrooke will be among the best in the county and is a credit to the hard work of the committee and helpers.

The club is looking for a new Treasurer for the 2007/08 season. If anyone is interested in this important job within the club please contact chairman Andy Dyson on 831250.

Paces at Kimnyak

For our winter break this year we had long decided we would return to Tanzania to repair and build up Kimnyak Secondary School where Tony had taught in 2005.  Throughout the year we had been raising money and we eventually raised a total of £9600.  We expected this to go a long way in a developing country.  We had also ordered for electricity to be connected to the School in advance of the trip.

Try to imagine a secondary school of 650 children with no electricity.  It also had a single tap with only a trickle of water, and the kitchen for feeding the children had collapsed.  There were only 8 workable classrooms though there were 14 class streams.  Such was Kimnyak Secondary School as we arrived on 8 January.  There were also 5 partly completed classrooms and a government financed project to complete three more.

We rapidly got projects started to get floors laid in the incomplete classrooms and fundi (Swahili for workmen) were at work the next day using the crudest of tools.  As soon as the floors were hard enough, Sue moved in and started painting. Before that Sue painted the new girls toilets – 7 dark cubicles lightened by a coat of white paint. This had to be done before the start of the school term because after that the smell was insufferable.

In the meantime, Tony started planning more projects.  It was clear that something had to be done about the kitchen and water supply even though these were not part of our original plans.  We insisted the fundi prepare estimates for all the work, something they were not used to doing, but they soon learnt.  The only negotiable was labour cost and we finally agreed an average rate of £2 per day but with the total to be agreed at the start.  In Tanzania you give all the money to the top fundi and they pay their work crew. We have never asked how much the labourers got.

Within three weeks the water supply was in, 5000 litres of storage and 4 taps distributed throughout the school and teachers houses. Three classrooms had been completed and were in use and two more would be completed the following week. A week later the government project completed three more classrooms so now the school had 14 working classrooms. Can you imagine doing all that in England in that time and without asking anyone’s permission?

We also started a major project to build a new kitchen – the old one was made of wood but the new one would be built of brick.  Once the main building was completed, then the local women came in to build traditional cookers out of cement and clay.  These burn wood and will be used to cook vegetables.  Enormous cookers were also installed to cook ugali, the traditional semolina like “stodge” made from maize flour in huge containers for the 650 children.  For many of the children this will become their main meal of the day.

The idea of a new kitchen  inspired Sue to start growing vegetables.  She soon discovered the local seed merchants and then got lots of the school children preparing seed beds.  The volcanic soil is a deep brown and wonderfully fertile unlike much of the rest of Africa.  With a little rain the first seeds were sprouting in a few days and we hope to see produce (courgettes, beans, carrots and spinach) before we leave.  The weather has been unusually damp for the time of year which should be a dry season and there have been occasional ferocious storms but the average daytime temperature is still 25ºC.

Once all this was done the final task was to repair or complete teachers houses.  Currently only two teachers live at the school which is nearly 2 miles from the nearest town along dusty and deeply rutted tracks. Even the lived in  houses are incomplete.  The aim was to complete a total of nine houses. Having teachers living on site can make a huge difference to the success of the school and the ability to support extra-curricula activity. As part of completing these houses (one of which was started in 1997) one of the requirements was to build toilets for which a “long-drop” hole is necessary – 30 feet deep at a cost of £1 per foot.  They tried to convince us after 22 feet that it was OK but we weren’t having it; we eventually settled for 28 feet all of which was dug by hand. 

Throughout the whole time there were continuous problems with material supplies and organisation, so Tony spent most of his time as site manager, also doing window glazing when he had time.  But the biggest problem of all was electricity. We had actually ordered and paid (£1000) for the school to be given an electricity supply in August 2006 but when we arrived in January it was soon clear that Tanesco, the national electricity supply company, had forgotten all about that.  We quickly reawakened their memory but then it became a continuous hassle and pressure to get them to do anything.  By the middle of February they had put up poles and cable to bring power the half mile from the nearest point to within 10 metres of the school connection point but then everything just stopped.  A further 10 days and even more pressure and they finally delivered – it was a great event; and then they had a 8 hour power cut the following day!  During the week we live with the same family that we stayed with 2 years ago.  We have a 10ft by 8ft room with two beds, a couple of small tables and two plastic chairs and it is very comfortable.  The kitchen and toilet are outside and there is only one tap which works sometimes. We have breakfast and dinner there and the food is excellent though largely vegetarian. We get all this for £2 each per day.  At the weekends we go down to hotels in Arusha which are a lot more expensive but have such things as flushing toilets and running water.  We go down to town to get money, use the internet cafes and meet other volunteers.  We also went on a couple of safaris organised locally – much cheaper than from England and very good.

Our thanks, and even more, the thanks of the school, to all of you who supported us in this adventure.  It was worth it and we enjoyed it – mostly! Did we miss a cold winter?

Tony & Sue Pace

Women’s Institute

On January 8th we enjoyed a three course meal provided by the committee to celebrate Bugbrooke W.I.’s birthday.

Mrs L Harper gave us an interesting account of the history of Victorian beading during February’s meeting. She also showed us examples of vintage beading and the modern style of beading. Our appreciation of this intricate craft was shown when several members purchased items from the display.

“W.I. Life”, the new magazine which all members receive by post, contains items of interest ranging from national initiatives to profiles of county federations as well as how the W.I. can act locally.

On April 2nd Mr C Blyth’s talk will be entitled “Eleanor of Castile and Eleanor Cross”. Please note that this meeting will be at the Community Centre.

The following meeting, in the Sunday School, is on April 30th and is concerned with resolutions for this year.

A Boswell / J E Marshall

Bugbrooke Art Group

We will be holding this year’s annual art exhibition on Saturday and Sunday the 12th & 13th May at the Community Centre. As usual there will be a wide selection of work including watercolours, acrylics, pastels and pen and ink drawings, many of which are for sale.

In addition to the selection of work, there is one exercise where each artist in the group starts from a black and white reproduction and produces a picture based on their own interpretation. You’ll be surprised how different the end results are, having come from a common starting point.

Entrance is free and as well as the works of art, there are hand-made cards, homemade cakes, coffee and tea all available for a small price.

The art group meets at the Community Centre on a Tuesday evening for two hours from 7:30 (ish). Newcomers are always welcome. Though there is no formal tuition, there is plenty of friendly advice, suggestions and enthusiastic encouragement is readily available.

Dave Marshall. Tel 831016

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