Pig project here it comes!

We finally started building THE pig house. Well, we only managed to dig the foundation and carried all the materials to the site and the day was over. My entire body is hurting now from the physical labor using shovel and hoe, which I've never done

This pig project is an income generation activity (IGA) for the preschools and the baby for Anna my fellow volunteer and I. Along with Patrik another volunteer, we've been really wanted to leave something tangible behind that helps the preschools to run by themselves. After lots of discussions and planning, we decided to dedicate our time and effort to strengthen IGAs at respective preschools besides improving the quality of education. And this pig project is one of our main IGAs we're trying to implement.

Basic idea is to raise and breed the first two female piglets (we've already arranged to borrow a male pig when the girls are ready) and distribute the piglets to hardworking preschools first. They will have to take care of the piglets and return one piglet when the initially distributed piglet gives birth. Then we distribute those 'returned' piglets to more preschools. When I say "hardworking" preschools, they need to meet the criteria/requirements of collecting school fees and maize to buy sugar and feed the children every school day. One representative of each preschool will have to attend a monthly meeting before receiving a piglet to learn about how to take care of pigs, housing, feeding, vaccination, and so on.

We had absolutely no idea about pigs so we went to ask those people who run pig business in villages. They gave us a list of things we need to build a pig house and other things to keep in mind such as feeding and vaccinations.

We got the sample design of the house, tools, cement, fences, and bricks to start building. The first step was to dig the foundation. It took us (we had about 10 people) more than 3 hours to just dig. Then we had to stop the work because me and Anna didn't prepare sand, small rocks, and timbers to mix the cement and construct the foundation. No one told us that we needed them! I guess it was such a common sense... I wish I knew how to build a house.

You can see in the picture where we are now in terms of the construction process. We're so FAR from finishing but we've got to, before the piglets come!!!

I'm so excited about this project with so much hope in the possible great outcome for the sake of preschools' development.

I will definitely keep you updated with the pig house :)