gravity phase 2

But before we knew it phase 1 was over and it was back to base camp for changeover and time to discover who the new alpha 2 were going to be.

Sunrise over the base camp bashers

 Just 36 hours later it was back on the bus to Kota Maruda with a brand new team returning to Nunnguh for more fabulous sunrises with a new PM team of John & Erin.

Kg. Nungguh sunrise

Our house 

 The new team came up with a slightly better arrangements of tarps that kept the rain out - at some point it came in from every direction, but gave us a view out the top which was nothing short of spectacular.

The living quarters

 First day back, decked out in the project sponsors t-shirts & accompanied by Steve the photographer we set about connecting the first few pipes to the water tanks and connected up the first house - a memorable moment.

Cosmo, Veerle & John connecting pipes

The first connection

Another sunrise

We also took on the locals at football, following on the phase 1 defeat 5-3 (from 3-0 up at half time), we put up a valiant effort leading most of the way against the team that included the ref before losing 10-8.

Football in Pinapak

We started to connect up the pipes laid in phase 1 and add taps to all the houses in the village

Walking the pipe route

Digging trenches in the road for the pipe

Veerle & Ben connecting pipes

Walking pipes along the route

 We really started to engage with the community in the second phase, teaching english to the adults in the village & also going along & playing after school games at the local school.  We also started to get a regular supply of fresh vegetables from the headman, sweetcorn, aubergine & chillies.

fresh food

Papaya tree

 On a clear day it's possible to see Mount Kinabalu and at this stage it was almost official that we'd be climbing it to celebrate 10 years of Raleigh having a permanent base in Sabbah

Mt. Kinabalu

We also managed to find an alternative shower source to the pipe on the road, a small waterfall. 

shower time

palm tree

We finished with an opening ceremony, speeches from government officials, raleigh & AFC project partners were all duly sat through but the moving speech from the head man's daughter, Rose, spoke about how life changing this project was -  the fact they no longer got back from working in the fields tired & having to go to the river to collect water.  The fact the water feed stopped working just before the ceremony as this was one of the first days of full operation was a minor inconvenience but it's good to know the system is now fully functional and changing the lives of 150 people.

Welcome sign with working water

Opening ceremony