The Milgis Trust

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 11 2008 | By: milgistrust

Some times one wonders!! when you try to do good, misunderstandings get blown out of proportion… and the next thing is you are nearly ‘out on your bicycle’!!

Latakwen is a little town about 10 kms north of The Milgis Trust Base… Our Neibours and friends for the last 9 years!!…. Yesterday we went to have a meeting with the community to iron out some rumours that we had been hearing!.. We had decided to move the base radio from Elkanto hill in Nairimirimo Location, to a higher hill to get better communications, and decided it would be a good idea to put it in Latakwen Location for a change and make them feel more part of it! After lengthly meetings with the community to explain… There seemed no problem, every one happy to be included, and we immediatley employed 15 people from Latakwen to build the road… but after two weeks, we had a strike!!, yes a strike.. miles away from nowhere!, they wanted to be paid more than double what they had agreed to, for the work they had aleady done!! Eventually we paid them a bit more than the agreed amount but stopped the work… We then got a message that the radio house would not be moving unless the trust paid rent for the hill, and that any work done would be double the amount… ie half as much again as skilled workers get!…To the 100 or so people who attended the meeting, including the chief, we explained to them that the Trust is for the community so who was going to pay the rent, plus 2 people from the community would get a job as radio operators…..The long and the short of the discussion was .. Some very embarrassed ‘ex road workers’, lots of apologies.. And the go ahead to establish the radio room as soon as possible!!, and that when and if theres work, to pay the normal rate…

Having settled the misunderstandings we then went on to tell them the real reason for the meeting… Latakwen is a isolated town that has sprung up in the middle of nowhere, the only water is brackish from the nearby Lugga. Some years ago an organisation put a well in for them, with a hand pump… This soon broke down, and the 1000 or so residents resorted to their old system, and to throwing buckets down the well……. continued tomorrow!!