During his time in the Netherlands, besides spreading the information about his organization to students of ‘ROC de Leijgraaf’, Happy also enjoyed a few private lessons in the fields of Welding and Furniture Making on the school.
During the lessons welding he was taught some basics in that field that will no doubt be helpful for him in Uganda. He was very impressed by the computer controlled metal cutting machinery that was present in the workshop of the school. A drawing from a certain design can be read in the computer and the machine will in no time cut the design from a metal plate in detail.
After several well finished exercises in welding Happy started working on a little metal box. With the help of a metal bending machine he was able to make the box, welding the seams all by himself!
Happy is most grateful to Richard van Kalkeren, the teacher who so enthusiastically accompanied him during the welding lessons!
At the start of the workshop of furniture making, Happy was asked if there was something he would like to work on. He did not need much time to answer that question, since there had for quite a while been the desire in him to be able to make a wooden bench of the model used for the children to sit on at Ugandan schools.
Accompanied by the teacher he started working on the bench, using only the traditional tools as they are still used in Uganda today. Especially the sawing of the required parts visibly took a lot of his strength, simply not being used to doing that, but it was so beautiful to witness how the bench became a reality!
Thanks to the enthusiasm and the great guidance of teacher Rob Cornelissen, Happy will now be able to make these wooden benches for the children in the future!
Richard van Kalkeren and Rob Cornelissen: thank you for teaching Happy these basic skills from Welding and Furniture Making. It means very much for him!
