What a Pleasant Surpise!

View from Laundry to Restaurant, Lounge & Bar

Arrived back in Rwanda yesterday via Burundi and on a flight that was delayed in Nairobi for more than an hour and a half, so by the time I got back to Musanze I was ready to just relax and fall asleep.

Getting up early this morning, I went with Andy to the site and have a walk around and discuss all the progress to date. GOSH!! I couldn't believe how much had been done in the time I'd been away considering the guys are only working average 4 days a week with the occasional work on Saturdays to collect stumps lying around etc i.e. tidying up a bit. Apparently the guys were a little disappointed that they couldn't finish everything that had been marked out although there were only 3 trees left to remove, so a pretty good job then.

The massive area of Back of House where the kitchen, laundry and workshop etc will be has been finished and it looks like a massive road being made through the forest as this area all joins up with the restaurant, lounge and bar. The area where the campfire will be looks fantastic with the cleared "bowl" surrounded by trees on the perimeter through which the path from the bar/lounge lobby will lead.

The road around the 4x4 sites and the 3 ablution areas inside are done as well. Its quite daunting yet very exciting now being able to clearly see where everything will be. All that's left of the clearing proper is two safari tents and the outer perimeter of the restaurant which we'll mark out tomorrow and Monday.

I'll also get some photos over the next few days and try and get them posted on here.

London News

Travel Weekly (1 Sept 06)
Whilst in London there has also been some Ikoro related matters that we've sorted out and some new things we discovered.

The Travel Weekly magazine of 1 Sept published an article on Rwanda and included a quote from Elegant Africa about the Tented Camp. This was a fantastic piece of marketing for us so we're really chuffed with that. We also got hold of the new Rwanda Bradt Guide and all the details for Ikoro Tented Camp has been published with reference to the Safari Tents for the upmarket accommodation and also for the camping section. One of the community artisans co-operatives quote us in the guide as well with reference to the fact that we have already purchased some furniture from them and that we may be using some more of their products in Ikoro Tented Camp.

Tomorrow before I leave, Sarah and I will be meeting with Philosophy Design, our marketing company, to finalise our brochures etc for the World Travle Market 2006 in London (6-10 November).

Update from Andy in Rwanda

Andy has kept us posted by e-mail on the progress in Rwanda whilst I'm in London. He says the clearing is progressing really fast and they may have cleared everything or most by the 30th when I arrive back.

Andy has also been discussing technical issues and sourcing of materials with Emmanuel who will be our site engineer. This included gumpoles which make up the main super structure of the safari tents and the connection to the mains water supply.

The utilities company was going to cut through the road and lay pipes but it seems they've come across an easier (possibly even cheaper) option which would utilise existing structure underneath the road about 300m away from the site. We'll be quite happy if this works out as this road is an international road leading to the border with Uganda at the Cyanika border post so we would prefer not disrupting this flow of traffic.

All in all, it sounds like progress still hurtling ahead at the site.

On my way again

This morning I only spent a few hours at the site making sure that all is fine for the Andy and the guys to carry on whilst I'm away. Then it was off home to sort out money and admin for Andy.

One of te things Andy will be doing is starting to plant some banana trees in areas where we want to shield a particular location and there won't be any construction and clearing.

After this I set off to Kigali to Hotel des Mille Collines as I need to check-in for tomorrow's flight at 5am! I will spend a day and a half in Nairobi to sort out some flight tickets and also finalise the safari tents design, and then off to London where amongst other things we will finalise the brochures for the World Travel Market 2006 in November.

Long weekend - now Work

After a long weekend of catching up on admin and a trip on Thursday to Kigali, we were back to clearing today. Over the weekend we also some visitors to site including someone from Rwanda Tourism (ORTPN) from Kigali and some overland crew - all to see the progress and see what we have i mind for the locations of the different facilities.

This morning we employed another 10 guys, so we're up to about 45-50 people on site busy clearing. Andy also came back today from holiday, so him and I went on a tour to show him the progress whilst he's been gone. Now we have so many guys, most of the clearing will probably be done when I'm back in a couple of weeks andwe can start on leveling.

Today and tomorrow will I'll also be handing the baton over to him for a couple of weeks while I'm away in the UK. So loads of planning to do and making sure all that needs to be marked out for clearing is done. Planning on wages required and other planning that needs to be done for the construction of the mainframe for the safari tent prototype.

Last Clearing day (This week)

Construction of the bush toilet in progress
I decided to let the guys have off on Friday as there was a ton of admin etc waiting at the office to be done and I needed an office day. Unfortunately Andy is still on leave so I can't just leave the site at the moment and someone decides to start clearing an area that has to remain wild.

The bush toilet was finished today and must surely be one of the poshest bush toilets I've seen. With stumps covering the floor and thinner trees covered with leafy branches making up the "walls" and a rock pathway as the approach. As soon as I get some better internet connectivity I'll upload some photos of this nice little structure.

On all the areas I mentioned yesterday, the guys are still struggling on due to the the sheer size of the stumps and rocks. The big advance at the moment is the road to the 4x4 sites and the other approach roads from reception. The road is pretty much cleared all the way from reception to 1) bar delivery 2) all overland truck sites 3) near the southern 4x4 site ablution 4) the entrance from the main road.

On Sunday we're getting together again for English - Kinyarwanda lessons again and tomorrow I'm doing the now almost habitual trip to Kigali. After that, the rest of the time is office time.

Fencing & Toilet

Yip, we got the last lot of iron sheetin today and the guys finished the roadside fence and then also finished the security hut. Although the hut is just a temporary shelter, the guys did a good job and it looks quite good. Also a handy bit of shade for the security guys in the day (not that there's a shortage of shade between all the trees. We used just over 200 iron sheets of about 90cm wide for the front fence - about 140meters!

The guys building the toilet are doing some serious rock busting with an iron stake being hammered in to crack the rock. By this afternoon they had gone about 1.7m deep - still all rock. Although this is very hard work its heartening to know that we can get through it with manual labour when we need to later on during construction.

The back of house/workshop boys got themselves some seriously large stumps, two of them about a meter in diameter! Add to that the now all to well-known root enveloped rock and you have a task of note at hand.

One of the other teams kicked off today on the road going to the 4x4 sites and seem quite happy that I'm not just making it straight but winding through contours and very large trees, so progressing there quite well.

Also had to exchange some dollars for local currency today - the exchange rate is all over the shop now due to the USD moving so much (mostly down though).

Safari Tents, roads & new people

Southern border with iron-sheeting (looking toward S-west corner)
The guys finished another safari tent site and got cracking on the next one which when done means we have 3 safari tent sites done.

The delivery road to the back of the bar is done and the work there is progressing into the road toward the main entrance and parking (past Reception). Also the last two trees are going out in the approach road to the northern overland truck sites which splits into the road going to the 4x4 sites. The main entrance and parking area is now also looking a bit "bare" as the bulk of the trees and stumps are out there too - few big trees that went down today.

Today we took on another 10 people pushing our number of workers to 35. The new guys were taken out with the "experienced" ones to where they were working. About 10 people got starting in all earnest in the bar area with tall and big trees going down very quickly but work slowing down as the massive stumps seem reluctant to release their hold on the solid rock - but, they have to come out.

I also ordered the last iron sheets required for the small space left in the fence and the security hut so we can finish that tomorrow - hopefully.

Four of the guys also set off to build a temporary toilet for workers on site. This was of course a debate about where due to their consideration of how much and what size rock had to be removed but a site was eventually agreed.

English - Kinyarwanda Lessons

At 2pm today was the first of our Sunday English - Kinyarwanda lessons. I arrived 15 minutes early to find most of the work crew there already and the balance arrived shortly after that. It was heartening to see the old guys (50+) there as well, not leaving it for the youngsters only.

With a marker pen and white sheets of paper I started with the basic greetings first, writing the English on the paper for them all to write down/make notes whilst I wrote down the Kinyarwanda for the same word(s). It was a pleasant surprise to see that some of the guys already knew a small number of words with one or two knowing the odd sentence in English.

Throughout the guys were firing questions about plural and singular forms and similar words they had heard before. The lessons had been scheduled for 2pm as Rwanda was playing Cameroon (football) at 3:30, so they wanted to be finished. Naaah, the guys went on close to 4pm just wanting more and more!

Eventually I had to stop them and say that we all had to first practice the first heap of words from today - and I mean a heap of words. We agreed that I would speak Kinyarwanda with them answering in English and in that way also check each other's pronunciation.

I really enjoyed this day and it was great to see the smiles all round as people got the words right. Definitely a very rewarding part of the project.

Clearing again

Clearing at the site commenced with renewed energy again today. Five very large trees went down in the entrance & parking area and in the afternoon culminated in a lot of singing & shouting whilst carrying these large trees off to the collection point.

The overland truck parking are all completely cleared as well as the ablutions area for the southern overland site. The road between these sites has also now been cleared and the guys are well into the approach road from reception toward the 4x4 and overland sites - working toward reception. They will be meeting up with the guys doing the road from the bar delivery area probably on Monday.

As for the sites for the safari tents, the guys cleared one and a half sites today. At Reception, the guys are starting to clear the northern side of the Lobby toward the lounge and bar lobby.

Everyone is absolutely working like demons and with big smiles which makes me quite happy too (Much more pleasant to work with happy workers). We also set the time for Sunday for the English/Kinyarwanda lessons at the site, if it rains, we'll have it on the porch at the house.

The night watchmen also asked us if we could get them a couple of thick jackets as its getting very cold in the wee hours of the morning. This is luckily easily available at the market and with a bit of Kinyarwanda to my credit now, I managed to get local prices and not tourist prices - a difference of about £70 it turns out! Needless to say, the lads were very happy with the new thick jackets to compliment the little fire they have going at night.

A weekend of administrative time in the office ahead with 6am and 6pm trips to the sites for the "change of the guard".