Seasons' Greetings from all and the Girls

Today I went out to the site with the Girls who are already starting to show signs of boundless energy waiting to be released. As the last day of work for the year, we called everyone together at lunchtime and I gave them best wishes from Sarah (in her absence) and me and of course from the Girls who sitting there watching everything with big eyes. The surprise for everyone was when I pulled out a pile of Elegant Africa compliment cards with each persons name printed on one with seasons' greetings to them and their families in, from Sarah, me and Andy, in Kinyarwanda. A personal touch they just couldn't believe which disbelief increased when I added 1,000francs (about £1) to each person's card. The guys just couldn't believe that we had done the cards, especially in Kinyarwanda and still a gift as well.

So from this little best wishes "ceremony" everyone was paid their wages and set off home for a festive season and having a well-earned rest before resuming on 8 January. In the next couple of weeks I'll add some photos and news of the girls as they grow and most likely sneak their way into everyone's hearts.

A Serval, a genet and the Ikoro Girls

Serval track photographed in the NW of the site

This photo was one of a few I took in the north-west of the site. After checking the measurements and following as many of the tracks as we could and deferring to the field guides on tracks, we've concluded that these are serval tracks. On showing the pic of a serval to some of the lads at the site, they immediately identified it as the animal they've been seeing on the site. The other tracks in the north we also confirmed as genet tracks. Unfortunately one generally can't tell different genet species from each other just from their tracks so we have to try and get photos to know what genet(s) we have there.

This of course brings up the subject of the leopard's presence on the site. Now while I have not photographed the other tracks yet that have been seen on the site (which the guys maintain are much larger than theses serval tracks) it takes mentioning that pretty much any animals with spots that looks cat-like is called "Ingwe" - Kinyarwanda for leopard. So on whether there's a leopard on the site, methinks the jury's still out on that one.

Now this morning when Andy and I got to the north western border to check for any new tracks, I was greeted by a little whimper and the small "growls" of 4 small puppies. They cautiously approached me from the hessian bag they'd obviously been lying on just inside our hedge. I think my jaw just dropped for a second or two before I called Andy over to get some guys to help me get them to the car. Just 2 days earlier I had been chatting to the Gorillas vet about letting me knwo when they find a dog looking for a home - now I had just got four!

I immediately phoned the vet to ask if I could bring the puppies over for him to have a look at. Whilst waiting for him to phone me back I got out a syring from the first aid kit and started giving them water which they promptly gulped down, clearly very very thirsty. They were also covered with lice and fleas with the skin between the fur not looking too good.

Anyway, we estimated their age around at least 4-5 weeks (our own opinion based on their size and their eyes being open) of which the vets later said was actually closer to 8weeks. Getting some shampoo,we took them home and started the whole wash, scrub and clean followed by some more water, milk and maize meal porridge. The vet later helped us out with some deworming treatment for a 3 day course. Having obviously not had much care or possibly even food lately, they lay down after this and slept a good few hours.

This was clearly going to be quite a bit of work to try and nurse them back to health and get them enough nourishment and hopefully keep them alive. I had just received a very nice Christmas present but was going to have to work to keep it. The guys at the site immediately said that whoever put them out didn't realise that the puppies they had abandoned will now most probably have a better Christmas than them, so I suppose it was a bit of a Christmas present for the puppies to have us find them. I immediately started referring to them as "my & the girls" which confused some Rwandese no-end - referring to them as humans?!

Final week for 2006

Yes, in the home stretch of 2006 and everyone on the site is pushing to finish their team projects before Christmas when we'll be stopping construction until after the New Year. Also the time when we're sending out Season's Greetings to everyone who's been involved with the project and supporting us.

We do also have a little suprise for the guys on Friday, their last day of work. On Saturday Sarah will be arriving for a Rwandan Christmas and New Year whilst Andy and Claude go and spend the Christmas with their respective families. For Sarah and me their's a large, large turkey waiting to be cooked on Christmas Day - no oven, so it will be buried in a hole with hot coals and covered with sand and rock.

Looking back on 2006, we've achieved so much and the guys have really worked well. From a Eucalyptus forest to a place where one can now visualise where everything is going to be and roads, pathways etc are taking shape - already adding even more character to a lovely site.

Last week was also the 1st anniversary of us signing the purchase contracts for the land - feels like yesterday. This was followed by the hedges being planted on the perimeter and the start of the Enviornmental Impact Assessment and eventually the removal and clearing of trees, the latter being our first real big work on the site. Starting with 4 guys working for us, we end the year with about 50 people working for us. Projections for the new year is that this number is likely to at least double with actual construction commencing.

Stonework of Note

The Reception stairs team with Andy (back right)

Yesterday the team building the approach stairs to reception finished their project. The stairs as they are stop about a meter below the present ground level of where the reception buildings are planned. This gives us the flexibility to add another step or two to the final approach into reception or leave at the final level and just increase the final section to meet up with the main building.

This is also the first project phase ( we have divided everything into mini-projects) that is now complete and has turned out to be a massive success. It does take mentioning though that this finished product is the 4th attempt which has turned out to be the final attempt. The good thing is that we've all learnt a lot from this little project and the guys also now have a much better idea of our expectations


Finishing taps to the Stone Table
A few days ago I mentioned about the rock that we planned to have shaped for use as a stone table. This is now nearly finished, tomorrow Elisa (busy shaping in the photo) reckons he'll be done. It is looking brilliant and may actually look quite well in the lounge. Elisa is one of our most experienced masons and quite a perfectionist when it comes to dimensions and whether the rock being shaped is level and/or the exact to the requirements.

New Seedlings Arrive & Stone Tabletop

Fig tree species (Ficus vallis-chaudae) used to make dug-out canoes

The guys from Ruhondo working at the site brought us the seedlings on Tuesday they've been nurturing over the past 6-8months. This included about 2,500 seedlings for the thorny hedge we're planting all around the site.

This morning I spent a half-hour recording all the different species on camera for our plant records - they had brought a total of 23 different species which excluding the hedge seedlings are mostly large trees used in the communities. Whilst photographing each species they also gave me the Kinyarwandan name which I can then try and trace back to the Latin/English name on the internet.

Quite a few of the trees are/were traditionally used for timber but there's a tree for example that was used to make bark-cloth from in Uganda - a Strangler Fig and the fig in the photo is/was traditionally used to make dug-out canoes from. There are also a few fruit trees including one with a fruit referred to in Kinyarwanda as umutima w'infizi which translates into the "heart of the bull". I have yet to see the fruit though as I don't seem to be able to find an English reference to this plant in Rwanda - yet.

As for the rest of the work on the site, all is progressing fairly well with huge advances being made on the pathway to the safari tents. The south-western corner of the road around the 4x4 campsites is taking shape now being one of the harder sections of this road to do due to the undulating terrain which we're trying to maintain as much as possible on this road.

The stairs at the drop-off point that will lead to Reception should be finished tomorrow to a level just below where we anticipate the Reception floor-level will be. The rest will be built into the Reception area after the buildings' floor levels are established.

A couple of the guys who are breaking rock at the restaurant area at the moment unearthed a massive rock (nearly in the shape of Africa as Andy commented) which we will get one of the masons to level on one side and then use as an outdoor table-top in one of the little "havens" on the site. We'll probably mount it on top of some tree-stumps cut to accomodate it. It is very large though and took about 15 guys to tip out of its resting place which should prove an interesting exercise in ancient transport on logs to its final destination.

Recording Plants

Grass-like species photographed (Flower approx. 10mm)

Last week I started recording the plant species on the site with the view of having most, if not all, identified by a botanist/ecologist for us. Starting out it soon became clear what a daunting task this is - in 3 separate 1m square blocks I photographed 26 different species.

This was also only the smaller plants and not the larger trees and shrubs which were in these blocks. Some of the photos I was able to supplement with photos I had taken before on the site.

The other advantage of this is that we should be able to more readily for example, identify butterfly food and larval plants. There is of course the chance of stumbling across something which is a bit of a special species in the plant world and needs to be nurtured. A whole new road of discovery methinks.