"Ikoro Tented Camp" Project, Rwanda

Our Staff at Work

2008-08-12T00:23:00.005+02:00

Some photos of our people at work on the site.

Rock being thrown over the sub-terrain walls for foundantions of the inner walls.

Volcanic rock being broken in preparation for shaping for building. The rock is also shaped with hammers, albeit small ones.

Volcanic rock being carried from where it's been delivered on the site, to the place where required by the masons.

Bar & Recreation Walls

2008-08-11T12:36:00.011+02:00

After reception walls were done we started with the bar and recreation area with their shared toilet facilities (restaurant & lounge have their own as well). These buildings have large windows and around the front will have many wooden full-length louvred doors opening to a 2m wide wooden deck and the forest beyond. Part of the view from the bar and restaurant will include the large communal outdoor campfire area.

The bar/lounge lobby entrance from reception on the near right with 2 of the large windows of the bar visible to the centre.

The lobby between the bar and lounge seen here from the lounge in the foreground. The bar is beyond the the lobby.

View across the floor of the bar towards the recreation area. The wall on the left will form the back of the half-moon bar. From centre to the doors (visible in the right of the shot) is an 8m radius - this building will also have the highest roof with the centre post in excess of 12m high.

The location for the bar centre post visible in the foreground. Further across, the opening where full-length louvred 'shutter doors' will open to a 2m wooden deck.

Walls Start going Up!

2008-08-10T23:17:00.006+02:00

The first walls started going up on 3 June - a long awaited and exciting day. The excitement spread through all our employees as well and our top masons got the honour of starting the walls of reception. As you'll see in the photos below, the walls of reception is now complete as well as window and door lintels with only the concrete ring-beam to go.

The laying of the first volcanic rock "bricks" - this particular spot being where the little shop would be located.

Walls in progress - looking toward the half-moon where the reception counter will be located.

View of the completed walls from the main parking area - the main entrance would be up the stairs in the foreground.

Closer view of the completed reception walls, over the stairs that will make out part of the main entrance.

Overland Sites

2008-08-10T17:06:00.007+02:00

Photos of the main overland campsites and the cooking areas which we've paved with the locally made red bricks.

Looking northwards up the the main campsite. A cooking area for one group visible in the right of the photo.

The southern-most end of the main campsite with the cooking area for one group here. Parking for the southern 2 sites partially visible in the background.

4x4 Campsites - Update

2008-08-10T12:59:00.008+02:00

Below are photos of 3 of the sites - taken about a month ago.

The first 4x4 site we planted grass at. The cooking/fireplace incorporated into the rock in the foreground.

The cooking area of the western-most site with steps leading up to the eating area. Campsite is further up to the left.

Site on the eastern side with a 2-level cooking and eating area. The bathrooms are diagonally off to the left.

Bar, Lounge & Restaurant

2008-08-10T11:44:00.006+02:00

During May the concrete slabs for the bar, lounge and restaurant were completed. In order to deal with the varying levels between sections and buildings as well as aesthetic purposes, the concrete was poured 'within' a perimeter of small shaped volcanic rocks. This then also hides the level of concrete from view when the buildings are seen from the outside as the walls will be erected inside but against the edge of this little rock perimeter.

The photos below show clearly how big the difference in levels between sections and buildings really is.

From foreground to back: edge of bar, lobby from reception, lounge, restaurant to far left and bathrooms serving restaurant and lounge to the far right.
Bar and recreation area (far left) - looking across to where the campfire area will be

April 2008

2008-08-10T11:17:00.003+02:00

April was a bit all over the shop for me with a week in Kenya meeting people including somebody from a group lodges that have offered to assist in training our staff at one or more of their lodges in the Masaai Mara. This program would also involve them helping out with their trained staff assisting and shadowing our staff during the first couple of months Ikoro Tented Camp is open. A massive boost thus for our proposed training program for our staff.

I had also been in London for Sarah's birthday party with the obligatory champagne of course which also coincided with a house move in London. Speaking of which, please make sure if you have any correspondence for our London address, to confirm you have the correct address.

Back in Musanze, Andy and I went to see how the stone-cutting machine operation was going that we thought would provide cut volcanic rock for building. This has since fallen by the wayside and all our building is now with hand-shaped rock from quarry in an area known as Gahunga.

End of April saw Sarah and I hosting our first dinner for guests in the new covered entertainment area with about 15 people present. After some snacks and drinks, a 3 course dinner followed around a lovely big fire. Definitely not the last time we'll be doing this - if you're in the area, give me a shout and I'll set-up a dinner/bbq for the late afternoon or evening.

Trip to South Africa (March 2008)

2008-08-10T10:59:00.002+02:00

The visit to South Africa was very productive and included a visit to the company whom we intend buying the roofing for the public areas from. It was decided that we would use a synthetic thatch which serve us much better as far as durability and transport costs go. Furthermore, this would also mean we could harvest rainwater from these roofs. The synthetic thatch is well manufactured with custom-made colours and looks like the natural thatch. This also bring down the total weight and stress on the overall roof structure as this product is all in all with waterproffing material and backing, max an inch thick. 'Installation' will also be a fraction of the time-frame it would take to use natural thatching on the 2,000sq.m roofs.

I also went to get some examples of toiletries for our safari tents and both Sarah and I agree with the quality that we'll be able to provide quality in even this to our guests. There was also a visit to a firm in Cape Town which it seems we'll be sourcing the majority of our linen from who is also a large supplier to the hotel and hospitality industry in SA.

Kitchen design was also on the agenda and I had a very informative and productive meeting with a specialist company in Cape Town.

'New' House in Musanze

2008-08-10T09:56:00.007+02:00

December 2008 we moved house in Musanze. A lovely property we're renting at the moment but decided it needed some work to on the gardens and outside - for a start anyway. A little bit further from centre of town but generally still a reasonably central location and 1.5km from the site. The one side of the property was previously all dedicated to a vegetable garden which, by the time we moved in, was totally overgrown.

The idea was to convert part of this to a lawn and garden adjoining the existing front garden and formalising a section into a vegetable garden towards the back of the property. I also designed an outdoor bbq area with a banana fibre roof which would also prove to be a worthwhile 'test drive' for similar structures at Ikoro for the campsites etc.

The photos here are of the work we'd done to date and the way it looks at the moment.

Part of the rock garden at dusk I built with some of our guys using large volcanic rocks. Some rocks took 4 of us to carry.

A view of the vegetable garden with rock pathways between the beds.

View across part of the back lawn of the covered bbq and entertainment area

Updates

2008-08-10T09:31:00.004+02:00

The next couple of days I'll be updating the blog with photos of the project and snippets of news since the last update. Unfortunately, I only have photos after March as my laptop was stolen during a visit to South Africa which contained about 5,000 photos including ones of the project - a dear lesson and reality check in backing up the data and photos to external media.

Anyway, as you'll see from the posts after this, there has been huge progress in all aspects of the project. Our number of employees has also swollen and now stands at around 260 people with 200 working on the site itself and another approx. 60 on a stone quarry we purchased for the rock to be shapped for the building.

Enjoy the journey with us through the review of the last few months.

New Pathways

2008-01-24T01:09:00.001+02:00

To date most of the photo updates have been shown pathways that are in the area of the safari tents and the 4x4 campsites. Some new pathways have now been completed in the overland campsites areas. These link different levels and/or terraces of campsites to each other as well as roads and facilities. In some places I've laid them out so a path end on a ridge near some campsites which would have a nice view and/or is just a quiet spot away between some trees where people can sit and have a read or think.

Keep in mind that all these pathways will have lanterns hanging along them at night so its not going to be a hunt/fallover in the dark to see where you're going.

Pathways leading from the large main campsite to 3 other campsites and bathrooms.

Zoomed in to the upper left of the previous photo - showing a terraced campsite to the right of the pathway.

Path leading off on one side to the bathrooms (far mid-left) and one onto a little rise on the ridge and the nearest one leads to another campsite and viewpoint.

Snow in Rwanda

2008-01-13T18:12:00.001+02:00

Karisimbi with snow on during the week. We had a bit of a cold spell for a couple of days when the windscreen of the car had ice on as well.
Lovely crisp Central Africa. This photo was taken from one of the campsites on the western side of the site.

Overland Campsites & Facilities

2008-01-13T16:43:00.000+02:00

A collection of photos of the overland campsites, their access road and one of the cooking areas which every truck will have. Each of the cooking areas and campsites have been laid out individually taking into account the contours of the area and/or other prominent features.

Another campsite along one of the ridges

One of the smaller campsites hidden behind one of the ridges.

The main southern campsite with more campsites terreaced between the contours on the farside of this photo.

One parking and turning area for 2 trucks at the southern end of the overland sites. Campsites off to the right of the road.

1st Cooking area being finished off, the next one should be done by Monday

Photo Updates (3) - Foundations

2008-01-13T15:55:00.000+02:00

Reception seen from the office side

Reception foundations seen from the lobby exit that will lead to the restaurant, lounge and bar. Main reception in the foreground with the office at the furtherest end.

The foundations completed of the bathrooms for the crew/guide rooms

Completing the foundations of the Crew/Guide roomsAll the foundations being done with volcanic rock as well

Photo Updates (2) - Foundation trenches

2008-01-13T15:17:00.000+02:00

The trenches for reception, shop and bathrooms

Restaurant, Lounge and their bathrooms trenches dug and ready for foundations

Photo Updates

2008-01-13T14:46:00.000+02:00

Pathway past one of the 4x4 sites to a viewpoint of the volcanoes
This pathway joins to the one below and also leads the bathrooms and another campsite

One of the new pathways between the 4x4 Campsites

Happy and Prosperous 2008

2008-01-12T18:00:00.000+02:00

Just wishing all a very happy and prosperous New Year and may all your dreams and wishes come true.

All holding out we'll be celebrating our first Christmas and New Year in Ikoro Tented Camp in 2008. Things are moving fast and furiously - most of the time anyway.

Last week we employed another 40 people and this week will be another 50 employed bringing our total of people working on the site to 170. This coming week sees us connecting to our mains water supply and also the first concrete being thrown for floors.

Foundations commence on the restaurant, lounge and bar in this coming week too.

Please feel free to contact me if you're in the area and we'll show you around.

BEST WISHES

Marcell, Sarah and Andy

Photos of Rusumo Falls, Lake Bulera

2007-08-15T21:38:00.000+02:00

I mentioned before about the trip I did to Rusumo Falls at Lake Bulera. A few photos have now been posted on www.africa-photo-tour.blogspot.com/ - the link is also in the on the left side of this page.

There is only one of photo that includes Lake Bulera, although a stunning lake, the air was extremely hazy on the day and long distance photos did not come out well at all. Enjoy

General Update

2007-07-30T17:56:00.000+02:00

This last while has been a lot of admin and planning work but things at the site are about to start picking up speed with marking out of foundations and final campsite layouts commencing.

Also recently got hold of an article that appeared (April 23 - 27, 2007 publication) in the East Africa Business Times on Ikoro Tented Camp after an interview with one of their journalists. We got a full page in the digest section and a very positive article. A copy of the article appears here http://www.rwandagateway.org/article.php3?id_article=5258

The number of tourists in Musanze is rising very fast as we hit the peak of the season with larger numbers also staying longer in the area, partly also due to people waiting for their turn to track gorillas and permits are spread out over a few days.

At the house, we've appointed Dio as the new housekeeper and cook. He has some previous cooking experience from Hotel Muhabura here in town, so we'll be teaching him a few more skills as we go along. The idea is to reach the point where he runs all household matters including the cooking side of it - maybe even end up at Ikoro as one of the staff there.

4x4 Campsites B (11-26 April)

2007-07-25T13:37:00.000+02:00

This particular 4x4 site has a stunning view of Mt Karisimbi from the dining area which is on area about 1.5m above the parking for this site. The campsite per se for this site is about 2m higher on the other side of the parking area.

View from the Dining Area

View of the parking area showing the high rocks on the left.
We've kept the rock walls covered in moss, lichen and vegetation here to retain the rustic look. This site in my opinion one of the nicest 4x4 sites.

A very large tree being removed to make space for the parking

In the left of the pic is the western leg of the 4x4 circular road going to the NW corner.

4x4 Campsites A (11-26 April)

2007-07-25T11:22:00.000+02:00

View of the site from its Parking
The parking has been constructed with volcanic rock similar to the rest of the roads on the site and each campsite will have its own dedicated parking spot.

The Clearing Team
The group of guys who cleared and levelled the site in 2 and a half days. This included removing all the existing vegetation and most of the buried rock except where they're standing where the fire place for cooking will be.

Planting Grass after clearing
Grass being planted which should be growing quite quick with all the rain we were having at this stage. The grass being planted around the rock where the fire place will be - so the rock plate will standing out from the grass where the tents can be pitched.

Update after Long Delay

2007-07-25T11:15:00.000+02:00

Yes back on and able to update the blog again. I'll be posting the updates from the April 15 post with the relevant in the header. There was some great progress and a short delay but with other things happening though.

I've also been doing some exploring around Lake Bulera checking out future options for activities as well and have some pics of the spectacular Rusumo Falls too. Those pics I'll post on here and/or on the Africa Photo blog too (link from this blog on the left).

Mpisi, my 4-legged girl is also doing brilliantly and hasn't stopped growing yet but being my best friend out there and also our security. There'll be some recent pics of her too.

Anyway, enjoy the following posts.

Pics of the roads

2007-04-15T17:59:00.000+02:00

View south of the road leading down to the southern overland parkings and sites - about 10m from the main southern parkings.

View from Reception side, of the two northern overland parkings. (Mpisi walking around in the foreground)

Northern leg of the 4x4 circular road (looking west). 4x4 Parking and campsite planned about a third of the way on both sides of the road.

Western leg of the 4x4 Circular road (looking North)A 4x4 campsite is planned just past the small banana tree midway up the road on the right.

Before and After Review

2007-04-08T18:39:00.000+02:00

These photos are of the bar delivery road which although short, took exceptionally long to clear due to amount of trees growing seemingly out of solid rock. The roots had found/created cracks and grown around the rocks.

View of the road (looking south) from where a ridge separates the road from the back of bar area. It took almost two weeks to remove one tree(People working furtherest from camera)that had been growing through cracks in massive slabs of rock

The Bar delivery road photographed toward the north after completion. The actual delivery ramp will start at the far right hand end of the road, angling over the ridge to back of bar.

Roads and Campsites

2007-04-05T12:33:00.000+02:00

Sarah and I have been spending some time around the site reviewing the progress that's been made with the roads and earmarking locations for the 4x4 and overland campsites.

The 4x4 circular road has been completed with the guys just finishing the final levelling with small pieces of rock rubble. The whole junction between the first two overland parkings have been completed with major progress being made on the road down to the southern parkings and sites.

The bar delivery road has also been completed. The plan is to make a 'ramp' from this road over the ridge between this road and the bar and a pathway with which deliveries can then be moved by a trolley to the bar store.

In the next 2 weeks I'll be taking a lot of photos showing the completed road sections and also the clearing and layout of the various campsites.

Good News

2007-03-15T14:21:00.000+02:00

We got some very good news from Andy today about Mpisi. She's recovered very well from the tick bite fever and become very lively and playful. This has been a week of concern with regular updates from Andy about Mpisi's recovery.

A big thanks again to the vet's who've been checking up on her. Its really good having our new member of management i.e. Mpisi back and healthy and I'm looking forward to seeing her again next week when I get back to Rwanda.

Updates from the site indicate that most of the footpaths are finished and the roads are progressing well. Next week I'll take some more photos and post them here.

A Tribute to Imondo

2007-03-08T18:02:00.000+02:00

We received very sad news yesterday that after two days after a lot of attention and hard work by the vets and Andy, Imondo died from a bout of tick bite fever. This tribute I also want to use to thank all the vets for the professional attention they gave Imondo from the moment they found out she was ill.

We will miss Imondo immensely having being the most lively (and tallest) of all the girls and always the one to make us laugh. She was also the bouncy one keeping her siblings out of the their sleep and on their toes, starting many a game of mad run-around.

Now leaving Mpisi alone with us, we will never forget her and are happy that at least she had a good quality of life for the last 2 and a half months of her life.

Andy will be burying at Ikoro near the spot where we found them abandoned just before Christmas.

Mpisi has also been tested and is being treated as well for tick bite fever. We're all holding thumbs with the vets that they've caught it in time and she recovers.

Progress with English

2007-02-17T17:53:00.000+02:00

The English lessons now being led mainly by Andy is progressing very well. There is a core group of 10-20 (varying on whether there are any community activities etc) who still attend the lessons every Sunday afternoon.

Last week they had some 'homework' to do with basic sentences in English. Working through them today, Andy and I were pleasantly surprised yet proud and impressed with what the guys had done. They had made an effort to incorporate place names and activities they had learnt over time at the site into their sentences. So, in addition to being able to construct basic English sentences in conversations, some of them can now write it as well. Although the spelling is still phonetic at times, it is extremely pleasing to see this progress.

There are of course some who can't write (never learnt to write) but that has not put them off as they push forward by remembering all that's said and practicing the sentences. This pleasingly puts to rest some people's opinions that if someone had not gone to school, it is very hard, if not impossible to teach the person(s) the new language.

At this rate, this part of our staff training will be well advanced by the time we start the training in hospitality matters.

Finished section

2007-02-15T11:36:00.000+02:00

After a lot of admin and meetings the past week, there is also some more good news from the site.

The second overland parking is also finished. Having been led by one of our new masons, this parking area looks brilliant and as level as anything. A lot of work has gone into this parking with, as mentioned before, tons of rock being used to fill up the area first. This was followed by a base layer of rock and finished off with a top layer of large rock compacted with soil again.

Looking at this spot before we started there shows how much work really had to be done. The front end of the parking had to be dug out, almost 1.5m deep. The centre hollow had large loose rocks that we then had to remove to see where our firm base is, this left a crater over 1m deep by 4m x4m.

For comparison, look at the pic in the previous post on 12 Feb showing the half-finished site. (I will post a photo of the finished product at a later stage)

Now follows the joining by rock of the entrance areas of Overland parkings #1 & 2 as well as the approach road from Reception. Every stage of this work now has to be monitored carefully as this is also from the road leads down to the southern-most two overland sites, which is also about 5m below the level of this section of road.

Overland Sites: parking & approach

2007-02-12T14:24:00.000+02:00

The junction where the road to the right branches off the 4x4 campsites circle road and the one to the left approaches the overland campsites.

Looking in the direction of the junction in the first photo from the overland campsites. At this point about 10m from the parking areas.

Work in progress at Overland parking #2. This is post having filled in the site by hand with approximately 1.5ton of rock (looking west toward the front of the parking)

Overland parking #1 finished. The end of the parking in the foreground will be joined by an upslope 'ramp' from the approach road. Looking toward the front of the parking here in a NW direction.

4x4 Campsites: Circle road

2007-02-12T13:20:00.000+02:00

Prefect, one of our main masons on the this road doing an absolute sterling job with his team. As can be seen in this and the next photo, also a brilliant job on the retaining walls at this junction in the road.

Looking west, this junction is the South-east 'corner' of the circle road that leads around the 4x4 campsites.

Part of the junction seen from higher up on the eastern leg of this road.

Kazungu, one of first 3 employees when we were still marking out the site. Here he's part of Prefect's team working on the eastern leg of the 4x4 circle road.

Pathways: photos

2007-02-12T13:01:00.000+02:00

Looking down in a southerly direction, this path leads off to the campfire area at the centre of the site with the path going off to the right, leading off to 4 other safari tents.

Looking west, this path shows how some large sections of rock on the site have been incorporated into the pathways. Mini-retaining walls have also been added so we don't have soil washing onto the pathways with rain.

A section of path I fondly refer to as our "garden path". This is all plants that are and have been on the site with this particular section being extremely rich a fern species, enhancing the garden-like effect.

The Past week reviewed

2007-02-11T12:44:00.000+02:00

In addition to the excitement of our first foundations, work has been progressing very well. The "Ikoro Girls", the puppies, also had their next set of injections and two of them have left us today to Kigali. Akajama and Ingwe have settled in very well in their city home according to their new owner. Hopefully Mpisi and Imondo won't be missing their sisters too much. They will also now be going to the site with me everytime I go giving them and even bigger area to run around in but also more used to being in the car with me and being between people.

Andy and I have taken on another 20 employees on the site. 18 of them are masons which brings our number of masons on site to over 30. The total number of people working on the site is now 70! The enormity of the workforce hits home when one sees everyone setting off to their various workplaces on the site in the morning.

The pathways are proceeding quite rapidly as the guys are clearly into the swing of it with the masons knowing what we're expecting. Its becoming a more and more pleasing sight to see the pathways meander further and more widely through the site. Latest photos of the pathways in a follow-up post.

The roads are going very well with the 1st overland truck parking place completed. The second truck site has commenced which is quite a lot of work as there's a lot of filling up to do but the guys there are working hard with a high level of productivity.

The circle road around the 4x4 campsites is going very well too with a team that seem to outshine the rest in productivity with absolute ease.

In respect of the roads I'll also do separate posts to show some of the latest photos.

1st Foundations

2007-02-08T17:15:00.000+02:00

Foundations commence at Safari Tent sites

A very happy day indeed. The first foundations were started today being the foundations for the supports of the safari tents and and the rock bathrooms.

The supports will first be erected after which the bathroom foundations proper will be dug. These foundations will then incorporate four of the supports' foundations. There are 12 support uprights in the planning which will support the tiled roof over the safari tent and bathroom.

The Ikoro "Girls" - latest photos

2007-02-01T14:20:00.000+02:00

These photos were taken on their first day back at the site since the day as very small puppies, they went with me to wish all the staff a merry Christmas on the last day of work. Needless to say, everyone on the site gasped, as I initially did too, at how much they had grown. On the site they followed Andy and I around all around the site with the boundless energy of young puppies. As per the vet's initial estimate, they are approximately 12 weeks old here.

"Ingwe" - her head sticking out below her slightly bigger sister "Akajama". Getting a bit bullied at times by her 3 larger sisters, but bully might be an overstatement as she's very adept at holding her own.

"Imondo" - one of the girls that will be remaining with us. Also the tallest of the four and already barking quite readilyat people she doesn't know.

"Akajama" - still energetic and living up well to her name of 'little gangster' by more regularly than her sisters still testing the bounderies of what's right and wrong...as kids do.

"Mpisi" - still my favourite and also one that will remain with us and "Imondo". Second in height only to Imondo, she's bulkier of the 4 and also true to her name 'Hyaena' specialises in being opportunistic, especially when it comes to sneaking up behind me and grabbing my legs/ankles in her little sharp teeth.

Start 2007 update

2007-01-30T11:22:00.000+02:00

Work commenced on the site again 2 weeks ago whilst I was on a short trip to the UK. Everyone has jumped in again with renewed enthusiasm and clearly well refreshed after the festive season.

In these 2 weeks, the guys have done a fantastic amount of work again some of which I'm told, was to impress me with how much can be done in a short space of time. Well, success on that front - I am impressed, hugely so!

Very soon we'll be able to do deliveries of building materials to various points on the site via the roads that are progressing rapidly. I've driven my car into the site on the exisiting roads and well impressed. Other than the odd spot that we had to attend to that wasn't as compacted as we thought, the roads so far are looking great.

As for the pathways, I'm going to have to start drawing a map of them and the roads so we can give our clients a layout map. Very pleasing yet humbling seeing the pathways winding through the trees and knowing how much sweat had gone into the making of them.

The "girls" i.e. our puppies have grown a lot and are now ready for their next set of injections including the rabies jab. This will happen in the next few days and then sadly but necessary, we have to say goodbye to "Akajama" and "Ingwe" who are destined to becoming city girls. I'll get some pics of them up here before they go though.

Pics: 2006 work and the Girls

2007-01-02T13:01:00.000+02:00

The Girls' new home/mansion I built for them with a section covered with wire mesh to protect them from birds of prey, the same reason there's a door. The door will come off once they're bigger and a more unlikely target for our avian predators.

The Girls in their temporary home inside the house and their Kinyarwanda names; Mpisi (Hyaena), Imondo (serval), Ingwe (leopard), akajama (little gangster

A before (insert) and after photo of one of the pathways leading to the safari tents

The SW section of the ring road around the 4x4 campsites (rock and soil)

The start of the road leading from the finished reception stairs leading to the campsites

Seasons' Greetings from all and the Girls

2006-12-22T15:00:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-21T19:20:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-19T18:44:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-12T17:10:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-07T18:47:00.000+02:00

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

2006-12-04T19:30:00.000+02:00

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.

Efficient Drainage

2006-11-29T08:18:00.000+02:00

Pathway leading to Safari Tent sites
The pathway leading to the safari tent sites has become something I'm really proud of and the guys who are building it. The original plan was to build this pathway with volcanic rock and let it meander through the exisiting vegetation without creating any formal garden beds along it.

The outcome after a few weeks of rain and consequent plant growth has exceeded my expectations - not referring to the amount of work done but the final look of it, it was almost too easy.

The other great thing about how we built the pathway sunken into the ground is that there is no visible water run-off and no pools of water after the rain. The rain just seeps into the soil between the rocks and into the soil along the path where the grass and trees etc are growing. I must admit though that seeing the efficiency of it now during the rains is quite humbling as I didn't think it would work that well.

This very natural method of drainage we'll now make sure we use in the roads around the site too as this is clearly the way to avoid waterlogging of areas. The other thing is that had this pathway been built with paving and/or cement we would definitely have had to provide for drainage channels etc etc. Yes, everyone is working hard to achieve the results we want but Mother Nature seems to be on our side in a big way - as far as this is concerned anyway.

Back in Rwanda again

2006-11-28T18:51:00.000+02:00

Stairs up to Reception from Drop-off point
Yes, after attending a very successful World Travel Market in London, I'm back in Rwanda. This wasn't the usual fly-back to Rwanda but driving back through Kenya and Uganda - quite interesting this time due to the massive amount of rainfall at the moment in central and east Africa. Very muddy and wet indeed.

On arriving back in Musanze Sunday afternoon with Andy, we stopped quickly at the site to greet the security guys and I had a quick look around the front areas. The guys have been working like demons and have acheived loads. The stairs up to the front of reception are taking shape too.

Monday was not a working day so my first working day again was today and was a bit like a homecoming with everyone coming up and welcoming me back. The road to the 4x4 campsites is also progressing very well with the southern part and approach cleared and rock being laid for the actual road. Most of the road down to the overland campsites is also ready for the rock to be packed in. My most pleasant surprise though was the pathway to the safari tents the guys were busy with when I left.

This now looks like a stone path through a wild garden with all the vegetation having grown quite a bit with all the rain. Immediately Andy and I got around to getting some other plants in along the way. At another place where the guys are battling breaking through a massive big rock I introduced an age old method i.e. making a very hot fire on the rock followed by pouring water over the hot rock. This resulted in quite a number of cracks which got some large chunks of rock out. There was a bit of surprise as to how I would know something like this as mzungus don't usually.

Elegant Africa FC: into the Final!!

2006-10-21T14:52:00.000+02:00

Andy has updated on the outcome of the matches whilst I've been gone.

The team won the first two matches played while we were away;
EA vs National Police Academy (2-0)
EA vs 63rd Battalion (1-0)

In the semi-finals the team went through to the finals after a win on penalties (3-2) when the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

These results have apparently left the Musanze district quite surprised so there should be a large turnout for the matches.

On Andy and my trip to Uganda we stayed a couple of nights in Kampala and then moved on to the NRE camp at Bujagali Falls in Jinja. This turned out into a bit more than a visit for me with me talking myslf into a tandem-kayak trip down the Nile. There was nothing to worry about though and the trip was fantastic with me ending up hooked on kayaking now.

Although I'm London now for the wedding and the World Travel Market, I'll keep the blog updated with feedback from Andy.

Elegant Africa FC: win by default

2006-10-11T17:45:00.000+02:00

This afternoon was the first match for our football team and I was ready with the video camera to record the event. We also had about 15-20 of the guys from the site there to support the team, armed with whistles and a variety of noise making things.

Although everyone was absolutely geared for a big match, it never happened. The opponents didn't turn up and the organisers declared a win by default 3-0 to Elegant Africa FC. Immediately the guys from the site came up for some reasons why the team should be so lucky, one of them being that my witchcraft involved in catching the snake yesterday kept the other team away.

Anyway, Andy and I are leaving for Uganda tomorrow to check out some things for the construction and also show him some establishments for tourists outside Rwanda including an overland campsite and safari tent camp. The football team have vowed to Andy that although he won't be there for the matches on Saturday and Sunday, when he gets back the team will have at least reached the semi-finals.

Progress & a Snake

2006-10-10T19:04:00.000+02:00

Today I was unfortunately stuck in my office for the morning and also running around with banking etc but I managed to get out to the site about half 12. I did a quick tour through the site before the normal afternoon rain (this time of the year) which usually starts around 1:30-2pm.

The rock shaping is progressing well with rocks also being shaped for the Reception/Drop-off steps from the parking area. The latter rocks are shaped just so the top is flat and the front of each step will be reasonably flush - well, that's the idea anyway but I see the guys are shaping most of the sides. That's not bad though as these are all different size rocks so the irregular sized rocks will look good once they're laid down.

The pathway to the safari tents is progressing well albeit slowly and looking pretty good actually. Progress is slower here as the the rocks are being shaped as they're being laid and the rock is from the site - not the easiest "shapeable" rock.

At the 4x4 campsites side, the guys have cut through a ridge for the 4x4 road that will be going around that area and levelled a fair amount of the road either side of the ridge. Although not compacted yet its quite exciting to see one of the roads take shape already. This will probably be one of the first roads to be done on the site as there's no major levelling to do and being for 4x4's, won't be a "paved" road although the rock for this road will be fairly level and well compacted.

On one of the northern overland sites, the guys have started removing very large rock in order to start the levelling of the parking spot - a massive job in this case. The parking spot has to be dug out from the front with retaining walls being built around the sides in keeping with similar retaining walls on the site already.

Now getting back to the parking area, Andy and I got some guys to move rock onto an area with exposed soil so the rain doesn't wash the soil away. Whilst this was going on, there was a flurry of activity and shouts and luckily Andy and I were there - the guys were grabbing anything at hand to try and kill the little 30cm snake that came out. Aha I thought, my opportunity to catch my first Rwandan snake. Successful and holding it, I looked up to see everyone staring at me with very very big eyes. I spent about 10 minutes examining it - nobody could work the video camera and obviously nobody would volunteer to hold the snake while I took photos - so I had to have a good look before releasing it and then try and identify it from the field guide at home.

Even after I had released the snake, everyone continued staring at me and/or watching me out of the corner of their eye whilst working. Andy said that after I had left the site the guys were speculating about how much witchcraft I had that was able to pick up a snake and not get bitten. I'm sure this is not the last I've heard about this as the story spreads around Musanze and obviously, as these stories do, the length and size of the snake increases.

I wasn't able to make a confident ID from the field guide when I got home but it seems it was either one of the forest green-snakes or an olive snake. I'll definitely devise a way to get photos next time. Great afternoon though

Elegant Africa football team

2006-10-09T19:56:00.000+02:00

I forgot to mention last week that we had just given our name to a local football team. Andy told me this when he cam eback from the stadium where all the players from the district had gone for a drawing of teams for a regional tournemant. The tournemant is organised by the Muslim commmunity for Ramadan and comprises teams compiled only for this tournemant. Andy was approached by a team which comprises most of the young players from Musanze and asked to join but mentioned that they didn't have a name for their team yet - he opted for Elegant Africa. Needless to say, they were quite chuffed with that.

The biggest competition apparently will be from the military battalion teams and the Police Academy but they are quite confident that the Elegant Africa team have a very good chance of taking the trophy. The coach is a big supporter of our project here in Musanze and also a keen player in the Musanze veterans' team. The first match our team will play is on Wednesday after Gacaca at 1pm. If possible, we'll get the big Elegant Africa Ikoro Tented Camp sign out to the pitch for the match.

Yesterday was English lessons again with around 16 people attending and all progressing fantastically. A lot of the motivation also seems to come from their opinion that my Kinyarwanda is progressing faster than their English. We also had a good discussion around development and training in Rwanda and Africa in general - things they speculate about what's happening in the rest of Africa. It was good for me too to understand more about their perceptions on what their capabilities are and why they think the reason I'm learning Kinyarwanda quickly is because of my skin colour i.e. white people are more intelligent. I immediately explained that skin colour had nothing to do with skills and/or ability and the reason I was learning Kinyarwanda quicker than them learning English was because I was "forced" to speak the language - not many English speaking people around.

With a bit of discussion they became convinced that nobody is untrainable and the fact that they had not gone to a European school does not lessen their mental abilities. Very interesting discussion though and a very important point to be kept in mind when training people.

Most of my day today was spent in the office preparing drawings etc for the safari tents and planning for my departure on Thursday morning to Kampala and Nairobi.

Some Pics from Ikoro

2006-10-07T18:39:00.000+02:00

Cutting the road to the campsites
The reception and office area is located just to the right of where these guys are working. This particular spot will be the road to and from the campsites. Continueing straight ahead will take you to the overland sites and taking the right fork (not visible here) will lead to the 4x4 sites.

Shaping of volcanic rock

This is volcanic rock delivered to the site and will be used for the building of the stone bathroom for the safari tent. Some of the stone shaped already can be seen next to the guys. This is done by the masons who will also be doing the actual building. It appears that the shaping of stone is an inherent part of the mason's skill set and also something they will learn before they learn the actual building part.

Breaking rock (notice big iron "stake" used to hammer into cracks)
The rock that's broken will be used for foundations, roads and some will be shaped for laying the pathways through the site. This morning I spent some time with the guys at the pathway to the safari tent shaping stone as well - not as easy as it sounds.

Guys stripping the bark from the trees we have cut down already.
This allows the wood to dry before we use it in and around the site. The wood will also be used in the interiors for some fittings etc. The larger pile in the front is all the smaller trees with the larger (and huge) trees packed in the pile where the guys are standing. In the background can a couple of piles of tree stumps that have been removed can be seen as well.

Regional Tourism & Local Sourcing

2006-10-05T17:40:00.000+02:00

On Wednesday I attended a Regional Tourism Workshop in Kigali hosted by SNV (a Dutch capacity building organisation - www.snvworld.org ) and ORTPN (Rwanda Office for Tourism & National Parks). This was attended by representatives from the World Tourism Organisation, tourism authorities from Southern &Eastern Africa including people from Ethiopia and Cameroon. The theme for the day was how tourism can be applied to benefit local communities by following Pro-Poor ( www.propoortourism.org.uk/ ) guidelines. This was a very informative and well overdue workshop for the industry in this region and it was also good to see further confirmation that many of our plans for the future of Ikoro fall within these guidelines.

Yesterday started with a meeting with a consultant appointed by ORTPN to prepare proposals on Community Based Tourism. Andy and Emmanuel (site engineer) then also met me in Kigali where we set off into the city to see what more specialised building materials were available. This is preparation for us also comparing prices with certain items from Uganda.

Starting new things

2006-10-03T20:07:00.000+02:00

Pathway to safari tent, compacted & ready for shaped stone
Today was a partially a move in a new direction with tasks on the site. Near where the prototype safari tent will be erected, the guys have started preparing for the stone pathway which will lead to this tent but will also link up to pathways linking all these tents to general front of house area. This being done by removing about 15-20cm of soil (1m wide) and winding through the existing trees where the basically shaped volcanic rock will packed.

Also at the reception lobby area, we started preparing to build the stone steps leading up from the drop-off/parking area to the lobby. This will also be built with shaped volcanic rock. For the shaping of the rock we have asked some of the masons who are already working as normal labour to get their "shaping" hammers and start on the shaping job. All the shaping is done manually and in the traditional way that is inherent to this area.

Our first big supplies deliveries also happened today; two 10ton trucks delivered volcanic rock that will be shaped for the building of the bathroom at the safari tent (ultimately also for the front of house buildings). The reason for bringing in "other" volcanic rock is that the rock we have on site can be shaped but with great difficulty as its less porous and will break off in chunks which doesn't really help when the mason just wants to do a few little taps with the hammer to finish the shape he wants. The rock on the site is fine for the roads, pathways and foundations though so we will still be using the resources we have on site.

A group of guys has also started digging out the road that leads from the reception area to the campsites. This consists of some areas of large solid rock which has to be broken and removed.

Busy Monday

2006-10-02T19:12:00.000+02:00

Its all go again with an early start at the site (06:15) and getting everyone's tasks sorted out for the day. This took a bit longer than usual as most had finished the sections they had been working on so we refined the perimeters of clearing in some places and marked out the outstanding sections.

Quite a few guys started moving the massive tree stumps from the main building areas and some started to break the large rocks into smaller rocks for use in roads, pathways etc. Generally a very busy day at the site and everyone slugging it out - especially the "rock breakers".

We also spoke to the guys who would be supplying the volcanic rock that has to be shaped for building - this has to start now as we need to do the bathroom for prototype safari tent. They'll come and see us for an order early tomorrow morning.

Getting back this afternoon, I got stuck into the usual end-of-month admin which I'll probably continue tomorrow during the day with a short time only at the site. This all has to be finished tomorrow as there's a Regional Tourism Workshop in Kigali on Wednesday about Community Based Tourism and Pro-Poor policies etc.

The Ikoro Leopard!!

2006-10-01T16:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday late afternoon I went with Andy to change the security guards at the site and chat to the night guards and hear if there was any news and/or incidents. What they did tell me (in hushed voices) was that they had seen the leopard again 2-3 days ago. (People here have huge respect for leopards as they believe they are the spirits of their ancestors) Obviously I asked what they meant with "again" - never mind the fact that they saw a leopard got my attention immediately. I also quizzed them on all the aspects of their sightings as I didn't want to get all excited about a leopard and it was actually something else.

Apparently they have seen the leopard at the site about 4 times already. Usually walking from the northern side of the site and sometimes continues south over the main road. The one time they saw it was when they had done their rounds and got back to the fire (well almost anyway) when they saw the leopard lying down next to the fire and just watching them. Needless to say, they had to be grin and bear the cold for another couple of hours until the leopard left.

Then, last night around 10pm I arrived at the site with my tent and decided to pitch it around the middle of the site somewhere. Over and above the fact that I've always said I want to be the first to camp there, I now had another reason to hang around at night - a possible leopard sighting! Unfortunately it was a bit rainy all night so no sign of the leopard but definitely a grand experience waking up in the bush again with only the birds singing and the general nature waking up sounds. Forgotten how much I miss it - definitely not the last time.

This afternoon was also English lesson time again and there was a lot of big smiles and hearty greeting when the guys saw I was back. It does make one feel good when you realise the guys actually enjoy being part of the team.

What a Pleasant Surpise!

2006-09-30T16:25:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-28T15:02:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-23T14:12:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-12T17:26:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-11T17:09:00.001+02:00

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)

2006-09-06T17:30:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-05T18:17:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-04T18:51:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-03T16:34:00.000+02:00

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

2006-09-01T19:39:00.000+02:00

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".

Back in Rwanda

2006-08-30T17:00:00.000+02:00

Well, back after a few lovely days with Sarah. Also a very productive meeting with the safari tent suppliers on designs, timeframes etc. I got back to Musanze, unpacked and set off straight to the site to see the day watchmen (the guys from next door on day shift). All well at the site and good to be back again. Needless to say the guys were quite surprised to suddenly see me turn up when they thought I was still away.

Tomorrow is Gacaca trials again so no work but I have to go to Kigali to sort out some business there and then in the afternoon I'll go and see the night shift guys too. I'll also put up a temporary rain shelter as its started raining quite regularly - just until we have the hut finished.

Surprise for the Work Crew

2006-08-25T19:17:00.000+02:00

Today the first of the big/tall trees went down and got it on video. It was classic how the guys asked me 2-3 times if I was sure that the tree had to be chopped down. I also had to give a bit of advice on how to chop the tree so that it falls in a certain direction - for the safety of the guys and also not destroying the iron sheeting fence or the car, but all went well and the tree thundered down safely. This had been at the area designated for the workshop and was followed by another tall tree in the main entrance & parking area. Admittedly the second tree was much taller than the first and was in excess of 20m tall and took nearly everyone (20) to carry it to where we keep the cut trees.

As lunchtime arrived, I announced that Andy and I would be paying their wages and we would meet them at Hotel Ituze (small local restaurant with rooms) up the road for drinks. There was a moment of surprised silence before everyone burst out in big smiles and excited talk. Andy & I had decided to do this to reward the guys for work really well done over the last two weeks with increasing productivity.

The number of beer drinkers and non-alcohol drinkers was about 50/50 and we all had a great chat and some good laughs. They also asked that when we start again next week (when I'm back from Nairobi) that we setup their wages so they get paid daily, weekly or monthly as per individual choice. The English/Kinyarwanda lesson hour on Sundays will also begin then. It was obviously also necessary to tell them that the drinks is not something that will happen every week. These guys will now make up our core group in showing new starters the ropes etc as they know what we want and how we want it done.

I set off to Kigali today and am leaving tomorrow for Nairobi where I'll meet Sarah. Whilst in Nairobi we'll also be meeting the safari tent designers & manufacturers to finalise the way forward in that regard.

Tomorrow Andy will also get some guys together to go around the site and clear up some of the cut trees and stumps and move them to the central "collection" point at the southern part of the site. On Monday Andy then sets off for a well deserved 2 week holiday. SO back to blog next week when I get back to Rwanda.

(photos to be uploaded)

Two Sections Cleared

2006-08-23T05:12:00.000+02:00

Yes, two sections have been cleared and are ready for levelling. The northern overland truck parking sites are finished and in the southern truck parkings, there's only one small tree left. The clearing of the north/south road between the two sites is also in progress albeit a bit slower due to massive amounts of rock having to be removed to get the trees and stumps out.

Also in the Reception area there's big work in progress with a tree growing on what seems to be solid rock or very large rocks anyway. This is literally where the reception counter will be, so something all of us will remember when we stand there next year with arriving clients.

Tomorrow is Gacaca trials again so no work at the site but I will be off to Kigali to go an sort out some tickets for my flight to Nairobi over the weekend to meet Sarah.

Border Fence & Interesting Finds

2006-08-22T05:30:00.000+02:00

Today the iron sheeting for the southern perimeter fence was delivered while the guys finished the framework. We also started work on the frame for a shelter for the security during the construction. Speaking of which, I discovered today that every community has their own little group of people who look after the security of the community - a bit like a neighbourhood watch. This security is run by ex-soldiers and is quite well organised.

Seeing as we need security on site, especially with materials being on site and loads of wood (the latter very sought after due to ban on chopping trees without official authorisation), we decided to employ the local community security, the leader of which is also presently working on the site. They would make available two people for the night shift and for late afternoon and full day shifts, the boys next door will be on site.

Back to the fence, the guys started putting up the iron sheeting in the afternoon and will continue with that tomorrow. Its something that goes reasonably fast especially with a couple of the guys being masons/builders and do these things as if its second nature.

Whilst offloading the stumps at the house this afternoon, something caught my eye in the one tree stump - a bullet casing was stuck inside the wood. It seemed to be from a FN rifle and probably from somewhere during or just after the war in 1994. I have taken photos of it and will upload one soon.

Great Start for New Week

2006-08-21T17:45:00.000+02:00

Our new week started a bit earlier when we had a meeting yesterday afternoon with the local co-operative that conducts waste disposal in Musanze. They were previously just a small community association but with the change to new provinces and districts etc, they are now a province-wide co-operative. In Musanze alone they employ in excess of 50 people ranging from the actual disposal at the landfill to the guys who go around with their hand-drawn carts to collect waste from the town. Our discussion was about the seperation of different kinds of waste eg; glass, paper etc which they already do and also encourage in the town.

Today at the site was a hive of activity as all the guys just seemed to jump into the work in high gear. The southern perimeter (on roadside) fence frame was also finished. Most of the clearing today was in the two overland truck parkings, bar delivery road, reception and some work in the entrance parking area. The work is hammering on with some teams getting stuck into tree stumps that seemed to have "absorbed" massive rocks, also realising that it may be more than one or two days on that particular tree stump.

(photos to be uploaded)

Stumps & More Stumps

2006-08-18T18:16:00.000+02:00

Zoom of rock inside stump
These two pics show how some of the roots have grown around the rocks to the point where the rock is completely enclosed within the roots and becomes part of the tree stump. Getting a stump like this out becomes an even harder job as the difference between rock and root is not always clear. This of course also adds to the weight of the stump

Stump with rock inside
This pic shows the whole stump with the rock inside. Although the rock seems small, it becomes apprent on closer inspection that the roots are relatively thin around the rock and conceals the largest part of the rock.
Pile of stumps from 2 days
Today I started moving the tree stumps from the site to the house. Large part of the reason is to remove the temptation for people to go onto the site when we're not there to remove this all as firewood, the lack of which is a large problem in Rwanda as cutting of trees is against the law (to minimise soil erosion). There are still a few stumps on the site but they have proved impossible to move by even 4-5 guys except if we chop them up. Don't really want to chop them up yet as we may use them around the site in the final stages.

No work was done yesterday due to the Gacaca trials (community based Genocide trials).
Today: we intended to only have 20 people again for today but we started off with some bad news that 2 guys had been arrested for inconsistant evidence during the Gacaca trials (the community based Genocide trials) which is a 3month prison term.

There were, as expected, a lot of people we didn't employ on Wednesday so there wasn't a shortage on the labour front. We had decided that for this 2nd day of employment for the new labour, we would be reasonably lenient on people arriving late. Andy explained to the ones who were very late that unfortunately they would have to come back again on Monday. At the end of the day, Andy explained that as of Monday we would only employ the people who are there on time. During this little talk I discovered that there was actually a Rwandan saying that refers to "keeping time like a mzungu" i.e. being precise with timekeeping like a white man.

The guys worked superbly and large areas were "un-stumped" with some minor trees also starting to get the chop, nothing over 10cm diameter yet though. I sustained a bit of a back injury whilst carrying a tree stump and stepping in a hole and trying to keep my balance. Hopefully I can get it sorted by Monday with some rest over the weekend. A ittle bit of stretch/exercise may help so I'll try and get some pics of the areas done today.

The wood for the fence of iron sheeting was also delivered today, so the fence should be up with iron sheeting by Tuesday morning and the site will officially look like a construction site.

Clearing - Day 2

2006-08-16T17:21:00.000+02:00

Digging out stump in lounge/restaurant area
Today we got working with 20 guys in 10 teams of two and just concentrating on getting tree stumps out. In the Reception area where we had started yesterday, the guys made a huge dent in the work to be done there. Some gus started around the lounge and restaurant areas and the seemingly mediocre stumps there ended up in being some of the biggest diggings of the day. The first photo, and old man digging, ended up in a hole nearly a meter deep. The good thing was that the old man in this area was clearly experienced in this and gave the young lads a lot of good advice and guidance over and above the fact that he himself worked like a demon.

Very large rock removed to get tree stump out (Back of Hse)
Once again this involved getting the rocks out before the stump would even budge. This was also only in respect of tree stumps with very young regenerated growth on - so no tree chopping as such yet. The rock in the second photo was so large and heavy that it took 3 of us to move it with a 4th person levering it.

Clearing - Day 1

2006-08-15T16:10:00.000+02:00

We started the day early with 2 guys from next to the site and 2 from Ruhondo. The initial task was to get the holes done for the corrugated iron sheeting fence at the road side (southern) border. Taking off at a run we had this done in just an hour and a half.

Having all the tools on the vehicle we decided to start on taking out stumps in the reception area. This little "exercise" confirmed my thinking that it would be hard work although the reality was even harder. The Eucalyptus in many places seems to grow just on top of the rocks but in actual fact finds a crack between the rocks and grows through there with a root that's 1cm thick. When the root is eventually out you can see the flat thin root that has just folded itself around the rocks to get down into the soil.

We had a full day and it was great to get some physical labour in although the guys were hugely surprised to see me physically working as well. Initially they would come up and take the tools from me and carry on what I was doing and then eventually realised there's no point as I will just find another tool and carry on.

At one stage we also had a snake come out from around the diggings, pencil thin and about 20cm long and slate grey with some black spots on the back near the head. Getting closer to try and catch it, I got grabbed from behind by one of the guys shouting that its a snake - even the snake stopped moving at this commotion, luckily. It took about a half hour to explain that I knew about snakes and would attempt to catch them if I was sure of what I was doing. The guys had thought I had never seen a snake and was still not happy with the idea that I would think of catching them. Anyway, that was the first one I had seen at the site and is definitely not the last I'm sure.

Tomorrow I'll be taking some photos of the clearing as we'll have 20 people tomorrow working at the site. It was hugely encouraging to see what we had achieved with only 4 people today though.

Almost all Systems Go!

2006-08-14T19:06:00.000+02:00

After a reasonably quiet weekend the new week started at a smashing pace and didn't seem to have any intention of slowing down.

At the District Director of Land's office we handed in the final document for the letter confirming building approval. The guy there said that it should be ready by Wednesday and jokingly further said it would be way before we got permission to cut the Eucalyptus trees (anticipated to take a week).

Setting off from here we had an hour and a half before meeting the Agricultural Officer from the Cyuve Sector about the tree cutting permission. Quickly into the bank and then conveniently some of the guys from the Ruhondo (at the lake) community were around so we started the planning for the wood we would need to make the frames for the corrugated iron sheeting "fence" on the roadside border. They can manage to get it cheaper and have the planks cut up cheaper than we can so - the job's theirs. This should be ready in about 5 days.

Off to the Cyuve Sector office, pick-up the Agricultural Officer and the ex-Agricultural Officer from the previous Ruhengeri Council and back to the site. After throwing the plans out on the ground and discussing them for about 20minutes, we were told that it was fine and we could continue with cutting the trees - permission granted. The amount of approximately £16 had to be deposited at the National Bank as the Sector Council fee for this permission. I'm sure my jaw was haning on the ground as everyone looked at me very strangely - I couldn't believe how quick that was. So off again and deposited our £16!

Then Andy phoned the District Director of Land's office and jokingly asked if our letter was ready as we had the permission to cut the trees. The guy there was apparently a bit bowled over and promised it would be asap.

We had time for a lunch with the Chief Park Warden, Justin and caught up on what was going on and also sharing the good news with him.

Andy and I then got into the hardware shops for sme basic tools and requirements to start working tomorrow morning. Very interesting twist again (funny that) - get a price for a pick-axe and you think "Mmmm, not bad at all." then.... it doesn't include the handle which can be bought at the market and there aren't any till Wednesday. I couldn't believe it, our great starting moment was going to be delayed by absentee pick handles!!

Reminding Andy that nothing in Musanze was ever completely "finished" or "sold out", we hunted around the town and found loads, well actually only 6, handles. YES - it was all really up and go now.

So probably about a 7am start and then rock 'n roll. Also the start of my exercise "routine" as I will be putting in a substantial amount of physical labour and looking forward it.

2 Kigali Days

2006-08-11T22:52:00.000+02:00

I spent all day in Kigali on Thursday with our lawyer going through all outstanding matters and in particular discussing the EIA. This also culminated in a meeting with the EIA consultant and the environmental agency, the latter whom we had a meeting with this afternoon.

The 2nd meeting with the environmental agency was only this afternoon so in the morning Andy and I went and paid our building approval fees. The latter will hopefully be confirmed by letter during the 1st three days of next week during which we will also be working on getting the authorisation to cut the Eucalyptus trees during clearing.

We should be able to commence clearing in the next 10 days, so in the meanwhile everything is picking up speed (I hope) and Andy and I are getting on with the preparations to commence at the word go. Quite an exciting time now as we seem to be getting within spitting distance of the start of clearing and construction.

Back in Rwanda

2006-08-09T20:33:00.000+02:00

Got back from the UK today on a flight over a very cloudy East Africa via Bujumbura (capital of Burundi). At the stopover in Bujumbura our plane was met by a military guard of honour and about six vehicles collecting somebody - unfortunately never got to see who it was.

Then this afternoon in Kigali I dropped off some documents at the office of the environmental agency for the EIA and in return got a letter with some new queries on. Not exactly the homecoming I anticipated but I'll be back in Kigali tomorrow to see what we can sort out on the EIA queries.

In the meanwhile Andy had been quite busy at the site preparing some new plants we want to supplement the existing hedges with - well, rather make them as impenetrable as possible without using fencing. He had gone to Kisoro (Uganda) to get some seeds of the Mfata-ingwe plants which is also used in Rwanda but we couldn't get seeds here. The name of the plant that grows into a hedge roughly translates into a plant that keeps leopard out. Apparently, if you/anything gets stuck in this bush, you'll not be able to get out unless someone arrives to hack the plant off you.

Andy had planted the seeds on the inside of the mid-western border where they established a little area for the seedlings with a rough roof cover to protect them. As they mature, we'll plant them out to the border hedge areas. Hopefully I'll get to the site and get some photos of this over the weekend.

Another week gone!

2006-07-21T17:09:00.000+02:00

Another week has sped by with us still waiting for the EIA approval but that's possibly a little light we see blinking at the other side of the tunnel. This week was also mostly in the office again - bah!

OnWednesday morning decided to get the old legs exercised again and blood circulation going and went for some photography and birding to the site. What a pleasure, our nesting Golden-Breasted Bunting has a very healthy looking chick in the nest and the Paradise Flycatcher parents were flying around with their young one. A pair of Chinspot Batis (small flycatchers) was also busy building a nest. Oh yes, and another new species for the site - Black-headed Batis (a totally new one for me), that brings the site list to 51 species.

From there, we met our attorney in town and then decided we'll make a relaxing day. Andy went off to football practice and I went to see how my pool playing skills had deteriorated at Hotel Urumuli against the local patrons. Quite an entertaining and amusing time it turned out to be and I also became the target for "revenge" games whenever I won - yes, great fun.

Yesterday and today I was busy preparing for my trip to London and spent time at the banks this morning followed by a haircut at the local barber or "hairdressing salon". Its the second time I've gone to cut my hair there and it still remains a novelty for passersby (funny that - only the second time a "mzungu" has gone in there). The guy who cut my hair last time, proudly took his place this time and let the others know that he's an expert with mzungu hair now. A dollar later and I had a pretty good haircut, as good as anywhere else labelled as "civilised".

Sunny Weekend

2006-07-17T18:40:00.000+02:00

Saturday and Sunday turned out to be lovely sunny days and also time for me to get a bit domesticated.

Saturday was car valet day, miles and miles of dust and mud to be washed off - inside and out. This turned to be quite a good day for it as I managed to get some good sun and a little bit of exercise (there was some serious scrubbing to be done). Turns out I got a bit of sunburn but these things happen. So after a good productive day, out for a beer with Greg and some of the people from the Dian Fossey research centre.

Sunday, a little bit more relaxing with some chores around the house. I also spent some time working on the birds of Rwanda checklist booklet and managed to make a big dent in that as well. Andy got back early from Uganda so we set about making some nice thick creamy vegetable and cheese soup - mmmmmm!

Today was more or less an office day and starting to get documents etc etc ready for my trip to the UK and sorting things here that need to be dealt with in my absence. We did have a nice spell of rain today, something we haven't had for quite awhile (being dry season and all) and it was very welcome indeed. The temperatures have dropped quite a bit now but living up here we're more used to these temperatures than the really hot days they have in Kigali.

Running Around

2006-07-14T18:00:00.000+02:00

This past week turned out to be a bit of a run-around. I went to Kigali just after midday on Monday to try and sort out part of the EIA report and stayed overnight at the Hotel des Mille Collines. Things didn't turn out as planned, so back to Musanze and the next morning back to Kigali again.

The Wednesday trip was more productive as I handed in the documents required by REMA for the EIA. The time in between till now was spent mostly in the office at home on the pc - so unfortunately nothing exciting there.

A Nesting Bird

2006-07-08T09:40:00.000+02:00

I went out for an early morning birding session again this morning which turned out to be really productive. Also had a young lad who has distinguished himself as a bird spotter. He's the brother of one of the guys who always help us out at the site but still at school.

One of his spectacular finds was a bird on a nest, a Golden-breasted Bunting - I had already walked straight past it when he called me back and pointed it out. I managed to get some photos and explained to the guys that we need to stay well away from the nest so that we don't disturb it and/or alert predators like other birds of prey etc to its location.

Now its time for some buckle down and write report(s) for the rest of the weekend.

TGIF

2006-07-07T21:02:00.000+02:00

Most of today was set out for the admin set at home with an afternoon meeting set up with REMA followed by a late afternoon spot of birding at the site.

The meeting went very well and it was good to chat at length with someone from REMA just in general as well about their work (they're a very new agency). Discussed the EIA queries and I made a commitment for early next week to submit the required info.

Andy and I then left for the site where we very soon realised how much quicker it gets dark in our "forest" at the site than in general. Once again not too many species but really good sightings including a pair of African Harrier-hawks hanging around and a migrant (we think according to its plumage etc) Grey-hooded Kingfisher. I hadn't seen a kingfisher up here at all yet so this was a most pleasant surprise and managed to get some record shots - due to distance, the pics aren't good at all.

Also saw some of the waxbill species we saw yesterday that had been new ones for me. So a most productive day on all fronts. A long weekend of EIA work ahead for me which I'll temper with a couple of hours birding in the morning before settling in behind the pc for the weekend.

Tourism Association

2006-07-06T20:31:00.000+02:00

I was in for some morning meetings here in Musanze and copious amounts of coffee.

Greg introduced me to Japhet, the chairman of the Amahoro Tourism Association which is the umbrella association for a large number of community-based projects in and around Musanze. Japhet hails from Birwa Island, one of the islands on Lake Bulera. There is estimated to be around 176 families (approx. 560 people) living on this island that also has a church and a school on. Almost all the people practice subsistence farming but used to historically fish in the lake for a living. They're of course hoping the moratorium on fishing is lifted soon so they can start fishing again. The soil is fairly poor, so they do battle a bit with crops.

The associations represent a variety of activities like banana-leaf weaving, tailors, woven chair making and then a variety of cultural activities like dancing, drumming and explaining the old traditional religion in which many trees play(ed) a significant role. I'll find out more about the latter because I know we have some of the trees that featured in this religion, on the site.

The birding at 11am was very productive although the numbers were obviously not as good yesterday, being over midday. We were also hugely distracted by the butterflies - their time of the day for hill-topping (checking and ensuring territories are in order). The picture above is one of the butterflies we encountered in the north-east of the site.

Liberation Day celebrations etc

2006-07-05T18:00:00.000+02:00

Moth at the house a few days ago
Forgot to say, yesterday was Liberation Day in Rwanda. A National holiday with much celebrations around the country. In Kigali for example, veterans from the war in 1994 were honoured with medals at the Amahoro Stadium. In Musanze there were also celebrations at the Musanze stadium and was in a similar thread. I didn't attend unfortunately - was doing month-end admin.

This morning Andy and I started with a daily routine (for a few days anyway) of going to the site for 2-3 hours and listing the bird species on site. This morning we were there around 6:45am and ended with a pretty decent 28 species for the 2 1/2 hours with a few new ones I hadn't seen at the site yet. The flycatcher and seed-eater species were particularly well represented. Tomorrow we're going out there from about 11am and the next day after 4pm and so on. This way we get a fairly good idea of the species one can find on a regular basis but also the infrequent visitors.

There probably won't be much else on the agenda this week other than the birding etc as the week is set out for admin including finalising the EIA queries so we can get that back to REMA.

Kigali & Admin

2006-07-04T19:15:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was a long day in Kigali again with meetings literally from arriving till departure at 5:30 the afternoon. Turned out to be quite productive though in most instances.

We got some short admin queries from REMA, the environmental agency, about the EIA we had submitted, so a bit of work there but nothing major though. There doesn't seem to be any problems with our proposals on being environmentally friendly and the general way we intend to do things at Kioro.

Also spent some time with one of the tour operators in Kigali and we ended up planning the publication of a bird list for Rwanda, possibly with corporate sponsorships from some Rwandan companies.

Then an afternoon meeting with an organisation that specialises in capacity building throughout Rwanda, a really worthy cause as this is something that is very high on the "Required" priority list here. Also discussed our plans as regards training of staff and people in the neighbouring communities.

Today was a more admin-ish day with all the work that goes with finishing off the month-end matters that still hang around - month-end having been on Friday.

Caving

2006-07-02T18:40:00.000+02:00

Andy & I got all our gear together for a bit of exploration commencing after Andy's football practice. This included headlights, flashlights, cameras, extra batteries, first aid kit etc etc - one never knows what to expect you know.

First of all we set off for Musanze Caves which is about 2km from the centre of Ruhengeri with the entrance located just off the side of a school's football pitch. Arriving there, no indication of where the caves could be but venture toward the further end of the football pitch and you find this huge, lush green depression. On the far side of this depression (at least 15-20m at the deepest point and about 50x30m) there's a natural volcanic bridge - amazing with vegetation growing over the edges, hanging down and partially covering the opening between the bridge and the ground.

The cave is closer to where one parks the vehicle and has a massive entrance. We had established that this had been the site of a massacre during the war in 2004 and people were not encouraged to enter which was also enforced by regular checks by the military. We respected this and were allowed though to enter the immediate entrance area of the cave. Gosh!! Massive is an understatement - width and height and just disappearing into the dark. We didn't spot any bats but the some of the school lads who accompanied us say that at dusk one can see the bats coming out - another day to be set out for that!

From here, we set off to Kinigi Guesthouse for lunch and discuss the plans they had made for us to visit the Kinigi Caves. The manageress told us that she had managed to get hold of the Executive Secretary for the local council who had sent someone to accompany us and also give directions to the caves. After a fantastic lunch we set off with the 4x4, and was I glad we had a 4x4! The road made its way through villages, totally off the beaten track, and at times petered out to little tracks but great stuff. I was thinking that if I enjoy it that much, imagine how the tourists will enjoy it once its set-up as a proper excursion.

The distance was probably only in the region of 3-4km from the Guesthouse but trust me, it took us awhile to get there. Then out of the blue,between some Eucalyptus trees, the manageress and our guide says stop, we've arrived! My reaction was "Oh...?! Ok."

First to our right, we walked/trekked down about 10m in height through thick vegetation, not unlike the vegetation you find when tracking the gorillas. Eventually down there, a cave about 20m long and about the same width and up to 10m high roof with a small exit on the opposite side. While I'm there taking pictures and video, Andy starts chatting to some of the young lads who are telling us how regularly they see leopard going in and out of the caves. One sighting they had, the leopard had abotu 6 youngsters with her! Today though, no leopard.

Apparently one of the older men said that it would be of no use for us to take flashlights as they don't work in those caves. I only found this out when we left but the guy must have had huge surprise when my headtorch DID work! There was no explanation given for this belief but that is what they believe and its not negotiable.

Going up to road level, our guide took us above the exit of the cave we had just been in and you could see the entrance to another cave about 20m further. We didn't go into this but this one is apparently about 2km long until you exit to above ground and a few meters further enter another set. According to the guide and manageress, there are 3 sets of caves like this and believed to join up with the Musanze Caves we had been at earlier today. An estimated trip of 3-4 hours wlaking through the caves.

Community based tourism is on the agenda for these caves with ORTPN, Kinigi Guesthouse and IGCP preparing to train guides to take tourists on excursions through the caves. They do need to regular recces first before taking people in due to the leopards apparently finding these caves irresistable. What a day though!

Animals & Insects

2006-06-30T17:45:00.000+02:00

Moth - possibly Palpita sp.
The last three days including today was spent in the office with e-mails, spreadsheets etc, so nothing really interesting there.

What I've started doing to brighten up my day though is to spend an hour or so in the morning or late afternoon, photographing insects and/or other little creatures that make their appearance in and around the house. These pics I'm using to compile checklists of insects, reptiles, spiders etc. The most fruitful of this lot has been the moths with some interesting and sometimes weird looking moths making their appearance. (around 4,700 known species in Africa!!)

The butterflies are a bit harder but we'll eventually get there. To date I haven't been able to find existing checklists of various species for Rwanda but only lists of endemics of the Albertine Rift. Granted, that at least gives one a bit of a starting point to work from otherwise its compiling and collating from various sources and see what comes out.

In the meanwhile, Andy and I are making arrangements to go and visit some caves in Musanze and Kinigi tomorrow. Exciting prospect of exploration.

Productive Kigali Day!

2006-06-27T20:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, (another day in the office) was spent setting out everything I needed to do today in Kigali. This all turned out to be quite worthwhile as today was huegly productive and I actually managed to do everything I had planned to do in Kigali plus more.

Best of all was that by 2pm we were ready to set off back to Musanze! Nothing really interesting though - things like insurance and passport matters. I did meet Edwin though who was the officer in charge of tourism (for ORTPN) at the Volcanoes Park. He's presently back here, working on his thesis,from the UK where he's busy with his masters degree. The degree he's studying for is tourism related. We'll be meeting in a couple of days to discuss tourism and the present and potential future community involvement.

A Batty Weekend

2006-06-25T22:15:00.000+02:00

The weekend turned out to be hugely interesting although it was in front of the pc at home. I had posted a request for information on a forum about the species of bats in Rwanda and received a reply that made my jaw drop.

This reply I received had a list of bat species for Rwanda but there was a note stating that it was considered incomplete and more species await "discovery" - the list contained 48 species! That's incredible considering the country's size and included a Rwandan endemic! I immediately set to work to formalise the list a bit i.e. on a spreadsheet and then started collecting information on the species and bats in general.

What an education! I knew bats were very interesting and actually quite intelligent mammals but I spent every other moment gaping about some other information about bat behaviour and some great bat trivia. This culminated on Sunday morning with a basic document compiled on general info on bats and a checklist containing some pics/drawings of different species.

This got me going on some of the other checklists I've collected, collated and/or compiled from a variety of sources including frogs and birds and the start of the reptile checklist, the latter being compiled as we go along and are able to identify species.

Sunday evening, one of the overland tour groups came over to the house with their crew for a BBQ and a dvd on the gorillas. A pleasant evening indeed and lovely end to a weekend that I felt like a kid in a toy store with all the new information on our natural history here.

End of Week & a Hospital

2006-06-23T17:20:00.000+02:00

As the week was drawing to an end it seemed to slow down a bit to a virtual standstill but as usual this may be just before it all picks up again to the speed of light. Yesterday I spent the morning doing an article on the Pitta we had at the house for a magazine. This is apparently going to be in the August/September edition, once there, I'll give the name of the magazine and the link. The rest of the day was spent catching up on phone calls and e-mails, the "I'm still here, what's the progress?" type.

This morning I had my first experience of the Ruhengeri Hospital which I had to visit due to some insect bite I had that looked decidely dodgy and needed a bit more than just homegrown TLC. The experience wasn't bad as would be expected but definitely an eye opener again on how admin slows things down - something I know people even complain about at hospitals in the first world. It was all about getting paid up before hand for anticipated treatment and consultation and no, I don't know how the anticipated treatment costs is measured having only paid 60pence for that and £3 for the consultation.

Luckily Andy was with me as my Kinyarwanda and French is definitely not up to par for the admin process. The doctors are fine, most of them, if not all speak English as well. Then down to waiting for your turn, seeing the doctor went pretty smoothly and quickly but the "treatment" was a "bit" of a longer wait. At the latter, one collects your number which they call as they finish treating patients. Interestingly, not surprising though, is how some people slip in and one could be forgiven for thinking that your maths teacher in primary school had her counting all wrong as there seemed to be 6 numbers between 17 and 19. I know people will ask and how was the treatment - well it was fine and hygienic as required. It did convince me though that nurses around the world are all taught how to deal with sensitive wounds etc with the least sympathy whilst producing the biggest flashing smile.

From here it was on to the "Pharmacie" to get the tablets the Doc had prescribed, two sets for a week. This went very quickly indeed and although not expecting to pay a fortune, I never expected to only pay £1.3 for the medication.

One thing I can say is that all the staff were hugely friendly and helpful, from the doctors to the security guard at the gate and on the grounds. I presume the security guy who looks after the grounds has built up a little bit of medical knowledge too (well, it seemed like it) as he was often shown/explained some wound, injury or illness and he looked suitably sympathetic and directed the patient to be to the correct place.

Another new experience in Rwanda albeit a hugely educational one.

Kigali & BBQ

2006-06-21T21:04:00.000+02:00

Greg and I had to go through to Kigali this morning to sort some things out. Other than a few minor chores the visit turned out to be unproductive. I went and bought some good sausage in town and some condiments for the house and returned to Musanze. Greg remained to sort out some gorilla permits.

Getting home, Andy had started the coals on the BBQ in preparation for some friends we'd invited over for dinner and drinks. On the menu was some good sausage, beef kebabs, ugali (maize meal porridge) and sauce and the obligatory pre-BBQ toasties with onion, tomato and cheese. Turned out to be a really good evening with much laughter.

Kinigi Again

2006-06-20T18:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I went to Kigali to drop Sarah off at the airport. On returning home, I sorted out some things before returning to Kinigi to meet the tourists I took up there on Sunday. As I was getting ready to leave a massive thunder storm broke out and I decided to wait till it lightens up a bit. The thunder and lightning was quite impressive though. Eventually it was raining a little lighter and I set off to Kinigi to try and get there before another session like that.

I got to Kinigi fine and met with the tourists and also booked a room for the night. A very pleasant evening was had with Greg meeting us too and helping them sort out their itinerary for the next few days. The buffet dinner was also a most splendid spread.

This morning I saw the tourists off on their way to go trekking and gorilla tracking and had some coffee before setting off back to Musanze. Today was dedicated to a bit of TLC for the car, going over everything and changing the wheels around. Very productive day overall though.

Site Tour & Kinigi

2006-06-18T21:40:00.000+02:00

This morning we set off to site to show Sarah what and where everything had been marked out. We took a tour leader and her crew with to show them around. We spent a pleasant couple of hours on the site touring nearly every corner.

After this we to town to have lunch at a local restaurant near the house. While we were here a group of tourist arrived on local transport from Kigali and due to them not being able to get some reliable transport to Kinigi immediately we offered to take them up to Kinigi Guesthouse where they had reservations. I took them up there and made sure all was fine and had a chat about their programme for the next few days. I said I would be back the tomorrow evening with Greg who can then sort out their arrangements and plans.

It was quite a pleasure driving up to Kinigi as most of that road had been repaired for the Gorilla Naming Ceremony and what usually a 45min drive was only about 20min now over and above getting off that road onto one of the not so good roads.

Gorilla Naming Ceremony

2006-06-17T10:10:00.000+02:00

Yesterday Sarah arrived again for the Gorilla Naming Ceremony. Obviously another prospective nice weekend. Last night we went to have a drink at the new accommodation that we'd found the tour group in the week.

This morning we set off for Kinigi where ORTPN was hosting the 2nd Gorilla Naming Ceremony and 12 new gorilla babies since last year's ceremony would be named. Claude went with to keep an eye on the car during the ceremony.

On arrival we got a pleasant surprise being directed to some early tea, coffee and bites before the ceremony commenced. This was also an opportunity to catch up with some people we hadn't seen for a long time. Eventually the traditional dancing and drumming started as everyone made their way to their seats awaiting the arrival of the guests of honour. The President of Rwanda was unable to attend but the First Lady attended with the President of the Senate.

The speakers included the Minister under whom tourism falls, the Governor of the Northern Province and Rosette Rugamba, the Director-General of ORTPN. In the latter speech, Rosette referred to all the projects that had commenced and/or progressed from last year's ceremony and how some of the $1.4 million raised had been spent. Reference was also made to the new luxury community lodge in Kinigi that would be opening the end of the year and our project in Musanze and that we're planning to open June next year.

Two representatives from community projects also gave a brief rundown of what they were doing, one of them from the Beekeepers association in Kinigi. Then down to matter of naming the new baby gorillas. Ambassadors and representatives from various countries had also been invited to name some of the babies, amongst them the ambassadors from the USA, United Kingdom, Belgium and Netherlands and a representative from the city of Brussels. One of the sponsors, Rwandex (exporter of Rwandan coffee) also named their adopted baby and announced that this baby would become the face of one of their new products.

A representative from the DRC tourism/wildlife authority was also there to name a baby in one of their groups that had been born whilst the group was in Rwanda. It was great to hear that that the Rwanda and DRC governments had signed agreements on cross-border co-operation in conservation and in particular that of the gorillas.

After the ceremony all the guests were invited to attend a lunch nearby in marquee tents that had been set up. This turned out to be a fantastic lunch with more meetings with people we hadn't seen for a long time as well as testing the banana wine that had been put on all the tables - fairly strong too. We gave one of these little bottles of banana wine to Claude who told us that even by local standards it was very strong.

Another hugely successful day for ORTPN and for tourism in Rwanda in general.

Admin & Tourists

2006-06-15T19:19:00.000+02:00

Wednesday was an all day admin day again with a meeting late afternoon with a group of tourists and their tour leader whom I know from my days on the road. So a relaxing evening and some of the tourists keen to visit the site to do some birding today and an opportunity for the tour leader to see where the site is and the sites we've marked out.

This afternoon we didn't get to and do some birding though as there had been problems at the place where the group was staying and they were more intent on sorting that out or moving to a new campsite. So Greg and I helped them out in getting another place for them to stay at for their last night in Musanze. All very hapy with the new accommodation, they chose to stay there to watch the English World Cup match against Trinidad & Tobago. They set off the next day to Kigali for the final night of their tour before flying out from Rwanda.

Kigali Again

2006-06-13T20:23:00.000+02:00

Monday morning Greg and I set off to Kigali for what we anticipated to be one day at least but with the possibility of an overnight. Not an early morning but a pleasant drive (as always with the scenery) and some good chatting along the way.

Part of the reason for going to Kigali was to for Greg to apply for a visa for the UK for the World Travel Market in November in London. We managed to get that sorted and got the appointment for the next day for biometrics at the British Embassy (also in Kigali).

A lovely lunch at Hotel des Mille Collines followed and a fairly relaxing afternoon next to the pool meeting our lawyer etc. The evening at the hotel there were some traditional dancing and drumming of which I got some good video footage which I can use as inserts and soundtrack in the making of the video I'm busy with.

The next morning after coffee we finished the biometrics and returned to Ruhengeri and more moderate weather - Kigali was blazing. Getting back pretty much just entailed on catching up with Andy what had happened on Monday at the site and on outstanding admin.

Andy and the lads had gone to the site on Monday and cleared around the marker pegs so they're more prominent and cutting some of the 1.5m grass a little bit shorter in the marked areas.

Quiet weekend

2006-06-11T18:16:00.000+02:00

The weekend was quiet yet productive and pleasant. The Saturday morning at 10am we had a meeting with a candidate for the site engineer's position and discussed the planned construction processes and durations. The meeting had just finished when we got a call from an overland truck asking for help on finding accommodation in Musanze.

On getting there I discovered its one of my good mates from the road. After getting the clients all settled in at a little guesthouse in town, we settled down for a bit of catchup over a few drinks. He had two new crew with him so agreed to take them out on Sunday morning to the site and show them around. We managed to get Greg to come with too as he hadn't been at the site since October 2004 when we found the site the first time.

Sunday morning thus was a bit of a walk around the site and showing what and where everything will be as we've set it out then spent some time up in the north on a nice little rock lounge chatting about the site.

As the new crew hadn't been around Musanze much, I took them on a little drive to Ntaruka at the northern end of Lake Ruhondo where the Hydro plant is. It was a pleasant surprise driving down the road as it had been done over and was an absolute pleasure driving on. With good light the views over the lake were also fantastic. Unfortunately didn't take photos this time but there will definitely be a photo session out there in the very near future.

Safari Tents & Mapping

2006-06-09T19:28:00.000+02:00

Early morning in Ruhengeri (earlier this week)
The remaining 5 safari tents were marked out today with an extra one also set out as an option to one of the other tent sites.

Once again one of the sites turned out to be an absolute winner with an amazing location. The tent will be set in a depression that seems custom designed for a safari tent with views up the surrounding outcrops. This also screens the main part and the balcony from other tents. I have now reached the point where its hard to decide which of the tent sites are my favourites.

From here we started measuring and taking bearings on the 4x4 circle and reference points so we reconstruct the overall plan of what has been set out so far. This was basically just loegwork for Andy and I with the two lads adding the odd peg or two for the marking process.

A pleasant was also improved by sightings of some bird species we hadn't before seen on the site and a pair of Augur Buzzards calling each high in the air above us. Another fantastic day in the bush.

Marking out the Safari Tents

2006-06-08T20:47:00.000+02:00

Butterfly at Ikoro
Leaving the best till last, well almost anyway. We started marking out the sites for the safari tents today which was quite a pleasure considering the massive area we've set out for them. In the initial concept drawings, the tents are all arranged in a neat arc north of the campfire but the architects had mentioned that we would probably want to and could move the sites according to the best locations for each tent.

We did the eastern five tents today with one of them in a location that warrants having special status i.e. the "honeymoon" or "premier" tent. Situated on a rise but with rocky ridges along the sides isolating it from the rest, it has a lovely view of the volcanoes. The one thing I must say though is that every tents location has a special location in its own way with certain features around it that the others don't have. The fact that they're some of the first, if not The first, safari tents in Rwanda will enhance their allure even more.

These tents are set in an area where we will retain as much of the present wild vegetation as possible and meandering footpaths for the guests afternoon or early morning. The eucalyptus trees will gradually give way to indigenous trees and other indigenous plants which occur naturally in this particular environment and with the rate plants grow here, it could all be a little indigenous forest before long.

I had to shoot off quickly for a 10am meeting but was back in an hour and we continued working. The lads do sometimes think I'm a bit mad with me putting in pegs as markers and the moving them umpteen times before I'm happy with the location but it keeps them entertained every now and then.

Getting home I started putting all the measurements, bearings etc to paper, plotting it all out on graph paper. The idea is that eventually I can draw a basic master plan reflecting how everything is set out now. This is just as rewarding to actually see how everything is set out in relation to each other - unfortunately the drawings don't reflect what the actual location looks like i.e. vegetation and contours.

Central & South West

2006-06-07T20:52:00.000+02:00

Part of southern campsite for Overland clients
Today was the turn of overland campsites and their ablutions. The same principle applies as with the 4x4 sites whereby every two vehicles have a set of ablutions.

This is probably the most overgrown area of the site at the moment with primary vegetation in some places regenerated to over 6ft. So yes, truly working in the bush today. Getting the ablutions marked turned out to be the easy part and sorting out the truck parkings and roads the "find your way through the bush".

Now marking out the truck parking at the two sites and their turning circles was definitely a bit of a challenge but it certainly helped that I used to drive overland trucks and could work out the best lay of each with the minimum "work" by the drivers and/or risk taking out rock outcrops or trees when arriving or leaving. Anyway, mission was accomplished and the sites look good. The camping areas also look very promising with most, if not all, the camping areas will be on different levels through terracing. There is one stunning site I suspect the crew will fight to get into first but I won't let the cat out of the bag now.

This afternoon, our EIA consultant also visited the site to see how the marking out is going and comment on locations etc. He was impressed how we'd used the natural lay of the land although he was probably a little less impressed with the pace Andy and I took him through and around te site ( a quick 1 km), we found him lagging behind at times. Advice for anyone visiting us during the next couple of months - don't wear fancy little city shoes :-)).

The Kinyarwanda and English exchange lessons are also going very well with the lads greeting me in proper English in the morning and me greeting them in Kinyarwandan. Its great fun working with them and we're moving onto bird names in Kinyarwandan and English too now.

The North West

2006-06-06T17:19:00.000+02:00

Marking out southern 4x4 site ablutions
Today we finished the final touches on the marking out of the Bar, lounge, restaurant etc and moved over to the 4x4 sites in the north-west of the site. This is also a lovely part of the site with views from the western border of Karisimbi, Bisoke and Sabinyo mountains.

This part also feature big depressions down the centre i.e. when going from north to south. Its in these depressions that we marked out the ablutions for the 4x4 sites and ensuring that spaces are available on the western and eastern sides for six designated camping sites, cooking and dining areas.

Of course it wasn't all just hitting pegs into the ground and moving on, we had to partially mark out most of the circle road around the 4x4 sites. Its not really hard though to find where the road should be as the contours make it fairly obvious although we let the road go around the odd very large tree. Must admit when we were looking at the various campsites, they are really nice. Some in slight depressions and others on ridges with fantastic views. The existing terraces and contours also provide ready made demarcation sor campsites and 4x4 parking.

Every day at the site now is also a bit of wildlife checklist compilation with sighting of a huge variety of butterflies, insects and birds.

No Blue Monday

2006-06-05T18:56:00.000+02:00

What a fantastic day it was, most of it at the site. Andy and I got out there about 10am after some business in town. Tomorrow we'll be out there bright and early though.

When we got there it was all rock n' roll and starting with building a temporary entry into the site for the vehicle - this is also where delivery vehicles will be coming in during construction. Some of the people passing along in the road stopped to stare at me working with the lads and packing the rocks but they'll get used to it. Result: our vehicle went in - the first vehicle on the site since demarcated and purchased (only about 20-30m in though - no way a vehicle can get deeper into the site at this stage).

We had decided to mark out the front of house buildings first and from there we'll do the rest. Well, success on that - finshed marking out reception and the office, also the bar, lounge and dining areas. It was a massively pleased group of guys looking at all those points we'd marked out today. All being done the old traditional way of handheld compass and tape measure and of course the wooden pegs and string. I must say, one does get a lot more respect for the surveyors of old who didn't have all the fancy toys.

Marking out was also not marking points, because of the contours etc we had to make sure what areas the building affect and which we will be leaving as they are. This is probably what made it even more rewarding to look back at everything in the afternoon.

The other little added bonus was that my learning of Kinyarwandan just accellerated today. I made a deal with the lads that for every term or sentence I learn and use in Kinyarwanda, they have to do the equivalent in English - if I don't watch out, these lads will be speaking English better than my Kinyarwandan is soon.