Our Staff at Work

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.

April 2008

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.

Progress with English

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.