What a Pleasant Surpise!

View from Laundry to Restaurant, Lounge & Bar

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

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

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

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

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

London News

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

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

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

Update from Andy in Rwanda

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

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

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

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

On my way again

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

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

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

Long weekend - now Work

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

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

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

Last Clearing day (This week)

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

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

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

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

Fencing & Toilet

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

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

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

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

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

Safari Tents, roads & new people

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

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

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

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

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

English - Kinyarwanda Lessons

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

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

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

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

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

Clearing again

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back in Rwanda

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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.