Rwandan Sights

 We were at the site all day today, and it was a great day for good photos. Here are a few. When we arrived at the site at 8am we were greeted with this view of our neighbours. They had organised about 60 workers to help build their wall

Many hands make light work

It was great to see just how much they achieved in a day, even though it was all by hand, and just hard wor - as you can see by the stone size they are carrying

Our bulldozer driver has returned, and we employed him most of the day. His machine continues to play up, as you can see by this photo. But he did a great job for us, and it was good to have him back on site. We also had another machine digging away which was great for getting most of the site finished.

Steam engine

And occasionally a person or car would pass with a long load!

Legal?

On the Edge

Its fascinating working in construction, and great to be able to photo people at work. There are many decisions that are made that people do not see and are often quite crucial.

These were taken yesterday (Thursday). There was lots of hanging around as we made sure that the machine driver, Norbert, got as much work done as possible. All seemed to go ok, though these photos show expressions of concern or tiredness. Read on

Rog on Edge

Rog is on edge because he has been out in the sun all day. He has been making sure that pegs in the ground are not obliterated because Norbert the supervising architect has become quite upset at the builders for not making sure that they remain in situ.

Rog also feels that Norbert is being rather harsh on Jeff the young builder, and agrees that we should not be removing the earth but rather leaving it onsite. Norbert however wants it removed and it is left to Macfarlane to make the final decision.

Jeff is on Edge

Jeff on the other hand is also on edge because he has had to spend lots of extra cash on lorries he did not intend to hire. He wants the best for the project and is absolutely doing his best, but he and the architects have not carefully assessed the implications of such a large amount of earth having to be moved.

Although his project manager Macfarlane has reassured him that he will get additional money to cover the expense, he may be on edge in case he does not get it. Also he is on edge because he does not have the cash to pay all the workers sufficient until his father arrives, and he is having to manage a machine driver who is not easy to control

Pascal on Edge

Pascal is on the edge because he works with a bulldozer driver who is great at his job when working but is not happy at having to work so hard. The Scottish project manager and architect are hanging around and he has no place to escape  - so he has to work harder for his money.

Norbert on the Edge

Norbert did  brilliant job on Thursday and we were really pleased. When we left at 5.15pm he immediately stopped work, complained at the rate of work he was having to do, wanted more pay, and was instantly sacked. In a huff he left for Uganda, and we suspect a planned drinking binge

I am disappointed because he really did a good job.

Today we had no machine and tomorrow a replacement comes - perhaps Rog and  I can get the previous one running and drive it ourselves since it is still on site!

I am always on edge because it is my nature, and I love it!

There is no photo of me on edge because I write the blog and I do not like photos of me on the edge!!!

The main reason for me being on edge is that I want to make the team work well when I am away from Rwanda, cannot bear when peoples personalities lead to friction, and when their bad decisions cause distress to themselves and others.

The Edge - its where life is!

The Platform

These are just some of my photos as the platform starts to develop. We have 2 more days to get it level and to lay out the College position

Pascal

Onto lower level

Here the platform is well under way but with still a very big amount of earth to move. Hopefully tomorrow we will get the levelling done, and Saturday will be tidying up.

End of Day

Lorries we need Lorries!

The day started with me having a anxiety attack. Apart from having a nightmare about Don having injured his knee just before the Scottish Seniors (which is true by the way), I woke with thoughts of various disasters about our College platform.

You see we had calculated that we had to shift 150 cubic metres of earth and create a 4 metre retaining wall. I was worried about the neighbours and the chaos we were about to unleash. We had decided that we had better try to remove the piles of earth by lorry.

You know the film 'Field of Dreams', where there is a large windy road in the distance, and he waits for lots of cars to come and see a baseball match, and the owner is told by his daughter  - 'they will come'.

Well today I sat watching a long windy road across from our field, until the lorries came, and then they sure did come  - 42 of them over 3 hours

Queuing to get in

Despite our best attempts we agreed to call off the lorries because of the cost - it looked like it would cost an additional £5000 to remove all the material. So we are keeping it on site. This afternoon teh machine driver worked tirelessly to get as much of the platform down to the correct level - not an easy task

Home from School in the Rain

I spied these 4 coming up the Nonko Road beside the College site.

The children are (right to left) Justice, Mano, and Analees. I love their smart uniforms, their bright faces, and the big brollie.

Because we were on site all day, my office was a wall beside this road. I had to complete the construction agreement, while Roger made sure that the platform was made properly.

While I was sitting all the school children walked passed. There were muslim girls going dow, the hill, and primary school children going up hill. Great to see the College is positioned really central for them.

They would come past in a group of 3 or 4, and the less embarrassed would come across to shake my hand. You see in Rwanda they are still not used to someone in white skin, and there is much fun in touching someone who is so different from them.

So today I shook about 20 hands, and the rest just smiled, sniggered or waved, but all were friendly. The typical greeting is Good Morning, but when its 4pm some English language correction is encouraged.

Tomorrow is a public holiday so it will be much quieter, but the work on the platform for the College goes on.

Camera Reveals All

Roger has decided that he quite likes this photo stuff, and has produced one of the incredibly small disks with incriminating evidence of my various facial expressions.

Lost each other

Negotiating 10p off our journey

Esther and Gary

Paul and Gary

Bob Cowan has unfortunately shown I am very prone to providing sorrowful shots. Plans for the Scottish Seniors is for a frownless weekend!

Bulldozer springs a leak

We are not being very lucky with our bulldozers. The one hired yesterday did not even get to the site - big end in Remera!

This one worked very well for 2 hours until smoke started to come from an electrical box. I saw flames from a wire at one point. That was actually sorted quite quickly but then there was an hydraulic leak and that stopped us for 2 hours until the mechanic came along.

This photo shows the exasperation with everyone climbing on and trying to lend hand to get it going!