10th May 2011

Its only a week and now the roof is appearing. This photo was taken last week by Jeff the builder.

The Ihumure Vocational Training College with its 9 classrooms is looking good, and on schedule for completion end of July.

Here comes the roof!

Once the roof is on, the concrete floor will go down and then we are into electrics and plumbing. So we need to get down to negotiating with the planners about what type of septic tank we are allowed.

Progress Report May 3rd

Its only 2 and a half weeks since the previous photos and it is very difficult to understand how they have managed to build all the walls in such a  short time. 

Not only did they have to make all the bricks on site, but these photos show that they are already well on with the ring beam that supports the roof

Sorry the hoto is a bit squint, but I can assure you that the building is on the level - I think!

The photo below shows the classrooms from the west end. The nearest rooms are the toilet blocks, so they are a bit small than the classrooms. The large central area is for the kitchen classroom, which reminds me I need to get on with finding some kitchens to kit it out! Perhaps a trip to Ikea tomorrow!

Progress Report April 17th

I normally only blog when in Rwanda. However, today Jeff our builder has sent these photos and I thought you might like to see how the college is progressing.

The photo shows that the concrete has been poured for the columns on the front of the building, and the shuttering for the columns at the back. You can also see that the concrete blocks which are being made on the site, are well under way.

You can also see that the foundations for the classroom walls is in place.

Really is quite a big building! If the walls start in the next week or so, I had better start to think about getting back to Kigali so that we can talk with the builders about the final finishes!

Paul Takes Charge

Pastor Paul, who heads up the Gatenga church we have been working for, has been in Congo for the last week.

Today was our first time to let him know what we have been doing and to take him to the site to see all our work.

One of my targets before I left for Rwanda was to get a photo shot of Paul driving a bulldozer, and today was just that opportunity - no quicker than I had suggested and he was up in the cab

In fact he was so keen I thought he was going to drive the machine, but common sense prevailed. I would quite like to have seen it.

There were of course a few last minute discussions - the MOU, tidying up the front of the site, and a site board

Most things seem in order though there will always be things to do. I meet Callum on Wednesday morning for a debrief. Must get my report done! Loads to say.

Off Home Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be very busy - 6am - prepare final construction agreement, 7.30 breakfast, 8.30 meeting re Biogas septic tanks, 9.30 - pack bags, 10am with Paul and to site, 12pm meet Norbert and Builders, 1.30 lunch and email Inkuru Nziza our final report, 3pm taxi airport

Here is what the site looks like now - nearly ready for foundations being started this week

Winnie's School

Some of you may remember that when things were bad in November during my last visit, Winnie was very encouraging and gave good advice about the planning department.

Well today we went to see her Primary School which is just 150 metres behind our College site. I expected a small couple of buildings - could not have been more wrong.

Many people had told us about how great a school it is. Here are some photos, but the real brilliance is that they have thought through very carefully how to educate young children, from nursery to primary 4.

I let the photos tell the story.

Primary One to Three are in these classrooms, with about 25 - 30 in each

The new assembly Hall is enormous and can be used for many things

It has a great outlook over the hills, and is just a short distance from our site

Children in the nursery sometimes get tired and require a snooze.

Children in Primary 3 are learning lots of information we did not know!

This must be a teachers worst nightmare!

Clear that he is learning nothing from the architect teacher.

No Comment!

Site ready for Foundations

We have pretty well achieved our main target for our visit and that was to get the site ready for the builders to prepare the foundations.

Here are some photos of our two diggers and their helpers.

This digger is great for off site work - just sprints across anything to clear a tree. And what an opportunity the driver had here!

But he missed them - too slow!

Having 2 diggers was great, and got most of the job done today.

Almost finished  - tomorrow we lay out the foundations