Vocational Training Expo

Here is one of my 'coincidences'.

I am only here for 9 days - a flying visit no less. The Rwandan authorities have decided to run the first every Expo for Vocational Training Colleges. It happens to be this weekend, and I happen to be here and free to visit.

A brief walk round brought me a discussion with the World Bank who are supporting Vocational Colleges like ours with their 'Skills Development Fund'. This fund was part of my discussions with Richard Arden of the Department of International Development. He encouraged me to make contact with the World Bank as the most likely support to our work. Now is the time to make an approach!

I also met with TEVSA, the organisation of Vocational Training schools. Unfortunately the person I wanted to speak to about curriculum, was not there, but tomorrow hopefully we meet.

There were many dignitaries there from various ministries. The opening was delayed because ... well Rwandans often delay their meetings!

They had a large brass band waiting to greet the Minister, but I could not be persuaded to join the opening - the tent was packed, the temperature was too much, and the plan was for a 2 hour presentation - not for me!

So off I went to a much more fantastic presentation - the Street Children of Gatenga.

Termites Fight Back

I like this photo.

You will remember in February the Terminator, aka Kayitare, ripped the heart out of the termite field when we created the platform for the College. However, as this photo shows, the termites are a bit more robust, and are fighting back.

I am sitting beside Michael Marx, who advises me that termite soil is excellent for making brilliant bricks. Michael runs a very large micro finance project in Rwanda. Unfortunately this information has come too late.

I am very glad we spent £1800 on termite protection for the building.

The Terminator

Wait until I get hold of the Terminator and ask him for an explanation for why the termites are thriving!

Taximotos under control?

Well here is the main change on the highways of Kigali - new since February. All the major junctions now have these traffic lights - must be some Chinese invention!

So when a Taximoto arrives at these you see how many seconds you have got before the green go sign changes to red. This of course means that if you are coming to a junction where the countdown is against you then you accelerate your Taximoto even faster, to get through, and if you fail then you have to grumpily watch how long you have to wait as the numbers trickle down to nothing.

Apparently these lights were instructed by the District authorities shortly after we left Rwandan in February, because two mad Scotsmen had been encouraging their Taximotos to race, speed, and jump lights.

Now, surprisingly they work pretty well, until rush hour when the police come out to run them otherwise chaos ensues.

Although the Taximotos are being controlled, don't presume that they are under the authorities thumb - after I took myself out for a curry and a beer last night, we did the usual speeding up the dual carriageway against the flow of traffic - so not everything changes

Early Start

I hear from Fiona that since I have left Scotland the weather has, well basically fallen apart and 100 mile an hour winds. Seems to me that my timing for heading south to the sun is perfect.

So just to rub it in here are my photos from this morning at 8am. This one is looking north east - I think! - towards Tanzania which is about 2 hours away.

This photo is taken from the same place, though looking north west towards Congo. The road to Congo, winds its way just to the left of the hills shown, and in those hills are the gorillas that Rwanda is famous for.

The photo shows the centre of Kigali with its skyscraper and the buildings I showed you yesterday.

In the foreground is a yellow hotel which is were an occasional beer has been consumed. It was the Novotel when we came in Sept 2010, and then became the Leica, but now is the Umabango - or something like that! Certainly makes for confusing the taximotos who just look blankly until you say its the Novotel!

And the reason for being up so early is that we were meeting at 8am with Solar Panel people. They were quite knowledgeable, and we may well put panels on for hot water. In passing she tried to sell me a sewage treatment plant for £20,000 - I had to apologise for putting in biogas, which she says will not work, unless we have hundreds of students and lost of pooh! Need to put beans on the daily menu!

Our first disaster has happened I think. The amount of 3 phase electricity is too little for our plans and I have loads of phone calls and detailed work to do now to sort this! A phone call from Bad Boy Bennie (ex electrician) is awaited

All Change

These photos are for Roger.

When we were last in Kigali, we noted several new buildings that were being built just round the corner from Inkuru Nziza Church

Those who read the blog may remember that the 2 of us got sidelined for 2 days helping the church look at the development opportunities of their site, and how they might improve their facilities through  partner agreement with a developer.

Well here is what you can do when you have a good city centre site. This building was just being finished off in February, and now is open.

I love the way the architects (oops sorry Roger) provide loads of windows, but the only way the heat escapes is to open the window. Well at least in Kigali that is a pleasure.

Now this building next door was definitely not there when we left in February. Its the new City Council offices

and this was a hole in the ground - now no longer. So loads of changes and much evidence of development. 

Rog - I think that I had better have another discussion with the church - perhaps they are sitting on a gold mine! But then, maybe not. The work that they presently do for orphans, the poor, and disadvantaged much outweighs pure financial gain. Shame - might have been able to project manage another build!

Wait for tomorrows blog, also showing a significant change - what cool traffic lights! - they so mesmerise the taximotos that they sit waiting for them to change - and much more sophisticated than ours.

Now it seems Real!

I arrived in Kigali at 8pm on Monday. Seems very odd to be playing curling at Stranraer in the Double Rink Championships one day, and then next you are in the heart of Africa.

Today we met at the College site at 8am, with Jeff the builder, Norbert the supervising architect, and Emmanuel and Kazunga from the College Board.

This was quite a transformation since the last time I was here which in early February 2011. At that time, you may remember, that Roger and I were out to manage the laying out of the site, and to get the platform cut. 2 bulldozers moved a huge quantity of earth as you can see from this photo at that time.

Earthworkings Feb 2011

The building is 500 sq metres with 9 work areas, and will provide Vocational training for joinery, metalwork, plumbing, welding, and IT. We may also provide culinary and front of house skills, which are much needed in Rwanda.

Dec 5th 2011.

Tomorrow evening we meet up with the College Board to make some crucial decisions, and to plan the next 12 months. The completion of the construction requires careful thought because we must make sure that we spend the last of our construction income well. Some of these discussions started on site today with Emmanuel and Kazunga.

Jeff, Emmanuel and Kazunga

One decision already made, is that we are going ahead with our Biogas tank. This will produce gas for our cooking. We may also want to go ahead with solar panels for producing hot water, at a cost of £3000 - if we can afford them!

A key concern we had in the early stages of the build was the quality of the bricks that would be made on site. Here are a few that were left over and I can confirm that they are robust - so no worries about the life of the building

I always find the last stages of a building a bit disconcerting because there is always so much mess and loose ends. However today there must have been 12 - 15 people on site all working hard to get it finished and sorting all the snagging issues.

This room is one of the main areas for woodwork and preparing various things to sell, like tables, chairs, cupboards etc

and Jeff assures me that the painting will be finished within the week, but I am not quite sure about this! However, as Project Manager I am delighted with the work that Jeff and Norbert have done.

8th June 2011

Here are some more photographs from Kigali which I received last week from Jeff the builder. Jeff and Norbert have clearly been working very well together.

They tell me that they have now started working on the electrics and the plumbing.

Decisions have now been made about sewage and we have gone very renewable with the plan to have a biogas tank. This allows us to create methane and to use that to generate electricity.

We probably also will have a some solar panels for lighting and IT

Callum and I were over in Germany last week visiting 2 German couples who are considering making themselves available to run the College along with our Rwandan team.

We had a brilliant time but more about this shortly.