Post brought to you by Ellis Aune
Hello friends and family!
It has been
an exciting few days, and we have accomplished many things both at our site and
in our quest to better know this amazing part of Rwanda.
Saturday is
a work day for us, so we rose to a beautiful sunrise and headed to
Cyanika after a quick breakfast. Work this day was primarily measuring and
cutting 8 sticks of rebar that we hauled in the day before, after an adventure
trying to direct our non-English speaking drivers where to get it, and
arranging them into a circular grid to support the concrete foundations for each of the three water tanks at Ntarama.
First,
though, we had to make sure that the ground on which the cement would be poured
was equally compacted. We began stomping it down ourselves before we realized
we had free help staring at us from a corner of the worksite – about
15 kids. They were thrilled with the chance to jump around in the holes, and it
got the job done quickly! Several of the 5- to10-year-old kids who hang out
around the site had great fun asking Curtis and I our names and ages, calling
us “Cortis” and “Ollis,” and they all quite enjoyed laughing at our horrendous
attempts to pronounce their own names.
Saturday evening
was filled with a delicious dinner at the hotel’s café and a few rounds of
hearts, in which I was thoroughly destroyed (I was much better when Michael and
Xilal didn’t really know how to play).
Sunday is a
day of rest both for us and for the majority of the people in this part of Rwanda
- except for our masons, apparently, who finished pouring the concrete
foundations for our tank additions in Nyrotosho. We heard beautiful choir music
from the church near our hotel as we headed to an early breakfast, because, being accustomed to rising between 6:00 and 6:15 AM, sleeping
in for us only lasts until about 7:30. We spent the morning relaxing,
and Travis took Michael, Xilal and I into the market in the early afternoon. The
market was fairy quiet as it was a Sunday, but there were still all manners of
shoes, clothing, beautifully colored traditional cloth, watches, jewelry, and
several different food items. Each step brought a different smell – one was
fish, the next was soap, then a combination of the bananas, plantains, tree
tomatoes, and avocados commonly grown in the area.
On our way
down to the market, we ran into three high-school aged boys who were excited to
practice their English with the first white people they had seen. Two were
studying to go into tourism and one as a gorilla veterinarian, which might be
the coolest job title I’ve heard. All three boys spoke about 8 languages
between them, and they spoke to us about our families and differences between
Colorado and Rwanda. They took us through the market and followed us to a small
souvenir shop, where we learned that the spears sold in many Rwandan souvenir
shops were originally intended for poaching. When poaching was outlawed, many
of the traditional spear makers were set to go out of business, so instead a
system was set up where spears were still made but sold instead as novelties to reduce the poaching practice but still provide an income for the
craftsmen.
After the
rest of Sunday spent relaxing, playing cards, and having a several naan bread-like
chapatti (termed a “Cha-party” by Michael), Monday was back to work. Xilal and I
spent the morning getting more rebar in town and hiking it back into Ntarama,
while everyone else began pouring the first tank foundation. In total, the team
of workers on the site mixed 6 batches of concrete (no small task) and were
very efficient after Xilal and I were promptly banned from helping out because
we really only got in the way. We walked to dinner with a stunning sunset
behind us, played a few rounds of gin rummy, and everyone was in bed by 9:30
after the long day.
Today was similar
on the concrete front – another tank foundation was poured before noon, again
thanks to the expertise and efficiency of the workers at the site. While they
continued to mix and pour concrete, the Muzungus (white men) and our exhausted translator
Hassan (who attends about 20 hours of engineering school at University every
week after full days of helping us), set to work on building our first truss
out of the eucalyptus beams hiked in last week. After a couple of
trial-and-error rounds of attempting to measure and saw angles with the limited
variety of woodworking tools (and even more limited experience) at our
disposal, we successfully put together the first part of our roofing structure. The workers, completed with their concrete pouring, spent a bit of time taking photos with each of us as well. Michael, as always, was a popular subject. We decided that if this trip were a sitcom, which isn't too far from the truth, it would be called "Everybody Loves Michael." Happy with our accomplishments for the day, we headed home for a restful
afternoon!
Thank you for
following our adventures, and we hope to update you again soon!
As always, here are our favorite pictures from the last few days.
A gorgeous sunset view of two of three volcanoes we can see from Musanze, where we stay. The one on the right is Muhabura, which we can see from our worksite.
Michael poking holes in the freshly poured concrete (a very important job), with Muhabura volcano in the background and Japhet shoveling the next concrete batch
The team working so very hard sitting on wood while Curtis sawed it
Beginning our truss
Photos with Michael
The completed truss!
The clearest view of Muhabura volcano we have had so far
Several of the kids packing down the dirt in the tank foundation holes
The completed rebar circles, hand cut and tied
A stream from a spring in central Musanze
These two sheep spent equal time fighting each other and chasing after us for some reason on our way to Ntarama Monday morning. They were almost as cute as the baby goat that hangs out at our worksite.
The existing tanks at Nyrotosho, where we will be adding two more on this trip
Me with a new friend - he was hesitant about coming closer to me until one of the older kids simply shoved him forward. He seems to have ended up happy.
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