EWB-CU Rwanda Blog: The Final Stretch

Post brought to you by Ellis

Muraho friends and family!

We are beginning to encounter the best possible scenario we could have hoped for: we are ahead of schedule, under budget, and thundering down the final stretch of construction a full week ahead of planned.

To give ourselves and our workers a break, we took both days of the weekend off this time, giving us ample time to explore, recharge and prepare ourselves for our whole system to come together. Sunday was as thoroughly a day of rest as it could have been; breakfast wasn’t even touched before 8:00 AM. The rest of the day was spent chatting with locals who now recognize us around the hotel, hanging out in the café, and eating a classic Rwandan meal of rice, treasured chapatti, and peas, which were substituted for beans when we were told beans were “not allowed.” We later determined this was code for “we’re out of those.”

With the columns built and concrete set, several different facets of our plans have begun to snap together this week. Monday involved taking three, 200 lb trusses and lifting them up the 12 ft columns and finding a way to attach them. Luckily for us, Musaferi and the workers were well ahead of us. By the time we arrived on site, they were already lifting the first truss up… backwards. We were fortunate enough to catch them before it was solidly attached, and they managed to fix the error quickly and in good humor. The white people on the site were consistently fired from jobs we were no good at, such as standing on the scaffolding, lifting up the front of the truss, and bracing the truss from the ground with makeshift supports. We spent a good amount of the day telling the masons what we envisioned, which usually ended in a combination of doing both what we suggested and what they felt was necessary (the trusses are now cross-braced about 3 times more than they need to be). Satisfied with our progress on the roof, we used the evening to buy rust-proof paint bound for the gutters the following morning, grab a few extra construction tools from town, and try a new buffet on main street.

Today was just as successful as Monday, and slightly more involved with unskilled work for the white people. We constructed a first-flush system, which essentially stores the first round of water washed from the roof that often contains dirt and debris, and got paint thinner to mix with the oxidizer before rust-proofing the gutters. Small holes in the steel roof from transport were quickly patched, and Michael finished coating almost an entire gutter before he was, like the rest of us, relieved of duty - a feat in and of itself. We spent part of the day learning (and quickly forgetting) a whole host of interesting Kinyarwandan phrases from the workers and Jacques eldest son, and took the time to write down some of the more helpful ones from Musaferi, such as hammer and nails (inyundo and imusumari respectively, but as the locals remind me, my spelling of kinyarwandan words is atrocious). Other highlights of the day: Xilal didn’t make any small children cry, which is an improvement from his past track record, Curtis shaved his face, which was a favor to us all, and beans are allowed for dinner tonight.

All in all, we are more than excited to see our whole system come together, and we can’t wait to send pictures your way! Stay tuned for our final construction updates!

Best,

Ellis

Here are some pictures from the last few days!