October 16: Day 3 - Mission Possible

Walking to the jobsite this morning we were all feeling great. A good night’s sleep, no hangovers and a couple of more climate adjusting days. We knew we had a tough day ahead with all of the concrete mixing and carrying work. Our day turned our great! It was our toughest day yet, most productive and the funniest day! Boy the day goes by fast when you’re laughing and having lots of fun in the sun! We are 17 people from all across Canada and one lonely American who have come together on this mission and we are a cohesive awesome team!!

Our local trades standing on the start of our concrete floor at the start of the day!

Today we struggled slightly with supplies at the beginning. Running out of our key ingredient cement mix. We bought all we could from the Gashora village and then our local lead hand had to travel 35mins to the next village to be able to buy 8 bags there. How did the bags get from the other village to Gashora…well on bicycle taxi’s. You will see pictures below of the bicycles that carried our order for a couple of dollars for delivery. It would be an hour plus round trip for the bicycle taxis. Wow!

Dona and Hulio sitting on the job!

Water was the other key ingredient we ran out off. Not a lot of rain fall in Africa and we drained the tank. We quickly had a local hired to bring water out of the local river take and forth to us for the rest of the day. See how he carried the containers in the below pictures. Wow! Imagine his calf muscles!

Our conga lines worked great today getting the concrete from the mixing location into the building as well we had the local helpers on the mixing. We saved a lot of sore backs today! In the pictures below you will see our progress on completely the kitchen area floor. What we thought would be a two week task at the get go, we know believe it is possible to be able to complete it tomorrow. We will them move onto the two small rooms off the kitchen as well as starting to parge (Thin concrete mix that is flicked onto the wall with a trowel and smoothed over) the interior walls of the kitchen.

Mark and Shawn loading up the dirt

After we completed today, we went to the local pub for a “pop” and we were accompanied by one of our local lead hands who is a closet rapper. We convinced him to rap a couple of songs for us! He did a great job! Concrete mixer by day and rapper by night! LOL And to top it off, the beer was less expensive than our “resort”. 850 franc’s for a large pint. (672 franc = 1 USD) Yep beer is pretty cheap here!

Walking back to our home away from home, we felt good after our day! Knowing this mission is possible! We are already excited to see the end result…

Wow! The progress we made today!

Marianne Thompson

DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, October 2013

October 15: Day 2

Today we wished we had access to a concrete truck! Wait…I think we will wish this the next many days of the build. This is the reality of building in a third world country. Today we mixed by shovel cement mix, stone (1 ½”) and sand. We lost count of the bags used and as you will see in the photo’s we have a large floor surface to cover. It’s going to be a long process. Backs are sore, arms are sore, it was a hot one and many walked back from the jobsite wearing concrete as well. Even though we have come accustom to the building processes and advanced tools back home, we keep our patience intact and enjoy the experience of working along side the local craftsmen and allow them to teach us how they build.As we discussed the day at our daily after work “pop” session, there was still laughter and fun left in the team.

Kenny working hard!

It was a hard day and yet another great day working with the Covaga group and the locals of the Gashora village. Many of the lady weavers jumped in to help us today. Whether it was in the congo line so we could get the rocks from one side of the site into the new building or helping carrying the wet concrete mix into the building (Did I mention with babies on their back! They were our inspiration to keep going when we got tired!). As we worked along side, we had many conversations getting to know them and their families. They were quite eager to help us translate as well. Many can speak some English as well as French.

During our breaks when we should be resting, you would witness the team members talking with the young children, playing soccer with them, teaching them cart wheels or holding the very young babies. These are precious moments we experience during the day!

Night’s agenda will be sorting through all of the donations we all have brought to donate to the village. We have brought soccer uniforms, soccer balls, footballs, sports equipment and school supplies. It’s important to give to the village the right way so we do not cause a frenzy as well ensuring the most needy receive first. We also want to ensure the school supplies reach the school.

In the upcoming days, we will have the opportunity of visiting the local school as well a few of the locals have invited us into their homes proudly. Some exciting days to come….also 4 days until our Gorilla Trekking Excursion!

Our beautiful ston slugging work from yesterday. Today we began to add a cement layer on top.

Team hard at work mixing concrete by hand.

Marianne Thompson
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, October 2013