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The second week of work is complete.

Week two began with a visit by Hugh Henderson and some of the team members that are working in Burundi for three weeks. They were accompanied by African friend working for Rema, a peace & reconciliation organisation, who are supporting Hope Centre Burundi.

Over the weekend we purchased an old steel container which will protect all the tools and materials that we keep on site.

Someone in the local community brought an old armchair for Hugh to sit in. I asked politely but the big white chief just would not let me have a shot.

By this time the site was almost completely closed in with only the doors to be made.

During their visit some materials arrived:

Work on the foundations begins. What you see will eventually be two feet below the ground.

When we visited in march we were told that this land is prone to flooding and they estimated that the water only rose to a 50mm or so above the ground level. Obviously we were not going to take the chance of the children's homes being flooded out so we took surveying equipment and surveyed the area and discussed the water levels with the surrounding property owners. As a result of this we are having to make the house floor levels at least 2' or 600mm above the existing ground level. This will generate a lot more work at the foundation level and increase the costs of each house by approximately £3,000. We will have to import a lot earth and stone to bring the land up to level surrounding the properties. Please consider contributing to this cost if you can?

Our 40' container will still take some time to arrive which is difficult at the moment with having to purchase some basic tools to be able to continue.

Samuel assisted me with setting the floor levels:

Mixing Concrete is so difficult without a cement mixer but mixing by hand is how it is normaly done in Burundi. I am looking forward to our container arriving as it contains two cement mixers.

This is the only picture of me so far working on the site. One of the workers asked if they could take a picture of me.

This man arrived at the doors with a hack saw and ended up being employed for the steel work that is required in the concrete.

Friday is Pay Day: