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Week Ten's Work is Complete

Yes, it's been ten great weeks with very good progress on site. However for the next couple of weeks the site won't look that much different with much of the work being carried out below ground level.

Lower down you will be able to watch a video clip taken at the site this week. The scale of the site should be more easily seen than with just the photos.

As  you may remember from last week's report we bought a truck which needed some work done. We replaced the tyres at the weekend along with the two large batteries and made some repairs to the breaking system. The truck has worked faithfully this week

This is no3 of the four very large and very deep septic tanks that have been constructed. It will be built up to almost the same level as the floors:

The following two images are of plots 2 & 3. You will see Vincent, the site supervisor with the red cap, checking the waist pipe positions:

Block manufacturing is now up 150%

Child Sponsorship

Here is a good example how your money is used when you are sponsoring the children.

School has just started again here in Gatumba. Many of the children here won't have had the opportunity to have a full and unbroken history of education. The new government here in Burundi is providing education for all the children. There is a lack of teachers and our children didn't have the money to buy all the school clothes, jotters, pencils, pencil cases and school bags that are required for school but thankfully because of your generous giving all the children of Hope Centre that are old enough to go to school were able to be fully kitted out for school:

The Local administrator (Jean Samandari) has been very supportive of the Hope Centre project and gives us official documents that allow us to exploit the sand, stones and gravel in the Gatumba area. Here you see Jean signing the documents at his mobile office. We met hi at a secondary school in Gatumba:

In the following picture, from left we have, Jean Samandari (The Local Administrator), Pastor Leonard, My Self and then far right the Chief of Gatumba.

Whilst at this school I asked if any of the older orphaned children attended this school and the answer was yes. Thinking that this would be a good opportunity for some photos I asked if this would be ok. Twenty minutes later after speaking with the schools headmaster we were given access to the classes:

The first class we entered all the children stood to attention and welcomed us in one voice:

The following images are of the older children of the orphanage. You may also notice a white kid in one of the pictures. This is an albino Burundian:

We new that Leonard was a pastor in a church but we had never been their. He invited us one Sunday to his church which turned out to be a small church about one hours drive from Bujumbura. He would normal take a bus their each Sunday and it is located in a small village up in the mountains. Both Val and I gave our testimonies.

In the following image you will see an friend of Pastor Leonard who came specially to translate for us. The church was packed and the atmosphere was great. They provided a beautiful meal for us after the service.

The roads up the hills are very steep and dangerous. In fact on the way up we were side swiped by a large black car, however the Burundian driver immediately stopped and offered to pay for the damage which we didn't bother pursuing.

Apparently some of the cyclists pay the truck drivers for a lift up the mountain. As cycling is their main mode of transport for taking things to market and as the mountains are very high then I can see why they would do this:

Also this week I found these two local woman sitting just out side the gates of the site embroidering this blanket. Possibly their family or husbands are working in the site:

Val is spending some time at home this week with her PHD, trying to finish it off. This creature was putting her off here work as it was crunching the dead cockroaches that appear over night. Inside the house by the way:

This week we are moving out of the house that we have been living in and moving into another house that we have found to rent. This house needed additional furniture. We had seen an old tin roofed shed at the side of the road where the local Burundians make furniture using the most basic of tools. We stopped to have a look and ended up purchasing all that you see in the picture. Just around the back in a small market we found the people who make the cushions for the chairs so this little lot cost us £175. We didn't barter with them as the price is already so good but we could have probably brought the price down considerably:

We asked if they could deliver thinking that they would possibly deliver by bicycle. We payed them the 30,000fbu (about £13) delivery charge, gave them our address and then they put them on their heads and before we knew it they were off running the two miles up hill to our house. It took them about 45minutes to get there:

Movie Footage of Hope Centre Burundi

Click here to see the actual work in progress:


Click on the play button to start....    and then....   Click on image (or Right Click) for Full Screen...

You may have to click a few times
[media width=400]http://www.eulogia.co.uk/hope1.wmv[/media]


Click here to see Pastor Leonard expressing his gratitude for your support:

http://www.eulogia.co.uk/hope2.wmv