If you are building a house it can be very easy here in Rwanda – you clear the ground and make a hole for the foundations. Then you dig up the earth , mix it with water and make your bricks. You lay them out in the sun to bake. Need any wood? It’s easy - you chop down the tree that is growing on your land and make it into roof struts etc. The roof is the most expensive because you are no longer allowed to make your roof of the local sword grass and bamboo. It has to be either a tin roof or baked tiles , both of which have to be purchased. This is the only thing requiring transport, so energy costs are few. There is even a way around this. The other day I saw a young boy walking along the road with his schoolbooks under his arm and roof tiles on his head ‘Here you are, son, on your way to school, drop these off at your Auntie Mauds.’
There are some magnificent trees here in Rwanda and they are used for all sorts of things. This week some of these trees near my office have been taken down – enormous Eucalyptus and Pines growing by the side of the road – felled by men with one chain saw and a thick rope. Next day the trees are turned into wood for the use of carpenters and builders. There was only one miscalculation and the front perimeter wall was damaged but was rebuilt immediately the next day.
Wonderful workmanship and skills.
This weekend I'm off to Gisenyi at the north end of the Beautiful Lake Kivu!!
Keep in touch and DON'T FORGET the Year Planners!! Thank you.
Lots love, Tx
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Rwanda? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Rwanda in order to complete my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely