We are making great progress here at IWE on the projects!  Here is a brief breakdown of what we have accomplished thus far.

On Wednesday we surveyed the chick coup plot and marked out where the fence and foundation will be. We also were fortunate enough to get in contact with a local chicken coup “expert” who gave us the rundown on everything we needed to know about coups and chickens including building techniques, food costs, meat chickens versus egg chickens, what chickens need, and so much  more.  He was truly brilliant and we were surprised at how much chicken knowledge we were able to gain from this man.

We went to the market and to town to get some project supplies including shovels, fencing wire, chicken wire and wood.  We had to wait a few hours for some local guys who were selling wood and handmade furniture to treat and cut the wood so we headed back to IWE.

We interviewed the cooks and the school chaplain to discuss and finalize the stove plans, we ended up deciding to leave the old stoves for now, and then to build the new stoves in a storage room directly beside the kitchen, that will be joined with the kitchen at a later date.  This way, we don’t have to destroy and demolish the stoves they are currently using in order to build new ones, so we don’t interfere with their cooking for over 400 students and staff every day! It was great to get the staff’s input on the stoves and the location because they will be the ones using them all day every day and we wanted to make sure we catered to their exact needs and made it as efficient as possible.

We got some pretty good documentation of all the areas we will be working in for our projects and then the wood for the chicken coups got delivered.  We ended up going ahead and measuring and marking most of the wood in the dark to get  a head start for the next day.

Thursday we got up early and half of the crew headed to the market to get supplies: wheelbarrow, longer tape measures, cement, and some gravel!

The concrete, sand, and gravel got delivered a brief time later to our excitement!  Big things are happening, most of our supplies are ready and we are making good progress.  The other half of our crew finished measuring the wood and sawing it by hand with handsaws. A few of the girls joined in on the sawing!  We got the wood sawed up for the chicken coups and we got 5 of 6 frames built and ready!

ps-This internet connection at a local hotel is unbearably slow, I will come back at some point and add tons of pictures!!! : )

The only problem was finding perculite, an insulating stone for the stoves, and ceramic tiles thick enough to make the ‘L’ like flue in the stove which pulls air into the oven. I don’t really understand how those last two things fit into building a stove but, again, pictures will be on the way.

(Pictures, by the way, are a big part of this project. Hopefully we can have step-by-step documents of every technology we put in making it easy for our teams, or even students abroad, to make future installations.)

Michael is coming in the next few minutes to get me and Jen before we all look for the stones and tiles in Kigali… then it’s off to Rwamagana to get to work at IWE. This is me excited to work!

With 2x4s and cement blocks, we can begin making the 6 frames that form the chicken coop structure.  We get those tacked together and set on blocks so they’re off the ground, preventing rot, and then we brace it against itself, add in floorboards, wallboards and roofboards.  The square of the yard will mean digging out post holes every 7 or 8 feet to place 4×4 posts where we’ll attach the chicken wire wrap.

I keep doing it in my head but I want nails in boards!

They probably were able to survey the center. Taking before pictures at the technology sites.  The roof lines for rain-gutters, the kitchen for the brick stoves and the plot of land where we will build a coop for 50 chickens.  If they got any further than that, they probably interviewed the orphanage director, Theopiste, about the needs and costs of the orphanage which can help us identify more exactly our impact.  Even further than that and Jacob and Michael may have been out to hardware stores pricing bricks and wood boards for the stoves and coop.  That’s a big wish though.

Once we’re all together tomorrow the real work begins…

Nathan Hanks