Outside the hotel they are building a new road. Small rocks are placed by hand- we watched as the small rocks slowly developed into a beautiful circling pattern. Then the sand is poured over the rocks and brushed away by an old woman crouched over with a small homemade hand brush. Next the bulldozer comes in and packs everything together. The process is then repeated as many times as needed to reach the proper level above the sewer. During the week that we have been here the sounds of pounding rocks have drifted through the hotel gardens reminding us of the travails of everyday life here. This morning (Saturday) at 6 am a new load of rocks was delivered- there is no weekend here. Saturday morning is a time of community work. If you do not have a job you are expected to do community volunteer work.
One subset of our team who we are calling the "village people", is working with the Twa (pygmy) population making health insurance cards for 114, delivering shoes and clothes, weighing, measuring, deworming and providing Vitamin A to the people of Bwiza. The villagers walk to the water sources 2-3 times a day carrying 2 gallon jugs. The sources are between 1/4 of a mile to 2 miles away up and down a very steep hill. The engineering team has done a site assessment for water supply delivery. Their hope is to have a system up and running by July.
Hard to sleep in when you know all of this is happening.
