19^th July 2011 – 6^th August 2011

It is ridiculous how a month flies by. I thought that I was up to date with the blog but looking through photos I realized I am not!!!

We have had 3 guys with us who put up all the main structure of the shade house and they have recently been building a staff house close to the shade house for the manager to stay in with his family. We need someone staying close by for security reasons because our house is all the way on the other side of the road. These guys are amazing builders. They gathered a few rocks (the same guys who built the stone wall all the way back in January!) for the foundation and it looks so professional! It is professional!

As this was an on-going project for about a month I am just giving the main pointers of it all.

After many trips to Mutare (1 hour from us) of collecting cement, asbestos, window frames and door frames, and many trips to a guy down the road who makes bricks, the building was under way. A few times I looked at it and thought ‘hmm it doesn’t look that big for a family to live in but anyway’ but the more the bricks were piled on the bigger it seemed to get. Apparently, while all the guys were down working on the continuous moving of the seedling bags and working on clearing, there was a bit of talk about who was actually going to live there. Matt hadn’t told them yet so they all thought they deserved to live in this new house and individually all went up to Matt to stake their claim on it. Even Herbert, who is the manager and now living in it, told Matt that he really thought that he liked it and decided that it would be his! After it was complete and the floors laid and walls plastered I even thought to myself that it wouldn’t be a bad place to stay – but I am quite happy with where we are!

The finished product is awesome! Herbert and his family are super happy with it. They have been staying up at the top house all this time since before we were even here, and now they have a home to call their own and a space that belongs to them!

I have been trying to come up with a few other structures that I am sure we need added on to our house. Surely there is something that we can get the guys back to build!

It is ridiculous how a month flies by. I thought that I was up to date with the blog but looking through photos I realized I am not!!!

We have had 3 guys with us who put up all the main structure of the shade house and they have recently been building a staff house close to the shade house for the manager to stay in with his family. We need someone staying close by for security reasons because our house is all the way on the other side of the road. These guys are amazing builders. They gathered a few rocks (the same guys who built the stone wall all the way back in January!) for the foundation and it looks so professional! It is professional!

As this was an on-going project for about a month I am just giving the main pointers of it all.

After many trips to Mutare (1 hour from us) of collecting cement, asbestos, window frames and door frames, and many trips to a guy down the road who makes bricks, the building was under way. A few times I looked at it and thought ‘hmm it doesn’t look that big for a family to live in but anyway’ but the more the bricks were piled on the bigger it seemed to get. Apparently, while all the guys were down working on the continuous moving of the seedling bags and working on clearing, there was a bit of talk about who was actually going to live there. Matt hadn’t told them yet so they all thought they deserved to live in this new house and individually all went up to Matt to stake their claim on it. Even Herbert, who is the manager and now living in it, told Matt that he really thought that he liked it and decided that it would be his! After it was complete and the floors laid and walls plastered I even thought to myself that it wouldn’t be a bad place to stay – but I am quite happy with where we are!

The finished product is awesome! Herbert and his family are super happy with it. They have been staying up at the top house all this time since before we were even here, and now they have a home to call their own and a space that belongs to them!

I have been trying to come up with a few other structures that I am sure we need added on to our house. Surely there is something that we can get the guys back to build!