What Is The Minimum Thickness Of The Film

Foundations ... and Imana Wild Ride!

Meanwhile, we've got sand - Tony us a charge is brought, and Mike and his team have been quick again set to work and laid the foundations for the building of the creche. Mike now controls his last week here in Manzamnyama ... We will miss him, he was a big help and a great motivator and his unwavering optimism. He has brought the construction of the nursery into roles and about his friends and family donations found to be the first cement sacks and buy other stuff. We must now see that the building will also be built ready - even if Mike is not there anymore. But we do not shed tears of farewell - Mike is still a week here.

is a 50 kilo bag of cement!

freshly laid foundations

Mike pressed down the last stone

Last Thursday the Imana Wild Ride Mountain Bike Race was. These crazy people ride in teams of 2 along the coast, and the race lasts five days. The organizers also collect donations for schools in the area. After all, they ride on their tours so by Xhosa villages, and with the Schulenbau action they give the local population also return something. We found the great and decided to support the race and set up a large poster and selling local drinks and food, as this race seems of media helicopters and god knows what all will be accompanied. And we thought, well, a bit of media coverage of our project can not hurt! Everyone was very excited that women and girls were preparing folk dances, music systems were organized, brought out the traditional evening dresses ... and then everything fell into the water. On the day when the bikers came over here, put on the storm. Wild gusts swept over the hills, and at nine clock marked the first drop of rain. Fell? Well, yes. The wind whipped the rain horizontally through the air and the drops hit us like bullets. It was impossible. We waited for about an hour from - Mike, Babalwa, me and some kids - but all were soaked to the skin and shivering in the cold, and out of the bikers was no way in this terrible weather - no TV helicopters, no reporter no companion - and the bikers was certainly not feel like stopping by, wanted to reach as quickly as possible the next milestone and slip into dry clothes. Yes Henu - so the whole operation was just a flop. We try next year.

not yet finished poster ...

Mike on paint

brrr ... Mike and Babalwa in the rain

come over the mountain bikers

is otherwise not much here, and while Aidan in Cape Town, I consider myself in the background and work on the sites or in garden next to our house. Mike has drummed up some donations for the nursery, but we are still in short supply there, and if we can not buy tools and machines to screen- and door frame itself produce, we will have to buy the finished part, which is also expensive. We'll see, maybe Mike can come up with something else. :-) With the already incoming donations now, we will post for the roof of the lodge as soon as Aidan is back and more cement for the walls.

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construction of the nursery

has barely begun and the construction, Mike pushes even a thousand pitfalls. Nothing is easy here in the Transkei! In the first few days, Mike and John have dug the channels for the foundations. On Wednesday, Mike wanted to lay the first foundations, but unfortunately lacked the sand that must be mixed with the cement. And we do not have Land Rover does not always to himself to get sand. And with the donkeys, it is much too slow, and secondly they are much too expensive (for the small pile of sand to bring it by the charge). A friend has offered me in Mpame to help out with his pickup. But since John is down with Aidan to the Garden Route down, leaving only Mike and I have to shovel, and we need at least two strong men, with the tackle, or we are hours of shoveling the sand! Bloss, no one here wants to work for free in the village. For every hand movement, they want to be paid. This afternoon we have another meeting with the village council, and I will tell them again the opinion, and this time will hopefully translate everything what I say! I feel a bit on the laces, that no one voluntarily assists. Mike and I are working so voluntarily ... and Tony, who helps out with the pickup that will do well as a friendly service and FREE. Henu Yes, we'll see what comes out at the meeting.

Meanwhile, Rufus has allowed us to use his sand if we replace it by next Tuesday. That means that Mike can now really set the first foundations - if he finds two strong men to help the cement mixing. Arrrrgh. :-)

Aidan is now on its way to the Garden Route and then to Cape Town, where it can hopefully buy a load of material, if still some donations come together. I did after my last call for donations-mail (last week) found that this is probably a hugely unfavorable is time to beg for money: In the middle of the summer holidays, where it spends all his money during the holidays and it does not want to send to South Africa . Heja, one does what one can.

Next week comes the Imana Wild Race by here, a mountain bike race along the Wild Coast. I wrote the organizers and asked if that is ok, if we establish here a couple of posters (for our project) and drink stalls, and found, yes, it's great! Na wonderful time here are a few good news. I am preparing now the villagers for the big day before, next Thursday, when the bike race right here on our hill is coming over. I will write! I will then upload a report and photos.

Oh and by the way: our project website has a new face! The new website is now online: www.mpame.co.za / German / index.htm

Mike digging foundations

guys bring stones for the foundations

the channel for the foundations

the helpers

measure the dimensions of the hut

Maxwell (older brother of Rufus) plays the construction managers and supervisors

Model With A Bump Nose

structural change

Well, now we finally had the meeting where decisions the villagers did not know whether the project will belong to them or us. We argued strongly that everything should belong 100% to the village and the villagers is responsible for the construction of the Lodge, under our guidance. Unfortunately, the villagers found that they were not able to build a lodge, they do not know how to do that - even though we told them we are here with the knowledge - and so they have decided to take responsibility for the project to connect us. And the main chunk of the profit share. Hm, the changes now the whole thing a bit. Aidan goes in a few days to Cape Town, and while he is there he will make smart about how we organize ourselves now at best. The problem is that we do not want the project or the Lodge is ours, because the things with the government and especially with Land Affairs terribly complicated. Aidan was well, we should pull up a company with shares, where we keep a certain percentage, and the villagers of the rest, the shares can be bought and sold, and where we get people into the game, the real interest have at the lodge. But these are just ideas and speculations - even we do not not sure how we want to put all of that.

For the other projects we have in mind, the business makes no difference to the lodge. Last week, Mike, our new volunteer, started construction of the nursery. The social projects in the village are still funded by donations - as long as the lodge is not and still does not yield any profit, we depend on financial help from the outside. The crib should be a two-story round hut, with a margin below and above an office. To build a second floor in a round hut construction costs increase by about one-third, but we believe the thing is worth. We are now trying zusammenzukriegen enough donations to some decent tools - an electric drill for example - to buy in order to facilitate the building of the creche. First photos from the foundations to follow soon!

Cornucópia No Runescape

Kitz Alp Bike

The race Kirchberg in a mud fight was beyond compare. The technically demanding downhill of the trail was relatively easy ride, but 2 had increases had to be overcome only by foot.
My very poor performance results from a simple addition:

bad legs +
several falls +
resulting knee injury +
torn buckle on the shoe +
no longer functioning, gatschbeladene circuit = 15th

LG Vadim