A commute of energetic dancing, motivated singing and beaming camaraderie; we’ve scored a hattrick this Wednesday, with another sunshine-tinted alarm bell. Our culture exchange started with our Rwandan colleagues teaching us their sun-shanties, we responded with a rugby club warm-up – Faversham Rugby Club style. This helped loosen up our muscles and get us ready to tackle the day.

We commenced, as always, with a briefing from our construction manager (in line with Golden Rule no.2) and a Kinyarwandan translation. We then dispersed in accordance with our word of the day “Tugende!” “Let’s go!”. Jared & Juliana kicked off the day as we intended to go on, with a safety tour. They highlighted with yesterday’s erection of the cables, that the walking route should be redirected around the back of the temporary works platform to avoid people walking under the cables. Our health and safety lead, Ali, took this action straight away and led a team of ground workers to form steps in the ground while the soil was still soft. Engineering expertise definitely played a role in the stairway created.

Jared also spotted that we should add a third handrail on the temporary works platform, given increased work in the area, and Juliana and I located the timber and fixed into place with nails; we absolutely nailed it if I do say so myself.




As the scheduled work for the day commenced, Syd & Eden clamped the cables in place on the left bank, with support from the team. This was definitely thirsty work and the strength in their muscles was only met by that of their determination. A break was definitely in order.

We returned to work with 2no. toolbox talks on ‘Working at Height’ and ‘Working with Cement’ courtesy of Syd & Ali respectively. One for the activities on each side of the river. A friendly rivalry formed between the two sides, as walkie-talkie conversations addressed the ‘left-side legends’ and the ‘right-side rulers’. Strong communication enabled us to erect and fasten the safety cable into place, meaning work at height could begin. Our Rwandan Project Engineer, Ernest, did a demonstration of how to safely adorn a safety harness during the toolbox talks. With the right tool for the job, the swingers were launched. We got in to the swing of it pretty quickly.

The right side primed the cables inside the abutment, ready for the denso tape to be wrapped around tomorrow. The wall of the abutment was filled in with rocks and mortar. As a daughter of a bricklayer I was intrigued to see the difference between the walls back home and those on site. I could not identify a Flemish bond or English bond with bricks of obscure dimensions, but similarly to the mixed team on site that day – they fitted together perfectly.

A building site or a foreign holiday? I guess the jury is still out on that one. Safety first always. Yet security is the word that comes to mind as we settle down this evening, with a mounded plate of rice, beans and plantain. Our African colleagues have brought the Jenga, and the Spotify playlist is doing the rounds on the patio. Bring on Day 4, can’t wait for more.

-Grace