Through the generosity of our sponsors and friends Marlie In Paradise, we are well on the way to completing the new volunteer/guesthouse at our site. The project began approximately 3 months ago and is expected to be finished by December. The five bedroom house is being built in traditional Zanzibar fashion, with bathrooms in each room, a fully equipped kitchen and an open area within the center of the house.
Mbarouk along with the Fundis (workmen) have been putting in long days trying to meet our deadline and it is looking great! They are on the second stage of building which involves plastering the interior and ceilings and installing the doors and plumbing.
This project is part of our sustainability program, as funds generated go directly into program costs and stipends for local volunteers. We are anticipating that the house will be full of volunteers for 5 months out of the year and during the down times we will rent rooms. We plan also to move the library into the house and use the space to conduct meetings and workshops. There will be two fulltime staff taking care of the house, chosen from among our graduating students.

You may recall our first art project here at CSRS was creating a giant dragon on the wall out of bottle caps and broken tile. Well we’ve got the fever again. This time we are covering the floor of our favorite place to chill, “The Sugar Shack”. It is actually the reserve water tank surface; we built a banda over it and are now decorating it. It is nestled in the garden and is a quiet spot to read or meditate after a long day of work. The volunteers and children from the village are enjoying creating the new surface from shells, bottle caps and tile.