email received from Heather:
Dear All,
Well we made it and I have the pictures to prove it!
The rain kept away for the most part and when it did come served as a water bowser, because the one we hired was faulty. We only lost a couple of days work to rain. It was a bit touch and go and I had a few sleepless nights, but somehow we made it and we now have a super highway!
It was such a pleasure to see the horses and donkeys trotting along so happily to the lumo last Monday, rather then staggering and straining as they did on the old road.
In the end it turned into a real team effort and our team of contractors worked incredibly hard to see it through and they did it with much humour too.
Though I had been told to watch the fuel like a hawk, none was stolen and the operators quite often refused to take their quota because they hadn't used it all up the day before.
The local communities as well as those from across the river have all asked me to give thanks to all of you who made it possible for this road to be built, they are quite ecstatic aboout it and people travelled from far and wide to come and see it because they could not believe what they had heard. There were always lots of people to watch and when we were laying the sticks, the army even turned up to help as they had heard that we needed manpower!
It turned out to be a real community effort, with the ladies of each village providing breakfasts and lunches for the drivers and operators of the machines.
We could not have had a harder working team, everyone, from the hard working Gambia Horse and Donkey staff who helped to collect the 11,200 litres of fuel and decant it into bidons ready for the next days allocation, to the lovely lorry drivers of the three lorries which we called Tom, Richard and Harry (we had a fourth lorry called "Non Starter" as well but he only stayed a few days!) to the machine operators and the supervisor from The National Roads Authority, were so pleasant, humerous and dedicated to completing the project before the rains stopped play. They were up early and finished late and there was a great team spirit.
I would like to extend my very sincere thanks to you all for all the help and support that you have given me, I shall never ever be able to thank you enough. After many trials and tribulations, it turned out to be a very uplifting experience and I met so many really lovely people through it.
Thanks too must go to the local communities who worked so hard, to Ballast Nedam who surveyed and designed the road and who kindly provided the culverts, to PIWAMP who helped by loaning me their machines, to Green Impact who also supplied machines at reduced rates, to the Horse and donkey staff and to The National Roads Authority who were so incredibly helpful and supportive and who ensured that the work was carried out to standard.
I was reduced to tears on my last day when one of the Sambel ladies started to cry, when I asked her why, she said " wherever she is, I know that Stella will be happy now, but I wish she was here".
THANK YOU ALL so much, we could not have done it without you.
Lots of love,
Heather xxx
and a few piccies: