A letter from Bill, our co-founder:
Karen and I returned to Musanze after a short trip to Portland to see family. We immediately went to visit the VMS construction site. Japheth, our site-engineer, reported that we are 30 percent complete and trending about a month ahead of our scheduled September 2024 completion date. That’s progress!
A few days later, we took Rose, an Akilah graduate and the Experience Manager at the exclusive One & Only Lodge, and Thijs, CEO & Founder of Hollanda Foods/Winnaz Crisps, a raw materials partner, to visit the site.
Both of them were struck by the scale of the building taking shape and the quality of the workmanship.
The most striking element is the use of lava stones sourced from nearby quarries to form the exterior walls.
The stonemasons on site had mostly worked with traditional clay bricks prior to the VMS project. It was slow going to start, with masons able to shape just five stones a day. Now, they can do 15-20 stones that fit together like rough hewn, organic puzzle pieces. The modern rustic aesthetic is just as we envisioned. See the picture below.
Last week, we attended the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit in Kigali. It’s the first time the event has been held on the African continent. The summit was held at the Kigali Convention Center, a state-of-the-art facility with 18 different venues. We were invited by the Rwanda Development Board to join a large contingent of attendees from the local tourism sector.
Karen and I were both struck by the warmth and hospitality of the global and local travel and tourism community, one that is new to us. A number of panelists at the conference spoke about the trend in tourism towards “experiences,” which is exactly what we hope to offer at the Virunga Mountain Spirits distillery/agro-tourism site. Karen details our plans in her interview with BreakingTravelNews here.
It’s a gift to have an encore career and to be welcomed into a new community in Rwanda. Make your plans now for a visit in late 2024!
All the best,
Bill