How it began ...
In September 2006, Jenny Lawrence came to visit Bulungula Lodge. The driver of the shuttle was Mr. Rufus from Manzamnyama Village, and he told her to come visit his home and do a project in his village. Jenny agreed to have a look at it and decided that this community holds a lot of potential and something can be done. After some village meetings, she promised them to come back and start a project. Unfortunately she was too busy at home and couldn't make her way back to the Wild Coast so easily, but her son Aidan got excited about the idea, and so they both came back in January 2007. Jenny introduced Aidan to the community, they held some meetings and agreed that Aidan will come and run the project. And so it was ...
In August 2008, Aidan handed over the backpackers he had run on the Garden Route to his parents, stuffed as much material as he could grab, plus his friend Johann, into the old landrover and drove up to the Wild Coast. Luckily he made it safely to Manzamnyama Village, with only 2 breakdowns and 1 near death experience. On the hilltop, Aidan and Johann unloaded the heaps of material and started putting up a little hut, as a first temporary structure and shelter for themselves. As Land Affairs had not been there yet, to measure out the land, they were not allowed to do permanent structures yet, so the first months passed with digging dams, building a boma area out of thatching and doing vegetable gardens.
In February 2009, a friendly gentleman from Land Affairs measured out the land and gave permission to start with permanent structures. At that point, the problem was funding, so some more time passed until there was enough money to buy cement and other materials. The first foundations were laid in June 2009.
