Rwanda Part Three: Random things we did...

(Note:  Sorry for the lack of detail in the post, but I figured you would prefer pictures over writing!  Pictures for this post will follow)

The next few weeks passed quickly.  We had a fairly relaxed schedule.  Nancy and Lloyd did most of the teaching.  We, the rest of the team, were there to learn and be support.

I was sick two of the days of the first week, but was able to get back on my feet by Friday.   The first week we had a group of lay leaders, and the second it was Catholic priests and nuns.  Because of the language barrier it was challenging to communicate and form good relationships, but I did my best.  I even picked up a tiny bit of Ikenyrwanda.  It’s like Runyankore in many ways. 

 On the 17^th, which was a Saturday, we had a large mass which had probably more than 3,000 people attending!  The colors across the hill were beautiful and the many bright, expectant faces, hoping for physical, emotional or spiritual healing. 

There we met Polish Franciscan nun and the group she was with.  She invited us to the orphanage where she serves the next day, it is in Kibeho, which was where we were going to go. 

Sunday we went to Kibeho, and sang most of the way.  Kibeho is a small town in the south of Rwanda, where an official, church approved, Marian and Jesus apparitions have occurred.  Three have been officially approved, and there are up to 20 people still in the approval process. 

When we got there, I jokingly said I could understand why Mary decided to appear here.  The place is incredibly beautiful!

Mary’s message was to warn the people of Rwanda against the genocide, and the world against upcoming wars.  If you read what she said and showed the visionaries, it is a little freaky how accurately she showed them what was going to happen if people didn’t change.

The place is small these day, though someday it will be huge I am sure.  We were some of the only pilgrams there.

After a visit around, we had lunch with the Paletine Fathers, who have the BEST view in the whole world.  Then we went to the little shop, run by one of the visionaries who still lives at the site and who receives visitors.  We got to spend some good time with her.

Then we headed to the orphanage we’d been invited to.  It’s a home for blind children.  And it is incredible!  Their view was amazing too.

If anyone in interested in a positive volunteer opportunity in Africa, this would be a good one!  Get in touch with me.

Finally, we stopped at the site where thousands of people were killed, both during and after the genocide, people on both sides of the conflict.  It was a solemn church, where, inside praying, people had been murdered. 

Both on the way, and on the way home, we stopped at Francis’s house.  He was out guide, contact, doctor and friend.  We had met his family the weekend before, but it was wonderful to sit and laugh and talk with all of them again.  I am truly part of the family now.  I hope to go back to visit in January.

Photo Post...

Rwanda's hills are breath-takingly beautiful.  And just as elusive to cameras.

One of our views

Maureen and Siva in class

Development levels are better in Rwanda, this house is an example of that.

Team member Kevin, from England, teaching

Sunset behind our classroom

Dancing the Mukiga!

Group One:  Lay people

Nancy did the majority of the teaching, but with her side kick Lloyd (her husband), the make a great team!

Rwanda Two: Children's City

I arrived to the guest house on Sunday morning.  We all had individual, self contained rooms (meaning it has a bathroom).  To me this is the lap of luxury!  My shower was broken, and so for a few days I shared with Maureen before switching rooms.   But the bed was incredibly comfortable and there was desk.  The food was well made and delicious most of the time.  We were very well cared for.  

 

That afternoon, we went to visit a “children’s city” established by Pope John Paul II, when he visited Rwanda.  The place was beautiful.  They have a number of great income generating activities too!  That made me very happy.  The houses are designed to be like little families, which is exactly how I would do it. 

And I made a friend.

We were able to stay and pray that evening with the young people.  There were many!  The teenagers loved talking to the white people, the team spread out and chatted with the kids.  I love that.  They ask some funny questions.  

Rwanda: The way there...

Africa can be a challenging place to travel, and my trip to Rwanda was no exception.  I arranged to take a 9 am bus to Kigali, so that I could go with our contact to the airport to pick up the team.  It was a perfect arrangement.  Too bad perfect arrangements often don’t work out here.  

I arrived at the bus station at 8:50, ready to go.  And I read a book for a while, I noticed a tall white woman who came in and sat a ways down the hall.  Eventually, I went into the bus station and asked where the bus was.  No real answer.  By 12 pm, I was annoyed.  I went to see the manager, along with the African who was with the tall white woman.  Finally the bus arrived at 1:30.  By this time I had met and started chatting with Jane* and her boyfriend.  Finally at 2:15 pm the bus pulled out, with very few people on it.  Jane and I chatted for a while, about everything and anything.  She’s a peace and reconciliation specialist, working in Uganda and Rwanda.  She is a really great lady. (*Jane isn't her name, but I figured she'd prefer a name change)

We both napped, read, and did different things.  The tv installed at the front of the bus played terrible Kenyan worship music videos, I drowned it out with The Postal Service.  Because of the emptiness of the bus, we had to stop and pick people up at every step of the way.   By about 5 pm, we were making slow progress.  I texted my contact in Kigali and because I was going to arrive so late, I decided to try to find a place to stay in Kigali.  I asked Jane if I could stay with her, and she said yes.  In America, I would never ask some random stranger to stay the night with them, but in Africa I find things work very differently.  Perhaps it isn’t that I wouldn’t stay the night at a strangers house, it’s that I never am in a position to need to.  

Finally we crossed the border, late at night.  Jane sat next to me the rest of the trip, as the in bus video entertainment played a Mr. Bean actor police drama with Chinese subtitles.  It was an amusing combination.  We chatted about the idea of “home” and our various experiences throughout Africa.  

It was 1 am Uganda time, 12 am Rwanda time when we finally arrived in Kigali.  We got a private hire and ran some errands... like getting money and buying food.  We reached Jane’s place around 1 am, then feasted on a huge round of cheese, mango juice, and French bread.  It was delicious, and especially good since neither of us had eaten all day.  Jane’s house was incredibly comfortable, and had a full wall sized map of 

Africa, it was super cool!  She even had a small room for me to stay in, it was great.  

probably a whole season of this, played at an almost un-hearable volume, with Chinese subtitles.  Yes. TIA

The next morning was fresh coffee, and more bread and cheese.  We sat outside on the step and looked out at the beautiful view of Kigali.  My ride was running late, so after breakfast we sat in Jane’s room and she packed up her stuff while we talked. 

At about 10 am we went and met Francios at the top of the hill.  We gave Jane a ride to her meeting and then continued to pick up Bishop Kizito.

Meeting Jane was an incredibly experience. She is kind and generous and a good conversationalist.  I hope that we can hang out again sometime.

Bishop Kizito is a tall, thin, incredibly happy Rwandan man.  The whole car ride we all laughed and shared together.  It was wonderful.   Finally arriving in Gitarama (sp?) I met the team and we settled in.  

A bit of Rwanda

And we're off...

I got a bus for 9 am tomorrow morning!  I am very excited about this because it means I don't have to travel at night.

So I am off to Rwanda for the next 2.5 weeks.  Hopefully I will come back with a lot of friends and photos. 

I am also stopping in Mbarara on the way back to Kampala, so it should be a nice time to see old friends!

Have a great few weeks... the high green hills are calling my name. 

High heels and Coffee

Deo was in town the last two days.  Maybe you remember him from previous posts… he’s the one I went on the adventure into the villages of Kabale with in April.  I know I never got the time to finish fully detailing that story, but it was epic to say the least.  (6 days of mountain climbing [not for pleasure, but to get from point a to point b] and talking to local people, basically)

Anyways, Deo was in Kampala yesterday and today.  We are working on a coffee project, which is why I went to Kabale with him in the first place.  We did research there.  So we needed to do some work on the project, I think he came as a motivating force.  I haven’t done much on the project in the last few months.

Yesterday I cooked some food and we worked some on the proposal, and also brain storming ideas of places we can submit the proposal to for funding.  And we also made a plan for today.

So, this morning, I put on “my muzungu face” as I call it.  Basically, I was white… and I mean really white in how I handled myself throughout the day.  I don’t mean pushy, I mean professional.  It was funny because this side of my very rarely comes out, and yet I am actually really good at being a professional type.  After all, I am an international development practitioner, right?

I put on a nice grey skirt, purple shirt, and black suit jacket with pink pin stripes.  It sounds ridiculous, but actually looked awesome.  And, heals.  That’s right.  I very very rarely wear heals, but I felt that it would complete the whole looks. (Note:  I carried flip flops with me, and took off the heals whenever we weren’t in an official type building.  That’s the only way I could actually get around without injuring myself.)

First we went to Uganda Coffee Development Authority.  We were hoping to be able to meet with someone to look over our various thoughts and needs for our project.  However, no one was available at the time.  So out came a business card, and a collection of pertinent phone numbers was obtained.  (Side note:  While I was at UCDA, waiting for Deo, the minister of Agriculture walked by me.  That’s like seeing a celebrity here.  Ministers are big deals, apparently) 

I thought we’d just stop there, but Deo had some other ideas.  So we hopped a boda to the East African Development Bank.  Now, let me qualify.  When I say “hopped a boda” I mean it was one of the most unpleasant experiences I’ve had in a long time.  The skirt I had chosen, while very nice, was very in conducive for 3 person boda riding.  I ended up sitting on the bar on the back of the bike.  Let’s just say that is the most uncomfortable place to be for any amount of time.   And our boda driver didn’t actually know where he was going.  Oh the joy.

We went into the East African Development Bank and I put on my “of course I know exactly what I am doing” face and high heels.  I got through to the regional director for Kabale District, and we had a nice chat on the phone from the lobby.  She said she was busy right then, but would be interested in meeting at a later time.  More contacts, another business card and away we go.

Deo has one more stop for us.  So for the 2^nd time, off come the high heals, and on go the flip flops.  We walked down Kampala road, back towards where we had come from.  We went to NEMA, I think it stands for National Environmental Management Authorities.  But whatever it stands for they have a super nice building and very comfy red couches.  Sadly, we just missed the executive director by minutes.  The woman at the front desk was accommodating enough, and once again gave us direct lines to people higher up.  

We headed back to my apartment.  Important phone numbers, and some hope later, we finished working on the proposal and I started to make a logo for a letter head.  It is something like this…

(note:  i am not a graphic designer.)

Deo had to leave for Mbarara in the mid afternoon.  After we finished the proposal and parted ways. 

It’s good to know that I am doing real, good, work.  Sometime, especially when I’ve been sick for a few days, I lose that perspective. 

But today, I worked to bring coffee as a cash crop to 46,000 households which will increase household income by 50,000 USh per months within 5 years of project implementation. And this is what I love.

I really hope we get a grant for this… from 12,500 USD, we can impact a huge number of families raise their standard of living.

What did you do today?

Oh, I also went swimming, finally.  With Susanna.  And it was glorious.