Texters and Rubbers

I wanted to post a few more pictures.  Work is going really well and I'm enjoying it immensely.  We heard tonight that internet access in East Africa is slowed down because a ship anchor pulled out an internet cable at the bottom of the ocean so I'm not sure if we'll notice the effects or not.

I've been learning about Australian slang after working with Darren.  Today I was educated on Texters and Rubbers (Highlighters and erasers).  Design has been going well and tomorrow is our presentation.

I wanted to write a bit about Gate of Hope, the organization that we are with and the family that runs it.  Pauline who is the head lady, is Rwandan and lives in the US with her husband and 2 children.  She has her PhD and is doing so much for Rwanda.  Her sister Baracka is a counsellor with her masters and this week is running a counselling training session in conjunction with some clinical psychologists and other trainers to train counsellors to look after the well being of the people here.  After the genocide psychological help was overlooked in the midst of so much physical suffering.  Baracka and her team is looking to change that.  It was so encouraging to see all the people in training this week and to know it is run completely by local people.  They have already passed 100 people through the 1 year training program.  Pauline and Baracka are completely Rwandan, yet have a very good understanding of Western culture.  Gate of Hope aspires to eventually expand their existing nursery school and counselling program and training, as well as have a safe house in conjunction with the International Justice Mission on their site.  They will also have a vocational training school.

Currently Gate of Hope has a nursery school, provides counselling, and trains counsellors.  They also train widows skills such as sewing. 

I am really enjoying the team I am currently working with.  Each person brings something unique to the team.  We are working really well together and accomplishing a lot.  I have taken no small amount of abuse about my Canadian accent.  It's all in good fun though.

 I have some mad skills on the machete.

 Performing a perc test.  With the help of some locals we augured some holes 1.5 m and 2 m deep.

 The survey crew has an audience.  The whole village knows we're in town.

 The team at work.

The kids loved touching my hair.