Last thoughts on Rwanda

Since I have been out of internet connection for a while I wrote this post a while back with the intent of posting it later.  I wanted to get the experience into words before I forgot what it was like.

The past few days have been amazing.  I haven’t felt yet like I have had time to sit down and write a good blog post.  Hopefully I’ll have some more time in the near future to do so.  Since I wanted to remember everything about the past few days and we don’t have internet access tonight, I’m writing this post for publishing at a later date.

Yesterday (March 2) we had our presentation to Gate of Hope.  I was presenting on the water, sanitation and storm water drainage.  The presentation was translated into Kinyarwanda.  I have done a few presentations that have been translated so it wasn’t a completely new experience to me, however, it still proved to be a challenge.  I noticed that as I was presenting, Paulene’s Mom was laughing so hard she could barely stay in her seat while I was talking about the wastewater system.  I’m not sure what was funnier, the fact that I was talking about toilets, or the fact that I had to find 5 different ways to describe a sewage leach pit before it could finally be translated.  As I was trying to describe the leach pit, people from the audience who were fluent in English were piping up with what they thought the translation would be.  It was like a group effort to translate the toilet language.  Overall though the presentation went very good and the ministry was happy with what they saw.  We got some useful comments from locals that lived in the village, and one of the local government representatives was present.

Today we headed off this morning to come to a hotel and have our closing and decompression time.  Gate of Hope hired a mattatu (van) for us.  After we got about 500 metres down the road, the van stopped.  The driver got out and had a look and then his assistant, grabbed a cooking oil container, and took off on a boda (motorcycle) to the local gas station to get some diesel because the tank was empty.  After he got back they poured a small amount of diesel in the tank.  He pumped the gas pedal and couldn’t get it started.  So he proceeded to take a mouthful of diesel and spit it over the battery (?).  We then rolled backwards down a hill as he tried to do a running start.  It finally started and we were on our way.  One of our local friends turned around and said “This is Africa.”  We all found the situation funny and this is indeed Africa.  So the story isn’t finished.  We got maybe 5 km down the road and the van stopped again.  Perhaps because he only put about half a litre of diesel in it, however the driver said it had no such thing to do with running out of gas and that it was a problem with the carburetor, however none of us believed that tale.  We ended up sitting there until they brought a new taxi at which point the first thing we did was fill up with diesel and we were on our way.  We are staying at a really nice hotel for the night.  Brenna (the other girl intern) and I are sharing a room and just finished raving about the amazing shower we just had.  We also went to this amazing Indian restaurant for supper.  It was really fancy and all the waiters were walking around in what looked like Aladdin costumes.  The food was amazing.  It was great to have such a wonderful closing time with the team, however, I can’t believe this part of my journey is over already.  This team was really amazing and it was wonderful to see how well we worked together and how all our skill sets worked together to accomplish the final product.  It is sometimes surprising to see how these teams somehow end up with people that have just the right skills to get the job done.  This team was probably one of the best examples of that.

In the morning we will leave Kigali at 4:30 AM  to head back to Kampala.  I’ll be on Safari from Monday-Thursday and then I head to Eagles Wings Children’s Village on Friday morning.

I had a hard time picking just a few pictures, but these are a few of my favourites.

 The team with the Gate of Hope family.

 Me & Bella.  She's such a sweetheart.

 Some of the nursery students.

 Some of the locals debate our master plan.

Still alive and well

Quick post from a hostel computer.  I wrote a post about my time in Rwanda that I'll put up later.  My time in Rwanda was amazing.  I'll be off the radar for a few days on my safari but will put up some pictures when I return.

We took the scenic route through the mountains yesterday and it was breathtaking.  I had to pinch myself to make sure it was real.  I'm loving it here.

Anyway got to go,

Jaimee

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.

Perc Tests & Pictures

So today I had a fabulous day.  In the morning, Darren (the other civil) and I went to see a local pit latrine digger.  He is amazing!  He was in the middle of digging a pit that was currently 9 metres deep and less than a metre wide.  He shimmied down on footholds he created and dug out with a pick and put it in a pail for a man at the top to haul up.  The total depth will be 15 metres and this will take him 4 days to dig in total.  I don't have my pictures downloaded off my camera yet, but will post some later.

I performed percolation tests today and it was great!  It was so much fun.  We also got to hang out with a Rwandan engineering civil engineering student who taught us a lot about local practices.  His story was so encouraging.  His father died before he was born, he is the last of 6 children and his mother has never worked.  He is the first in his family to get educated and it is his dream to continue his education past his diploma and onto his civil engineering degree and maybe beyond.

Since the whole village knows we are here I got a lot of opportunity to interact with locals today and in days past.  Sometimes in Kinyarwanda and sometimes in French.  I managed to find a few more locals to speak French with.  Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't.  I had a good greeting conversation in French today.  At the Omuganda (community cleaning) one guy told me my French was very good and I didn't understand what he said so another girl translated and told me in English that he thought my French was very good.  Too funny.  I am becoming more comfortable with greetings and basic questions in Kinyarwanda.  It will be a mental shift to switch to Luganda once I'm back in Uganda.  So I don't really think my limited French is improving that much, but I do think my Kinyarwanda is.

Just for the record I love it here!

I'm limited for time again, but here are a few pictures.

 The team water filter.  It is actually a mini membrane!  Filters out all the bad stuff and uses available materials.

 At the genocide memorial

 One of the kids from church.

 "Trimming the hedges" or rather hacking away at thick bush with hoes and machetes for community cleaning day.  We were clearly the talk of the town, and none of us were very good at the task.

More Reflections

So I did get another chance to post again.  Today was a more relaxed day which was nice.  We went to a rockin church service this morning and then just get to chill out this afternoon.

I wanted to share a few more reflections on the genocide memorial that I forgot to yesterday.  They had a children's room in the memorial with a picture of the child and a profile on each one.  They were all killed in the genocide.  There was one little boy whose last words were "Mommy where can I run to" another little boys last words were "UNAMIR [the UN] will come for us".  This is heavy stuff.  1 million people were killed.  And how do I deal with coming from a country who turned a blind eye to what was going on.  These aren't just a bunch of dead Africans.  They are someone's son, daughter, wife or father. 

I have felt nothing but warm acceptance while here, but we were warned that some Rwandan's might be indifferent towards Westerners because the West let them down during the genocide. I haven't found this to be the case, but I can't blame them if they felt that way.

On a lighter note, I started working with the other civil engineer yesterday.  He is from Western Australia, and I really enjoy working with him.  The site presents some interesting challenges and I'm looking forward to how we are going to tackle them.  So if I come home saying "I reckon" you know why.  There have been moments when one of us has said something and the other is like "What???"  I now know that the bonnet is not a hat, but the front of the car.

There is a resident rooster that rises at 5 AM every day.  Him and I are not friends.  I told him that he better start sleeping with one eye open.

I love it here and I feel so lucky to be here.  The fact that I am one of only a few people to experience something like this is not lost on me.  Coming back to Africa felt like coming home.  I'm so happy to be here and I'm going to try and savour every moment.

Jaimee

Hello from Rwanda

So I made it to Uganda and then to Rwanda.  After my long flights, I got a few hours sleep and then we left at 4:45 AM in a van to drive to Kigali, Rwanda.  I was so excited that I wasn't able to sleep in the van so I was really ready for bed that night.

I'm really enjoying my team and getting to know the people here at the ministry.  It is completely Rwandan run and they are really trying to provide Rwandan's with skills to help themselves rather than being dependent on others. 

Yesterday we got to hear about the work that they do, and then in the afternoon take a tour of Kigali.  We visited a genocide memorial which was incredibly tough emotionally.  It is a lot to work through.  Even though the genocide was 18 years ago every Rwandan has been affected and some of those effects are being passed on to future generations.  The encouraging thing is to see that the story is not yet over.  The people at Gate of Hope are doing so much to help the people in their recovery process.  After the memorial we went to the  Hotel de Mille Collines which is the hotel from the movie Hotel Rwanda.  It is not the hotel where the movie was filmed but the hotel where the actual events took place.  We saw the pool where the refugees drank out of.  The memorial and the hotel made everything I had read about the genocide really come to life.

This morning we were told it was community cleaning day and we would be "trimming hedges" It ended up being chopping down carrigana like trees with machetes.  All the muzungu's (white people) made quite a conversation and I don't think we were very good at hacking down the bush.  Rwanda is very clean and developed compared to other places in Africa I have seen.  The people here take a lot of pride in where the live and keeping trash off the streets which is somewhat of an anomoly in this part of the world.

At the cleaning day, I attempted to speak French with some of the people.  Very few of them actually speak French.  The language here is Kinyarwanda which everyone speaks.  They used to teach French as a second language in school, however the uneducated would only speak Kinyarwanda.  Now because of political problems they have switched to teaching English as a second language in the schools.  I am slowly learning a few phrases in Kinyarwanda, but it seems to be slow.  Sometimes I know I'm not supposed to speak French or English and my mind is in overload and I almost start saying something in Creole or Luganda, neither of which I speak much of.

We are having to borrow our hosts computer to get on the internet so I don't have that much opportunity to do so.  I will try and post again if I can, but getting on the internet is difficult.  As I am not on my own computer I'll have to wait to post pictures.

Until next time,

Jaimee

The bridge awaits.

In less than 48 hours I'll be on my way across the pond to a land that I love.  Excitement and anticipation are at the forefront as I finish up the last of my tasks and tuck the remaining few items into my already full suitcases.  I'm excited about so many things, and about experiencing African culture once again.  I'll get to see the children pictured above again at Eagles Wings Children's Village, who will no doubt be taller and more grown up than a year ago.

So here's what I'll be doing.

February 22- I'll be landing in Entebbe, Uganda
February 23- Driving 14 hours in a mattatu (van) from Kampala to Kigali, Rwanda. (It's less than 600 Km, but will still take a long time!)
February 23-March 4- I'll be in Kigali, Rwanda with Engineering Ministries International.  Check out the project description here
March 5-8-  I'm going on a safari in Uganda!
March 9-21- I'll be back at Eagles Wings Children's Village in South Central Uganda for a visit.

I'll try and post as often as I can.  I'm not sure what kind (if any) internet connection I'll have for each segment of my trip.

I was trying to decide which part of my trip I'm looking forward to the most, and decided that wasn't a decision I could make.  I am looking forward to each part equally and for different reasons.  I'm looking forward to meeting the team I'll be working alongside in Rwanda, and meeting the ministry we'll be serving.  I'm looking forward to seeing some of the eMi staff I met last year.  I really can't wait to see all the kids I love at Eagles Wings Children's Village too.  I can't wait to play ball and blow bubbles and all the other things I might get to do with them.  I'm even just looking forward to some of the simpler things like having a rolex (scrambled eggs wrapped in a chapatti) and walking down the street.

I know there will be challenges and  times when I don't understand the cultural nuances or times when I feel misunderstood, but all that is part of what I love.

So keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I prepare to step onto the precarious bridge between cultures. The one that has one foot in one culture and one in another.  I look forward to posting from the field.