September 8th, 2010
Today is our third day in Rwanda. It is 7:47am and the team has just headed off to work for the day. I have stayed behind a few minutes to organize my budget and our teams day. As I reflect over the past few days I am not sure how exactly I am feeling. This trip has been over a year in the making for me and having previously been here, at a different project, I feel overwhelmed with emotions. My first time as the Team Leader places a unique spin on my role in the group and I have to say I am enjoying it. The team that I have is absolutely incredible. I am proud to have 14 such hardworking, dedicated and caring individuals to share this experience with. I was originally worried about having three 17 year olds in the group…however, they have blown me away with their positive attitudes and playful nature. Their energy warms the group. One member has been suffering with back pain. This has not slowed her down once, she works so hard and stays so positive I am humbled by her. On the job site yesterday each person quickly picked up a shovel, wheeled wheel barrows, heisted boards to the roof and sawed logs without a moments hesitation. One member is even teaching English to the Covaga basket weavers – to help them learn to communicate with future customers. Overall, I am deeply amazed with this team!
It is a strange feeling coming back to Rwanda for a second time. Flying into Kigali I felt déjà vu arriving into the same airport, filling out customs forms and anxiously waiting, and praying, that our bags all arrive – and they did! Greeting Lama in the arrivals area I was grinning ear-to-ear. His warm smile, patient/laid-back nature and good heart reminded me of one of the many reasons why I fell so in love with Rwanda last year. Even better, Claudine, Lama’s girlfriend, is here to work with us. She is from Brundi and speaks English very well. It is like having two Lama’s! Leaving the airport I was also reminded how warm Rwandan’s are. A simple greeting of “Bete” will always spark a big smile from women, children or men who quickly thank you and in Kinyirwanda ask you how you are. I also remember how safe I feel here. There are no swarms of locals trying to sell you things. The country feels very peaceful. Despite the hundreds of people that fill the streets in this tiny overcrowded country – they seem to peacefully interact and go about their business.
On the worksite the locals welcome us. They seem very connected to this project. The Covaga Cooperative of women have elected officials who democratically make decisions for their cooperative. They will help out on the project in their beautiful traditional dresses and some even have babies tied to their back. The project works together with the Green Helmets who teach skilled trades to locals at the Nelson Mandela Education Centre just a few minutes away. Their students are working on their practicum and come to work with us each day. They can communicate in broken English which makes communication an easier job for us. On the job site there is hard work, laughter and pride. At one point we made two long assembly lines to pass tiles off a truck into a pile. The teamwork was impressive and the locals shouted out in Kinyirwanda “Go Development! Go Covaga! Go Development! Go Covaga” over and over. It was amazing!
Overall, I am humbled by this experience. I am inspired by my group, and I feel so much love for Rwanda and these remarkable people. This is all I have time to write now as I must get off to work.
Shannon Ritchie
DWC Team Leader
Rwanda 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Gashora, Rwanda: First day on the project with the community
I am so excited for this day is our first day on the Covaga Innovation Project in Gashora, Rwanda. We are up early, eating a good breakfast omelets, potatoes, cornflakes, fruit and coffee, Merv & I didn’t have a clue what we would be doing today but it was going to amazing that’s for sure. We headed down the dirt road (the earth is very red in color here and they have trees that look like cactus, we stay at the La Palisse Hotel where there is rooms that are modest with a bed and may-be a dresser every room has a mosquito net but the mosquitoes aren’t bad so far...We have toilets to share and showers as well with the best cold water that trickles from the shower head but OHHHH so appreciated after lots of dirt and sawdust on us.
We all walked down the dirt road to our work site ,which is about a 20 minute walk along the way we met many beautiful little children, they were all ages, so excited to see the Muzungu which is the name they say for white person. Some wear shoes like crocs, most still bare feet. They all came running up to us shaking hands, asking our names and loving it when we take there pictures. They laugh and giggle and when we take their pictures we can show them on the digital camera, they are always posing. Despite what these children’s families have gone through when the genocide took place in 1994 these children are very happy with what they have they are truly amazing, Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the genocide museum in Kigali it broke our hearts so much to absorb, seeing the children, and the human bones brought tears to my eyes how senseless the killing and torture to women men and children of Rwanda was. Merv and I feel so privileged just to be here sharing in there lives a life determined to rebuild to include, family, love , laughter and education. We are thankful for so much we take for granted in our own daily lives...
Once at the site there were groups of people gathered many women ,men, and children very happy to see us shaking our hands, smiling introducing themselves, both of us saying our names to each other they wear the most beautiful bright colors, with dress and shawls, they also wear clothes we know have been donated like the Wendys’ soccer (football to them) shirts in bright yellow and purple and say Kamloops on them, how neat was that to see.
There mode of transportation for most is by bicycle, they carry each other, water, chickens, benches, anything they need to transport they do, as well as just for the pleasure, as vehicles are expensive and no one can afford them. The bicycles are older, with carrying racks and often big adult ones not small ones but the children readily adapt and zoom everywhere with them. When we arrived on site we had a group of men introduce themselves who were going to direct us and keep the project flowing. The structure of the centre is built of brick and today we were putting the frame up for the roof. This was hard to believe everything done by ropes and people power it is always a team effort we really helped there today everyone jumping in. We also dug a ditch with a pic axe and shovel good old manual labor but it felt so good and so right with everyone working together . Sad note on that was we had to fill it in because the authorities changed there mind where it should be placed. And another big hole had to be dug.
One of the most shocking things for most of us who went to the toilet was the kind of toilet it was an outhouse with a steel hole shaped like a key hole with two feet on it which you squatted down to do your business on you pack your own toilet paper or Kleenex because you never know if there will be any! Wish the kids could see this !!!
Merv found his grove with the guys and he took to the wheelbarrow hauling the dirt away, helping with the lifting of boards and enjoying the children which were many. I am so proud of him for coming on this trip. He too thought about how we take for granted in life that we have all the tools, and trucks available at home to make a job like this so easy here they have been working on this for 5 months and they are just at the roof the final stages which they hope to finish while we are here to help.
During the day we work, take a banana break, walk back to our hotel for a hot lunch, walk back ,to work, have another banana break which usually women deliver to us in a basket and these bananas are grown in nearby plantations. Just before the end of the day the tiles showed up in a big truck to do the roof and it was amazing we had women, with babies on the back, all of us, men workers, young boys, pitch in and pass the tiles to each other until that big truck was emptied the Rwandans love to sing and laugh and they did as we passed the tiles it was what Developing World Connections is all about even though we don’t speak the same language we are still connecting, people helping people.
I was so happy, I got to talk to the different woman who weave there baskets, and I also purchased some to bring home, I got to work shoveling dirt in making a trench, I got to have a lot of fun working with Peter (He will be graduating from his trade in carpentry he is very excited) who directed Ruth, Jenn, & I with the carpentry skills of using tools to cut, and shave the wood, measure and pile it back. It was great fun and we could tell he enjoyed teaching us. I got to hold a beautiful baby today, he was so cuddly and happy we all made him laugh and he giggled and we all melted. His mother was proud to share him with us. It is very important to Rwandans to have children and they think it is very sad if you don’t have any, they often ask you that question.
Merv and I just are so happy to be here and we are so Super happy Shannon and Lama have worked so hard to give us this amazing experience. Everyone should one day!
Ardell Fedorchuk
DWC Participants
Rwanda 2010
We all walked down the dirt road to our work site ,which is about a 20 minute walk along the way we met many beautiful little children, they were all ages, so excited to see the Muzungu which is the name they say for white person. Some wear shoes like crocs, most still bare feet. They all came running up to us shaking hands, asking our names and loving it when we take there pictures. They laugh and giggle and when we take their pictures we can show them on the digital camera, they are always posing. Despite what these children’s families have gone through when the genocide took place in 1994 these children are very happy with what they have they are truly amazing, Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit the genocide museum in Kigali it broke our hearts so much to absorb, seeing the children, and the human bones brought tears to my eyes how senseless the killing and torture to women men and children of Rwanda was. Merv and I feel so privileged just to be here sharing in there lives a life determined to rebuild to include, family, love , laughter and education. We are thankful for so much we take for granted in our own daily lives...
Once at the site there were groups of people gathered many women ,men, and children very happy to see us shaking our hands, smiling introducing themselves, both of us saying our names to each other they wear the most beautiful bright colors, with dress and shawls, they also wear clothes we know have been donated like the Wendys’ soccer (football to them) shirts in bright yellow and purple and say Kamloops on them, how neat was that to see.
There mode of transportation for most is by bicycle, they carry each other, water, chickens, benches, anything they need to transport they do, as well as just for the pleasure, as vehicles are expensive and no one can afford them. The bicycles are older, with carrying racks and often big adult ones not small ones but the children readily adapt and zoom everywhere with them. When we arrived on site we had a group of men introduce themselves who were going to direct us and keep the project flowing. The structure of the centre is built of brick and today we were putting the frame up for the roof. This was hard to believe everything done by ropes and people power it is always a team effort we really helped there today everyone jumping in. We also dug a ditch with a pic axe and shovel good old manual labor but it felt so good and so right with everyone working together . Sad note on that was we had to fill it in because the authorities changed there mind where it should be placed. And another big hole had to be dug.
One of the most shocking things for most of us who went to the toilet was the kind of toilet it was an outhouse with a steel hole shaped like a key hole with two feet on it which you squatted down to do your business on you pack your own toilet paper or Kleenex because you never know if there will be any! Wish the kids could see this !!!
Merv found his grove with the guys and he took to the wheelbarrow hauling the dirt away, helping with the lifting of boards and enjoying the children which were many. I am so proud of him for coming on this trip. He too thought about how we take for granted in life that we have all the tools, and trucks available at home to make a job like this so easy here they have been working on this for 5 months and they are just at the roof the final stages which they hope to finish while we are here to help.
During the day we work, take a banana break, walk back to our hotel for a hot lunch, walk back ,to work, have another banana break which usually women deliver to us in a basket and these bananas are grown in nearby plantations. Just before the end of the day the tiles showed up in a big truck to do the roof and it was amazing we had women, with babies on the back, all of us, men workers, young boys, pitch in and pass the tiles to each other until that big truck was emptied the Rwandans love to sing and laugh and they did as we passed the tiles it was what Developing World Connections is all about even though we don’t speak the same language we are still connecting, people helping people.
I was so happy, I got to talk to the different woman who weave there baskets, and I also purchased some to bring home, I got to work shoveling dirt in making a trench, I got to have a lot of fun working with Peter (He will be graduating from his trade in carpentry he is very excited) who directed Ruth, Jenn, & I with the carpentry skills of using tools to cut, and shave the wood, measure and pile it back. It was great fun and we could tell he enjoyed teaching us. I got to hold a beautiful baby today, he was so cuddly and happy we all made him laugh and he giggled and we all melted. His mother was proud to share him with us. It is very important to Rwandans to have children and they think it is very sad if you don’t have any, they often ask you that question.
Merv and I just are so happy to be here and we are so Super happy Shannon and Lama have worked so hard to give us this amazing experience. Everyone should one day!
Ardell Fedorchuk
DWC Participants
Rwanda 2010
Gashora, Rwanda: The journey getting there
It’s 2:30 am Rwandan time, on Monday morning, September 6th. We are 9 hrs ahead of BC time and we are spending our first night in Kigali before we head to Gashora later today. It’s the first time I’ve slept with a mosquito net over the bed, but so far the mosquitos haven’t been too bad from what we can tell. That will likely change when we go to Gashora which is by a lake that has hippos and crocs in it. No swimming here!
We arrived into Kigali at about 3:00 pm Sunday, September 5th. It was a very long 2 days worth of travel from Kamloops, which started on Friday, September 3rd at noon. The flight into Kigali reminded me very much of flying into Kamloops – it looked very similar. We were greeted in Kigali with every single bag in much better shape than expected. It was with great joy that we saw every bag make the journey safely and all 15 of us team members had all of our clothes and donations without anything missing! I understand this is quite remarkable – especially considering the Air Canada reps in Kamloops found flight discrepancies between our tickets and the airline schedule!
Lana, myself and Shannon left Kamloops to Vancouver and met up there with Marlene, Jen, Ruth, Ardel, Merv, Kelsey, and Lauren. We then flew 9+ hours to London throughout the night. Sleep came difficult. I felt like I was Air Canada’s personal pill pusher as I distributed little blue sleeping pills amongst the team members. We got to London on time, but all quite weary from a long, sleepless night. We met up with Sarah, Mirae and Amy (all from Vancouver). We didn’t want to miss any opportunity though to explore London while on a 10 hour layover, so we checked our carry on into lockers and took the tube, or the “underground” and rode to Picadilly Circus.
We promptly went for some traditional English fish n’ chips and beer and although it was lunch time in England, it was only 3:30 or 4:00 am back home. Yum – fish n’ chips for breakfast!!! After some fuel, we went and did a whirl wind sightseeing tour to Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Big Ben and just enjoyed the architecture and people of London until it was time to take the tube back to the airport for the next leg of the trip – another overnight flight to Ethiopia (7 hrs +). This flight wasn’t quite as comfortable and I’ve gotten quite spoiled to the newer planes with individual tv monitors. This plane was quite old and the attendants were kind enough to brighten the lights and feed us dinner at about 1:30 am. Once in Ethiopia, we went for a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange juice, toast and jam, and coffee – from a wonderful espresso machine with steamed milk! The best sight I’d seen all day. Plates upon plates of toasted baguette came to the table. There must have been 6 or 7 loaves sliced up. A lot of bread!!! It sure tasted amazing and the coffee was fantastic. However, after the one pot of steamed milk and one coffee each, it seemed like they ran out when we asked for more. We laughed about them having to go milk a goat. Which may have actually happened, because when we asked another waiter about 30 minutes later, he was kind enough to bring us some steamed milk and more coffee.
I used my first squat toilet in the Ethiopian airport. It was very clean, and it was right beside the female prayer room. There was this cool tub in the bathroom which I assumed was to wash your feet before praying. I found out later the other washrooms in the airport were western style toilets, but they always had line ups, and the very clean squat toilet didn’t, so it was all good.
One more flight – last flight of the day to Kigali. Just a short skip and a hop of 2.5 hrs. However, there was an unknown stop in Uganda for about an hour. Oh well, by this time although we were all antsy to get to our final destination, there is not much that can be done, so we just chilled. We flew into Kigali during a major rain burst ( it is the rainy season and it certainly has rained the past couple of days), but it was beautiful. As I mentioned, despite the cynicism, all bags arrived in tact so it was cause for celebration. Lama and Claudine met us with a little truck and it took two trips to load all of our luggage and us to the hotel. It’s a good thing half the luggage was donations or it would have been awfully embarrassing! In Rwanda, we met up with our final team members – Warren from England and Karol from France.
The first impression of Rwanda was amazing – very clean. I didn’t see any garbage or litter and Lama told us that the use of plastic bags was illegal in the country (hence why they took them away from us when they saw us in the airport). Pretty proactive for a country such as Rwanda I’d say.
We checked into La Palisse – fancy on Rwanda terms and in our terms probably a 2 star hotel. However, it was clean, the thought of sleeping horizontally on a bed was very appealing by this time, and the best part……hot showers!!! We were so delighted to have hot showers after that long journey and we were all incredibly happy and content by this time. We cleaned up, went to exchange some money and then to a fantastic Moroccan restaurant. PS. Forgot to tell you that before we went to the restaurant, we were out and a few of us girls had to go to the washroom – we went and used the public washroom and when we came out discovered we had to pay 100 francs…that’s about .25 cents and obviously well worth it.
Anyway, back to the Moroccan restaurant – it was down the road from “Hotel Rwanda” and it was fantastic. We sat outdoors in the most beautiful outdoor setting with a ton of lights and candles hanging from trees, on tables, etc. Most expensive meal was 5600 francs which is about $12. It was absolutely fantastic. Shannon is spoiling us – she keeps needing to remind us that this will change soon as we get to Gashora. After eating, we were intending to go get supplies and water from the market, but after a full stomach, we were all exhausted. It was a long 2 days, we are very content and tomorrow will bring a full day doing our orientation, going to the genocide museum which will be an emotional experience prior to leaving for Gashora. It is also the presidential inauguration in Kigali with 15 heads of African states in attendance, so I’m sure tomorrow will be a very exciting, full day filled with excitement and new memories.
Now, it’s time to go back to sleep prior to an early start……good night!
Lisa Fuller
DWC Participant
Rwanda 2010
We arrived into Kigali at about 3:00 pm Sunday, September 5th. It was a very long 2 days worth of travel from Kamloops, which started on Friday, September 3rd at noon. The flight into Kigali reminded me very much of flying into Kamloops – it looked very similar. We were greeted in Kigali with every single bag in much better shape than expected. It was with great joy that we saw every bag make the journey safely and all 15 of us team members had all of our clothes and donations without anything missing! I understand this is quite remarkable – especially considering the Air Canada reps in Kamloops found flight discrepancies between our tickets and the airline schedule!
Lana, myself and Shannon left Kamloops to Vancouver and met up there with Marlene, Jen, Ruth, Ardel, Merv, Kelsey, and Lauren. We then flew 9+ hours to London throughout the night. Sleep came difficult. I felt like I was Air Canada’s personal pill pusher as I distributed little blue sleeping pills amongst the team members. We got to London on time, but all quite weary from a long, sleepless night. We met up with Sarah, Mirae and Amy (all from Vancouver). We didn’t want to miss any opportunity though to explore London while on a 10 hour layover, so we checked our carry on into lockers and took the tube, or the “underground” and rode to Picadilly Circus.
We promptly went for some traditional English fish n’ chips and beer and although it was lunch time in England, it was only 3:30 or 4:00 am back home. Yum – fish n’ chips for breakfast!!! After some fuel, we went and did a whirl wind sightseeing tour to Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Big Ben and just enjoyed the architecture and people of London until it was time to take the tube back to the airport for the next leg of the trip – another overnight flight to Ethiopia (7 hrs +). This flight wasn’t quite as comfortable and I’ve gotten quite spoiled to the newer planes with individual tv monitors. This plane was quite old and the attendants were kind enough to brighten the lights and feed us dinner at about 1:30 am. Once in Ethiopia, we went for a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, orange juice, toast and jam, and coffee – from a wonderful espresso machine with steamed milk! The best sight I’d seen all day. Plates upon plates of toasted baguette came to the table. There must have been 6 or 7 loaves sliced up. A lot of bread!!! It sure tasted amazing and the coffee was fantastic. However, after the one pot of steamed milk and one coffee each, it seemed like they ran out when we asked for more. We laughed about them having to go milk a goat. Which may have actually happened, because when we asked another waiter about 30 minutes later, he was kind enough to bring us some steamed milk and more coffee.
I used my first squat toilet in the Ethiopian airport. It was very clean, and it was right beside the female prayer room. There was this cool tub in the bathroom which I assumed was to wash your feet before praying. I found out later the other washrooms in the airport were western style toilets, but they always had line ups, and the very clean squat toilet didn’t, so it was all good.
One more flight – last flight of the day to Kigali. Just a short skip and a hop of 2.5 hrs. However, there was an unknown stop in Uganda for about an hour. Oh well, by this time although we were all antsy to get to our final destination, there is not much that can be done, so we just chilled. We flew into Kigali during a major rain burst ( it is the rainy season and it certainly has rained the past couple of days), but it was beautiful. As I mentioned, despite the cynicism, all bags arrived in tact so it was cause for celebration. Lama and Claudine met us with a little truck and it took two trips to load all of our luggage and us to the hotel. It’s a good thing half the luggage was donations or it would have been awfully embarrassing! In Rwanda, we met up with our final team members – Warren from England and Karol from France.
The first impression of Rwanda was amazing – very clean. I didn’t see any garbage or litter and Lama told us that the use of plastic bags was illegal in the country (hence why they took them away from us when they saw us in the airport). Pretty proactive for a country such as Rwanda I’d say.
We checked into La Palisse – fancy on Rwanda terms and in our terms probably a 2 star hotel. However, it was clean, the thought of sleeping horizontally on a bed was very appealing by this time, and the best part……hot showers!!! We were so delighted to have hot showers after that long journey and we were all incredibly happy and content by this time. We cleaned up, went to exchange some money and then to a fantastic Moroccan restaurant. PS. Forgot to tell you that before we went to the restaurant, we were out and a few of us girls had to go to the washroom – we went and used the public washroom and when we came out discovered we had to pay 100 francs…that’s about .25 cents and obviously well worth it.
Anyway, back to the Moroccan restaurant – it was down the road from “Hotel Rwanda” and it was fantastic. We sat outdoors in the most beautiful outdoor setting with a ton of lights and candles hanging from trees, on tables, etc. Most expensive meal was 5600 francs which is about $12. It was absolutely fantastic. Shannon is spoiling us – she keeps needing to remind us that this will change soon as we get to Gashora. After eating, we were intending to go get supplies and water from the market, but after a full stomach, we were all exhausted. It was a long 2 days, we are very content and tomorrow will bring a full day doing our orientation, going to the genocide museum which will be an emotional experience prior to leaving for Gashora. It is also the presidential inauguration in Kigali with 15 heads of African states in attendance, so I’m sure tomorrow will be a very exciting, full day filled with excitement and new memories.
Now, it’s time to go back to sleep prior to an early start……good night!
Lisa Fuller
DWC Participant
Rwanda 2010
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