I could kill for a BBQ steak right about now though! Oh - and a drink with ice in it! :-)
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
Showing posts with label Building Bridges with Rwanda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Building Bridges with Rwanda. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
February 19: An overcast but productive workday
It was an overcast day today, but we were thankful for that since we needed to paint the outside windows of the kitchen center. We got a lot done in spite of us needing to share paint, paint brushes, ladders, stools and rags. We need to finish up tomorrow as Friday we're planning to drop our donations at the school and medical center.
The weather here is much like Kamloops in the summer. Hot and dry. It is weird looking at the sun in the middle of the day though because it's directly above usage there's almost no shadow. The mosquitoes aren't very bad either. I find them worse when I go camping back home.
I could kill for a BBQ steak right about now though! Oh - and a drink with ice in it! :-)
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
I could kill for a BBQ steak right about now though! Oh - and a drink with ice in it! :-)
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
February 11: A wonderful start on the project
It was a another wonderful day. Each day on our way to our work we are joined with more you children who run to meet us and hold our hands as we walked. I brought a soccer ball today for the kids to play with. You would've thought I had given them the world.
Our team continued to install windows, and though there we a few cuts along the way, we got most of them done.
We decided to walk to their village after work to have a beer before going back. We stayed too long and got caught in a huge thunder shower. We were pretty wet by the time we got home.
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
 |
| Todd with some of the local children |
Our team continued to install windows, and though there we a few cuts along the way, we got most of them done.
 |
| The Covaga weavers |
We decided to walk to their village after work to have a beer before going back. We stayed too long and got caught in a huge thunder shower. We were pretty wet by the time we got home.
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
Monday, February 10, 2014
February 9: Exploring Kigali & Settling In
We stayed in Kigali last night and got the chance to meet with the people we will be working with. The rooms in the hotel we large but very few furnishings. There was a tub but no shower. Some of the other rooms had no running water though.
We had boiled eggs, potatoes and coffee for breakfast. We all climbed in a small van to go to the main city so we could get our water we need for the two weeks. We had a chance to walk around and get a taste of what the city is like. The buildings are quite new and the streets are very clean. The city is much larger than I had imagined. Many people travel on motorcycles and the streets are crazy with drivers passing each other at any opportunity they get. One thing that struck me was that almost everyone was dressed so nicely. There were a lot of people who carried cell phones. The people were so eager to say hi or smile as we walked by.
We visited the Genocide Memorial and it was a an extremely emotional experience. So many lives were lost needlessly. The Rwanda's have been able to overcome this atrocity and move ahead with their lives. I'd suggest that if you get a chance, learn as much as you can about the genocide. It's hard to believe it happened only 20 years ago.
Next, we traveled to Gashora where we are working on our project. The resort we are staying at is very pretty and is situated beside a very large lake. We each have our own rooms. It's a 12' x 12' room with only a bed and a resin chair. We had a traditional dinner of rice, potatoes, vegetables and chicken. They grow pineapples in the fields beside our rooms. They were delicious! There bathroom facilities are extremely outdated. Sometimes no water and mostly cold water.
The beer here we found is very good. Primes is the name. They come in large 720ml bottles. Probably had too many last night!
The team we are with is a lot of fun. Our Rwandan helpers are so funny and helpful. They all know at least three languages. Their English is very good.
All of the food we've had so far has been quite bland. Not a lot of spices are used and the meals contain a lot of starch. Most families only eat once per day. Lama, head of Building Bridges with Rwanda, said that cooking is more of a chore for them so there's not a lot of effort put into the cuisine. He compared this to the European countries where they love to cook and eat.
It's about a 2km walk to the place where we are working on the Covaga Innovation Centre project. It has rained both nights, but seems to clear up in the morning.
Well, it's time to head out and get some breakfast before we walk to out to the job site.
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
We had boiled eggs, potatoes and coffee for breakfast. We all climbed in a small van to go to the main city so we could get our water we need for the two weeks. We had a chance to walk around and get a taste of what the city is like. The buildings are quite new and the streets are very clean. The city is much larger than I had imagined. Many people travel on motorcycles and the streets are crazy with drivers passing each other at any opportunity they get. One thing that struck me was that almost everyone was dressed so nicely. There were a lot of people who carried cell phones. The people were so eager to say hi or smile as we walked by.
We visited the Genocide Memorial and it was a an extremely emotional experience. So many lives were lost needlessly. The Rwanda's have been able to overcome this atrocity and move ahead with their lives. I'd suggest that if you get a chance, learn as much as you can about the genocide. It's hard to believe it happened only 20 years ago.
Next, we traveled to Gashora where we are working on our project. The resort we are staying at is very pretty and is situated beside a very large lake. We each have our own rooms. It's a 12' x 12' room with only a bed and a resin chair. We had a traditional dinner of rice, potatoes, vegetables and chicken. They grow pineapples in the fields beside our rooms. They were delicious! There bathroom facilities are extremely outdated. Sometimes no water and mostly cold water.
The beer here we found is very good. Primes is the name. They come in large 720ml bottles. Probably had too many last night!
 |
| The group enjoying a beer together |
The team we are with is a lot of fun. Our Rwandan helpers are so funny and helpful. They all know at least three languages. Their English is very good.
All of the food we've had so far has been quite bland. Not a lot of spices are used and the meals contain a lot of starch. Most families only eat once per day. Lama, head of Building Bridges with Rwanda, said that cooking is more of a chore for them so there's not a lot of effort put into the cuisine. He compared this to the European countries where they love to cook and eat.
It's about a 2km walk to the place where we are working on the Covaga Innovation Centre project. It has rained both nights, but seems to clear up in the morning.
Well, it's time to head out and get some breakfast before we walk to out to the job site.
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
Monday, February 3, 2014
February 3: Destination - Gashora, Rwanda
I'm volunteering with a group of people through Developing World Connections in Gashora, Rwanda, on a development project with host partner, Building Bridges with Rwanda.
This project will increase economical opportunities for women by constructing weaving studios at the Covaga Innovation Centre in Gashora. The Covaga is a cooperative of weavers who use the water hyacinth plant to make and sell beautiful woven goods. Weavers can make $6/day, twice the average laborer or mason's daily wage. Once completed, the centre will have a showroom, weaving studios, kitchen/restaurant, and community space.
There will be eight of us traveling together. I have only met one, Richard Srepel, the Team Leader. My adventure begins Friday, February 7th at 6:00am. I will be flying from Kamloops to Vancouver to Montreal to Brussels to Kigali. I will arrive in Kigali on Saturday, February 8th at 8:00pm. Rwanda is 10 hours ahead of BC time.
I will try to blog daily so stay tuned for more posts!
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
This project will increase economical opportunities for women by constructing weaving studios at the Covaga Innovation Centre in Gashora. The Covaga is a cooperative of weavers who use the water hyacinth plant to make and sell beautiful woven goods. Weavers can make $6/day, twice the average laborer or mason's daily wage. Once completed, the centre will have a showroom, weaving studios, kitchen/restaurant, and community space.
There will be eight of us traveling together. I have only met one, Richard Srepel, the Team Leader. My adventure begins Friday, February 7th at 6:00am. I will be flying from Kamloops to Vancouver to Montreal to Brussels to Kigali. I will arrive in Kigali on Saturday, February 8th at 8:00pm. Rwanda is 10 hours ahead of BC time.
I will try to blog daily so stay tuned for more posts!
Todd Drake
DWC Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, February 2014
Volunteer reflections: Shattering volunteer skepticism
It seems like a growing fad nowadays, to volunteer abroad and help the underprivileged. To give them a school or a house, and change the world. But this troubled me, and continues to do so. The idea that “first world” individuals who have “immense resources, astounding knowledge and a great gauge of the world” can go in to less developed parts of the world with a sense of entitlement and responsibility to help the poor troubles me. This troubles me because it isn’t true. It strips those in “poor third world countries” of their voice, of their individuality and their stories. It creates this asymmetrical relationship between the volunteers and the locals, where the volunteers feel a sense of power, whether conscious or not, over the locals as if they have the “responsibility” to help them because they cannot help themselves.
Having no idea what Africa was like except for the arguably exploitative commercials guilting viewers into donating, I wanted to see for myself, what “Africa” was all about. And so I wanted to go abroad. But I was held back by my previously mentioned suspicions of such endeavours. I was worried I would be patronized for doing more than I actually did. I didn’t want to be applauded for changing the world when I know I didn’t.
But writing this nearly nine months after I returned from Rwanda, I still have nothing but wonderful feelings from my experience. I am glad that my volunteer experience to Rwanda was anything but my expressed concerns, and I applaud Developing World Connections for making their volunteer experiences anything but that.
And I am so glad I did not let my fear or negative beliefs about this form of volunteerism stop me from embarking on this long and incredibly empowering journey.
On May 3rd, 2013, I set off to Rwanda for my first ever-travelling experience. The project took place in a rural village Gashora. Our team was responsible for helping with construction work on the Covaga Innovation Centre. The innovation centre was a cooperative that was started up by Building Bridges with Rwanda and Developing World Connections. Rwandan women who joined would weave baskets and then sell them through the centre. The women kept 90% of what they earned and 10% went go back to the cooperative to continue to help it grow. Our job was to help with the construction of the left wing of the innovation centre.
As we learned early on from the founder of BBR, malnutrition was the biggest problem in Rwanda. It was a combination of many things – many people couldn’t afford to eat nutritious food. For some, they worked such long hours they didn’t have time to eat. An underlying factor that made this malnutrition such a hard problem to fix was the fact that Rwanda does not have a food culture. For example, a country like Germany is famous for it’s bratwurst sausage, a place like South India for it’s dosa and sambaar. Rwanda in turn, does not have a “staple food” and events such as “dinner time” or “eating out” aren’t fads as they are in Canada, or other parts of the world. Therefore, most people eat just to feel full so they can continue to work. They are therefore less concerned about consuming nutritious food.
The left wing was going to be used as a restaurant as well as a place to hold cooking classes where locals could learn which vegetables were nutritious, how to cook food without losing all the nutrients and how to make kitchen gardens.
I realize that the money I spent on this trip could have been donated straight to this project. Skilled labourers could have been hired to do the construction instead of novices such as our group who were plastering for our first time ever on this project. They would have probably been faster and better at the work.
I also realized that the part I was playing in the development and rebuilding of this country was very small, very minuscule.
I knew I didn’t have the privilege of feeling good about myself for helping these people, or doing something worth applauding. I wasn’t physically capable of doing the kind of skilled labour the professionals could, I wasn’t smart enough to come up with definitive solutions to help with malnutrition or economic redevelopment.
I decided the biggest contribution I had to give was to dignify this nation, to bring their stories back home with me and keep them alive, to do the most I could with everything I had by making my eight hours a day on the work site count.
So that is what I did. I didn’t change the world. I didn’t fix Africa. I didn’t do anything worthy of recognition. But I opened my eyes and got everything I could from my time in Rwanda. I learned as much as I could – whether it was construction related such as building scaffolding, plastering walls, and mixing cement. Or about things deeper, such as the heartbreaking struggle many of my new Rwandan friends experienced due to the 1994 genocide. I did as much construction as I could. Listened to as many stories as I could and told my own stories whenever I was asked. I shattered this homogeneous image of "Africa" for myself that many North Americans continue to hold. And all I can say is I dignified this group for myself and whoever else I speak to about my trip. I brought memories of my friends back with me. I spoke of the work ethic of all the skilled labourers, the innovative ways our project manager made use of the resources, the intricate and complicated past that meshed into the present, the powerful souls of the local Rwandans, and the warm comforting love from all the Covaga ladies.
I was more than impressed with DWC and everything the program offered. I appreciated the transparency from the coordinators; they were very open with a breakdown of our donation and trip. They didn’t patronize us, or make us feel like we had “saved Africa”. They were aware at how important it was for us to learn about this population and hear people’s stories and tried to give us the most opportunities possible to meet and interact with locals.
So I have DWC to thank for opening my eyes to great initiatives that believe we have just as much to learn from others, as we have to teach them. That believe that our job is to connect with people from all over the world in a symmetrical and deeper way in order to learn from them as opposed to help them. And that you can’t change the world or save the poor in a short month, but you can do something, something small. And this small gesture of love and vulnerability that you can offer to another is a step in the right direction.
Nilum Panesar
DWC U30 Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, May 2013
Having no idea what Africa was like except for the arguably exploitative commercials guilting viewers into donating, I wanted to see for myself, what “Africa” was all about. And so I wanted to go abroad. But I was held back by my previously mentioned suspicions of such endeavours. I was worried I would be patronized for doing more than I actually did. I didn’t want to be applauded for changing the world when I know I didn’t.
But writing this nearly nine months after I returned from Rwanda, I still have nothing but wonderful feelings from my experience. I am glad that my volunteer experience to Rwanda was anything but my expressed concerns, and I applaud Developing World Connections for making their volunteer experiences anything but that.
And I am so glad I did not let my fear or negative beliefs about this form of volunteerism stop me from embarking on this long and incredibly empowering journey.
On May 3rd, 2013, I set off to Rwanda for my first ever-travelling experience. The project took place in a rural village Gashora. Our team was responsible for helping with construction work on the Covaga Innovation Centre. The innovation centre was a cooperative that was started up by Building Bridges with Rwanda and Developing World Connections. Rwandan women who joined would weave baskets and then sell them through the centre. The women kept 90% of what they earned and 10% went go back to the cooperative to continue to help it grow. Our job was to help with the construction of the left wing of the innovation centre.
As we learned early on from the founder of BBR, malnutrition was the biggest problem in Rwanda. It was a combination of many things – many people couldn’t afford to eat nutritious food. For some, they worked such long hours they didn’t have time to eat. An underlying factor that made this malnutrition such a hard problem to fix was the fact that Rwanda does not have a food culture. For example, a country like Germany is famous for it’s bratwurst sausage, a place like South India for it’s dosa and sambaar. Rwanda in turn, does not have a “staple food” and events such as “dinner time” or “eating out” aren’t fads as they are in Canada, or other parts of the world. Therefore, most people eat just to feel full so they can continue to work. They are therefore less concerned about consuming nutritious food.
The left wing was going to be used as a restaurant as well as a place to hold cooking classes where locals could learn which vegetables were nutritious, how to cook food without losing all the nutrients and how to make kitchen gardens.
I realize that the money I spent on this trip could have been donated straight to this project. Skilled labourers could have been hired to do the construction instead of novices such as our group who were plastering for our first time ever on this project. They would have probably been faster and better at the work.
I also realized that the part I was playing in the development and rebuilding of this country was very small, very minuscule.
I knew I didn’t have the privilege of feeling good about myself for helping these people, or doing something worth applauding. I wasn’t physically capable of doing the kind of skilled labour the professionals could, I wasn’t smart enough to come up with definitive solutions to help with malnutrition or economic redevelopment.
I decided the biggest contribution I had to give was to dignify this nation, to bring their stories back home with me and keep them alive, to do the most I could with everything I had by making my eight hours a day on the work site count.
So that is what I did. I didn’t change the world. I didn’t fix Africa. I didn’t do anything worthy of recognition. But I opened my eyes and got everything I could from my time in Rwanda. I learned as much as I could – whether it was construction related such as building scaffolding, plastering walls, and mixing cement. Or about things deeper, such as the heartbreaking struggle many of my new Rwandan friends experienced due to the 1994 genocide. I did as much construction as I could. Listened to as many stories as I could and told my own stories whenever I was asked. I shattered this homogeneous image of "Africa" for myself that many North Americans continue to hold. And all I can say is I dignified this group for myself and whoever else I speak to about my trip. I brought memories of my friends back with me. I spoke of the work ethic of all the skilled labourers, the innovative ways our project manager made use of the resources, the intricate and complicated past that meshed into the present, the powerful souls of the local Rwandans, and the warm comforting love from all the Covaga ladies.
I was more than impressed with DWC and everything the program offered. I appreciated the transparency from the coordinators; they were very open with a breakdown of our donation and trip. They didn’t patronize us, or make us feel like we had “saved Africa”. They were aware at how important it was for us to learn about this population and hear people’s stories and tried to give us the most opportunities possible to meet and interact with locals.
So I have DWC to thank for opening my eyes to great initiatives that believe we have just as much to learn from others, as we have to teach them. That believe that our job is to connect with people from all over the world in a symmetrical and deeper way in order to learn from them as opposed to help them. And that you can’t change the world or save the poor in a short month, but you can do something, something small. And this small gesture of love and vulnerability that you can offer to another is a step in the right direction.
Nilum Panesar
DWC U30 Volunteer Participant
Rwanda, May 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
October 14: Day One on the Job Site
What an incredible day! Our day began with a 20 min. walk to the job site while our fearless leader took a motorcycle taxi with our head lead Dougie to get the job site prepared.
We arrived and inspected the site. Wow, we had 3 floors that needed to be leveled and stones applied over top before we can apply to complete the concrete floor. We knew it was going to be a tough slugging day.
We formed conga lines to move the stones faster from the rock pile to the building floor. We quickly realized how embracing the locals where of our presence and they joined into our conga line to help. Even the mother with babies strapped to their back. This village opened up to us with open arms. We had a very special day working along side them. At times we were singing together or learning each others languages by teaching words. Very special moments along the day.
Our lunch took us to a local restaurant in town called Lakeside. Far from being beside a lake. However, we enjoyed another very good African lunch of beans, rice, chips, pasta, spinach and pineapples for dessert.
After lunch we had the opportunity to understanding the Covaga Co-op which is a Weaving Co-op where 61 women and 1 man are members and sell their incredibly beautiful baskets and purses. We had the member present thank us for coming and helping build the kitchen for their site. These members spend countless hours weaving mainly baskets and they receive 90% of the sale price. The remaining 10% goes to the co-op for operations/administrations. One bowl/basket will take 2 days to create and will sell for 7500 francs ($11 CDN). The baskets are sold mainly to the groups who come to help the village, some locals and tourists.
Our day ended with a great dinner outdoors and a camp fire. It was newbie night for the campfire stick. This is where we stand in front of the group and share our thoughts from the day. All of the 7 new people who have not participated in a DWC trip before and most never to a third world country were blown away by the experience of the day to work along side the local residence to help build them a better future.
We are all looking forward to tackling day two...more to come!
Marianne Thompson
DWC Participant
Rwanda, October 2013
We arrived and inspected the site. Wow, we had 3 floors that needed to be leveled and stones applied over top before we can apply to complete the concrete floor. We knew it was going to be a tough slugging day.
We formed conga lines to move the stones faster from the rock pile to the building floor. We quickly realized how embracing the locals where of our presence and they joined into our conga line to help. Even the mother with babies strapped to their back. This village opened up to us with open arms. We had a very special day working along side them. At times we were singing together or learning each others languages by teaching words. Very special moments along the day.
Our lunch took us to a local restaurant in town called Lakeside. Far from being beside a lake. However, we enjoyed another very good African lunch of beans, rice, chips, pasta, spinach and pineapples for dessert.
After lunch we had the opportunity to understanding the Covaga Co-op which is a Weaving Co-op where 61 women and 1 man are members and sell their incredibly beautiful baskets and purses. We had the member present thank us for coming and helping build the kitchen for their site. These members spend countless hours weaving mainly baskets and they receive 90% of the sale price. The remaining 10% goes to the co-op for operations/administrations. One bowl/basket will take 2 days to create and will sell for 7500 francs ($11 CDN). The baskets are sold mainly to the groups who come to help the village, some locals and tourists.
Our day ended with a great dinner outdoors and a camp fire. It was newbie night for the campfire stick. This is where we stand in front of the group and share our thoughts from the day. All of the 7 new people who have not participated in a DWC trip before and most never to a third world country were blown away by the experience of the day to work along side the local residence to help build them a better future.
We are all looking forward to tackling day two...more to come!
Marianne Thompson
DWC Participant
Rwanda, October 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
October 13: Arriving in Gashora
Good evening, we are all tucked in safe and sound at our new home. What we thought would only be an hour trek from Kigali turned into us arriving at Gashora at 3pm.
We had an interesting drive from the city. Many of the locals we walking along the road side in their Sunday best. We believe they must have been returning home from church. Three quarters of the drive was on a two lane paved road. This road was put in 4 years ago. We then turned on a road called "African Message Road" by our guide. It was a dirt road with pot holes. Compared to the dirt roads some of us have travelled on in other African countries it was pretty smooth.
Even though Rwanda is the poorest country in Africa, we had such an encouraging drive. We saw many houses be build. Many of high quality construction with doors, windows, columns out front as well as porches. We saw factories being built in these remote village which will bring jobs to these communities and improve the quality of the locals lives.
Even though we have accommodations with walls and doors, many of us were reminiscing about our accommodations we had in Tanzania. Actually missing the opportunity to sleep with just a mosquitoes net between us and nature. We now have a mosquitoes around our beds in our rooms with 4 walls, electricity and running water.
Our first team dinner! We had a fabulous authenic Africa meal on African time. (Long service! Nothing is fast in Africa.)
Sandy taking a picture of our special guest Raymond and his bride to be Maria! Raymond was our tour guide in previous builds in Tanzania and came to visit us during our short stay in Kigali! It was so great to see them!
Our fearless leader Rick addressing the team of our exciting build!
Lama from Building Bridges with Rwanda and Julio from Calgary
Our guide Steven with me!
We did not get a chance to visit the job site and the locals after we arrived. We are all so excited to get there tomorrow morning to inspect the site, set the plan and get hard at work. We expect tomorrow to be low 30's in temperature and the humidity does not seem as high here as Tanzania. Fingers crossed it's not too hot for our first day!
The Internet is not working where we are staying so we will do our best to keep you updated and have pictures posted.
Wish us luck for our first day....
Marianne Thompson
DWC Participant
Rwanda, October 2013
We had an interesting drive from the city. Many of the locals we walking along the road side in their Sunday best. We believe they must have been returning home from church. Three quarters of the drive was on a two lane paved road. This road was put in 4 years ago. We then turned on a road called "African Message Road" by our guide. It was a dirt road with pot holes. Compared to the dirt roads some of us have travelled on in other African countries it was pretty smooth.
Even though Rwanda is the poorest country in Africa, we had such an encouraging drive. We saw many houses be build. Many of high quality construction with doors, windows, columns out front as well as porches. We saw factories being built in these remote village which will bring jobs to these communities and improve the quality of the locals lives.
Even though we have accommodations with walls and doors, many of us were reminiscing about our accommodations we had in Tanzania. Actually missing the opportunity to sleep with just a mosquitoes net between us and nature. We now have a mosquitoes around our beds in our rooms with 4 walls, electricity and running water.
Our first team dinner! We had a fabulous authenic Africa meal on African time. (Long service! Nothing is fast in Africa.)
Sandy taking a picture of our special guest Raymond and his bride to be Maria! Raymond was our tour guide in previous builds in Tanzania and came to visit us during our short stay in Kigali! It was so great to see them!
Our fearless leader Rick addressing the team of our exciting build!
Lama from Building Bridges with Rwanda and Julio from Calgary
Our guide Steven with me!
We did not get a chance to visit the job site and the locals after we arrived. We are all so excited to get there tomorrow morning to inspect the site, set the plan and get hard at work. We expect tomorrow to be low 30's in temperature and the humidity does not seem as high here as Tanzania. Fingers crossed it's not too hot for our first day!
The Internet is not working where we are staying so we will do our best to keep you updated and have pictures posted.
Wish us luck for our first day....
Marianne Thompson
DWC Participant
Rwanda, October 2013
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