June 1st: Nearing the end

Things are still going excellently. Tomorrow will be our last day of work; we will have a community feast to say goodbye to our friends and then the team will be headed with Lama to Kigali. 

It will be hard to say goodbye but we have made a number of friends that we will keep in touch with via Facebook.

Jim Boyle

DWC Team Leader

Rwanda, May 2012

May 22nd: Safari time

Haven’t posted in a while so a lot has happened…….

We went to Kigali for the weekend after our first week of work because we wanted some more time to check out the city. We stayed in a Youth Hostel called “Discover Rwanda”, it is run by an organization called AEGIS, which basically means it is run partly by genocide survivors. It seems like a pretty cool organization that runs all sorts of programs that support survivors from all backgrounds. It was nice to stay in a youth hostel because of the other youth as well, it was interesting to meet other travellers and learn about all the good spots to check out. We ended up going to a club on Friday night called KBC which was a lot like a club in Vancouver just with better dancing. Rogers and Cedric came out with us too and showed us how Rwandans party, and as a result we didn’t really get going on Saturday until about 2pm. Lama came and took us to a local market that had lots of used tools, used clothes and shoes, as well as spices, flours, and dried fish and meat. Later that night, Lama took us along with William, Cedric, and Rogers, to an old school reggae bar, which was pretty entertaining to say the least. Sunday we headed back to Gashora, which we soon realized feels like home.

The next week was a hard week of hot work. A few team members worked on the roof covering the patio of the Covaga weaving house. The “sky team”, as we call them, removed old sticks coving the patio and helped to build a new structure to support the new tin roof. Mayor is the contractor working on the roof and is now a part of our team, he quickly has planned and constructed a waterproof cover for the women so they can sit outside and weave, even when it is raining (which at this time of year is at least once everyday it seems). The rest of us worked mostly on digging holes moving huge rocks around and prepping the borders of the property for a new fence that will keep the chickens and goats out of the fields where we have planted onions along with the already planted cabbage and carrots (soon to be watermelon as well). It seems to be getting hotter everyday and the work gets harder, but the further we get on projects the more exciting it gets, to see what we have accomplished. Today the “sky team” painted the roof and it looks like they are pretty much done!!! Which is pretty amazing. We also put in and cemented a large section of fence posts.

This last weekend we woke up even earlier than we are used to during the week (which is really early) and met our safari driver, Claude, so that we could start our 2.5 hour journey toward Akagera Park. We knew that the park hosted a large array of animals but I don’t think we were prepared for the fields full of Giraffes and Zebras hanging out together, and the hippos and crocs swimming side by side. We also saw a bunch of Pumba looking like wart hogs and some bare bummed baboons. It was pretty crazy to see the open plains as the country is definitely known as the “land of thousand hills” for a reason. I often forget I am in the middle of Africa while I am here, because it already feels like home in Gashora, but the game in the park definitely snapped me back into the reality of where I am!

We have only been here for just over two weeks, but it definitely feels like a lot longer than that. The friends we have made so far, Rogers, William, Mayor, Cedric etc., will definitely not be easily forgotten. We are already thinking of ways we can come back or maybe bring them to us for a visit. I am excited for the next two weeks here but I am also trying to savour every moment, as I am nowhere near ready for it to end!

On Saturday I am going Gorilla trekking….wish me luck!

TaraCrone
DWC Team Member
Rwanda, May 2012

May 10th: Getting to know some locals

We arrived in Gashora on Sunday with Lama and Cedric . Our hotel, La Palisse, is on the lake and has amazingly perfect landscaped grounds full with pineapple plants and greenery of all kinds. The grounds sit on a beautiful lake shore, and apparently there are hippos and crocodiles in the lake but I havn’t seen one yet, BUT I WILL! I won’t leave without seeing a Hippo! Our rooms are in a building a little ways up a hill and they are a little remnant of a convent, but in quaint fun kind of way. Lama and Cedric stayed over night with us here and then took the 1km walk into town where Covaga Women’s Initiative (cooperative) is. They introduced us to all of the women as well as two Rwandan University interns, Rogers and William, whom will be working with us at Covaga. We are really lucky to have them as they help us translate anything that we can’t sign to the children or to the women of Covaga. Rogers is a crazy guy who loves to talk about Rwanda, hip hop, and just life in general. Our fist day at lunch he spoke about the Rwandan heart and how he thinks it is a special heart that has the ability to forgive in a way that not many can, and although he has a lot of strong opinions, the Rwandan heart is one I definitely agree with. Forgiveness in any post conflict society is necessary for people to move forward and necessary for people to once again to live side by side, but there is also no denying that the people of Rwanda are very special.

The women have been very welcoming, they seem to warm up to us more and more each day. One day while we are waiting out the rain inside the newly built structure, one of them called me over. I thought she was going to show me how to weave but they just wanted to play with my hair! Which is great because I love having my hair played with, so what better way to pass the time. So far we have been working mostly in the field behind the building where they are growing a vegetable garden. The women work together in a row with hoes to overturn the soil, many of them with babies or youngsters tied on their backs with fabric. We try to keep up! We moved rocks and debris out of the way and for composting on the first day; on the second we measured out plots and transplanted onions; third we built a garden out of sticks and plastic that spells “Covaga” out in front of the building! Rogers said to us “ no one will ever forget who wrote Covaga”. I don’t know if that is true, but I know that I certainly will never forget. Today we dug holes for the posts of a new fence that will keep the goats out of the field.

Although the women are very welcoming, they are nothing compared to the children! We have acquired quite the fan club! The children meet us as we exit the hotel grounds and come up the hill, they work with us/watch us during the day, follow us when we go for lunch, and they walk us home at the end of the day! They love to yell “mazunga” which means white person! William tells us though that the president of Covaga is trying to teach them to call us friend in kinrwandan instead J. We have a few kids that are around a lot and we have gotten to know! One in particular, Odei or as we have named him "Big Dog", is pretty much always with us! He can most often be seen wearing our work gloves, one pair of our sunglasses and maybe even one of raincoats! He is pretty amazing and he seems to have a lot of say over the other children as well! We are not 100% sure of what his story is but we are pretty sure is Dad is in jail, and his mom committed suicide. From what we can tell he lives with an old man but again we can’t quite tell what the whole story is, but he has definitely become part of our little family here, which is hard because we cannot buy him food or give him water as this would single him out from the other children.

We are going to Kigali for the weekend after work tomorrow! We are going to explore the city a bit more and maybe see what the nightlife is like! Hopefully I will pick up so sick Rwandan dance moves!


TaraCrone
DWC Team Member
Rwanda, May 2012

May 2012: Student team gets a warm welcome to Gashora

Everything is going great, we've been warmly welcomed into Gashora by Covaga and the community. So far we have participated in some planting on the farm, worked on installing steel roofing for the center and have been working on a fence around the farmland (including making holes, cutting and painting metal beams, and implanting them in the ground with concrete). We are working with two Rwandan agricultural students; both of them are lots of fun. The work isn't always consistent; sometimes we are rained out and we occasionally have to wait for direction or materials (we're operating on so-called "Africa time").

The team dynamic has been good so far, everyone seems to get along well. A few people have been sick, but nothing serious, just stomach issues no doubt due to different food, environment etc. Everyone has been enjoying the local cuisine, which is about 95% carbs with a little bit of protein. It's interesting having a meal of potatoes, yams, rice, bananas and beans.

Last weekend we visited Kigali where we went out to a local club with our agro student friends, checked out the big market at Kimirongo and went to a reggae show. This week was back to work, but tomorrow we will be taking a day trip to Akagera National Park to see some animals. The prospect of seeing wild elephants and giraffes has everyone excited.

We've all started picking up local habits and customs, and have been working on our Kinyarwandan. Our conversations go something like this:

"Maramutse!" (Good morning!)

"Miriwe, amokoro?" (hello, how are you?)

"Nimesa!" (Well!)

At this point we run out of things to say, but the communication is a riot regardless.

Jim Boyle
DWC Team Leader
Rwanda, May 2012

May 7th: Arriving in Rwanda

After over 48 hours of travel we finally made it to Rwanda on Saturday. We ended up getting caught up in a storm in Chicago and had to sit on the tarmac for 2 hours, which caused us to miss our connecting flight in Zurich to Dubai. The airline re routed us through Frankfurt to Nairobi which was no big deal but when we got to Nairobi they weren’t sure where our plane to Kigali (the Capital of Rwanda) was and so we sat around for about six hours and let the Kenyans yell at the airline, eventually they “found” the plane and as we headed to the back to row 31 of the plane, which is where our tickets indicated that we should sit, we noticed that the plane only had 28 rows!! But they squeezed us in and found us seats, so no big deal; it’s all part of the experience J

Lama, the founder and head honcho of “Building Bridges with Rwanda”, the organization we are working with here, and his colleague Sedrick picked us up at the airport and showed us to our hotel for a quick freshen up! He then asked which of us wanted to join him to downtown as he had to help our team leader, Jim, pick up a cell phone. We all decided to join him for what we thought would be a bus ride, however before we knew it he had a caravan of motorcycles, or Motos, for us to taxi into the city centre. It was adventurous ride carving through cars and cutting people off, warning them with a honkhonk of course, and traveling at speeds I normally don’t even in a car, we made it (not with out my hand mark bruises on my drivers arms I’m sure).

Kigali is a beautiful city, it is clean and amazingly landscaped everywhere you look. There are huge roundabouts all throughout the city that remind me of Europe, and there palm trees lining the medians. The city is one of the cleanest I have seen, there are trash cans every where that say “help keep Kigali clean” and apparently the last Saturday of every month is dedicated to cleaning the city. Plastic bags are illegal, which is very cool because they often litter large cities in developing nations. Though all the statistics show that Rwanda suffers from great poverty, you wouldn’t really know it from cruising though streets of Kigali. Everyone tries their best to dress well and keep the streets and gardens looking immaculate. It wasn’t until our journey to our final destination of Gashora that we really started to see more intense signs of poverty.

On our way to Gashora we stopped at a Genocide Museum, which was extremely educational, beautiful and emotional. The museum was surrounded by beautiful gardens that all represented parts of the genocide, such as garden of self-protection, which was a garden of cactus. This was to represent that they needed to protect themselves as the international community failed to step in; a children’s garden filled with fruit trees as children are the fruit of life. As well as a fountain of rocks which represents reconciliation, each rock representing the rebuilding of Rwanda piece by piece.

After the museum we stopped at a former church that has been turned into a memorial site for the genocide. During the 100 day Genocide more than 5000 Tutsi people fled to this particular very small church to seek refuge, as in previous years churches had been protected, unfortunately many of priests were cooperating with the Hutu rebels, and most if not all of these 5000 Tutsis were killed in one day. Today, the church is filled with hundreds of skulls, pelvis bones, etc. laid out on display as a way not to forget. Blood and dirt stained clothing cover the walls and shoes are lined up by the front alter. It is an intense sight and extremely emotional to see first hand. The Sunday school building behind the church still has bloodstains on the wall from where they threw babies and children against it to kill them. It is impossible to comprehend and it is hard not to look at every single person here and wander what their story is, where they were during those 100 days in 1994, and how it has changed their lives.

The people here are so friendly and it is hard to understand where all their optimism comes from after learning about all that they have been through, but the more I talk to people the more I understand…..

We had our first day of work today so I will write more soon!!


TaraCrone
DWC Team Member
Rwanda, May 2012

July 16: Last few days in Gashora

~written July 2011 but unable to post due to poor internet connection in Rwanda

Our last days in Gashora were overwhelming and just flew by!

EXCITING NEWS! WE GOT THE FIRST WING OF THE COVAGA INNOVATION CENTRE COMPLETE! It took a lot of hard work from everyone; the Covaga women, the community volunteers, VCC, and we managed to help out a bit too! The last couple of work days saw us painting feverishly, carefully installing the glass into the windows and door frames, finishing up the setting of the floor and cleaning up the site. We enjoyed sharing lunch each day with the Covaga volunteers and our VCC friends! It was a great way to extend our bond with the Covaga women and encourage more cultural exchange. We have had some good giggles (usually the Covaga women laughing at us trying to speak Kinyarwandan! I would laugh too!) And we shared some good meals!

We have had a great couple of evenings here in Gashora, celebrating and enjoying each others' company before everyone goes their separate ways. We organized a hockey game for us to play with the Covaga women and other community members! It was a great evening topped off with a meal prepared by our very own work site manager in his home! We ate delicious cassava bread! We’ve also participated in some basketball games and a soccer game with teachers from two local schools. It was much fun and a great way to meet other members from the community. The games were usually followed by some beers, Fantas and friendly speeches and conversation.

We visited the local medical centre in Gashora during our lunch break one day as well. It was interesting to see and learn about other aspects of the town we were living in. We also visited the local genocide memorial in Gashora. It was an insightful experience, and meaningful, because we worked with the people directly affected by the genocide that was represented by this memorial. That was overwhelming but necessary.
 
We visited the beautiful Musanze region of Rwanda (gorilla territory!!!) on our last weekend in Rwanda. Fortunately, two of our participants were able to actually go see the gorillas! They said it was worth every penny! Musanze is a very different region than the Bugasera region we were working in. It has volcanoes and mountains, lush forests and is SO GREEN. Bugasera is dry, and flat, yet has its own charm too, especially Gashora which is right on the lake! It was good to see the vast difference in landscape that the tiny country, Rwanda, has to offer.
 
On our very last day in Gashora, we held a small lunch celebration to say thank you and goodbye to our Rwandan hosts! It was a sad day, but a beautiful one! We exchanged gifts, shared food and Fantas, snapped lots of photos, hugged, and said goodbye to Covaga and Gashora (well, at least for now…) The connection that we made with the Covaga women, the Vision Construction Company, and the community I am sure will stick with us for a very long time!

Murakoze (thank you) Gashora! Until next time!

Robin Ripley
DWC Team Leader
Rwanda 2011

July 2011: Reflections from a Volunteer

One word: wow!

The life over here in Rwanda is so far from our lives in Canada, it's so important to experience in order to put things in perspective. The little town of Gashora is filled with beautiful, appreciative people that are barely getting by. Mud houses, dirty clothes, torn shoes, and big smiles!!

As we walk from our hotel to the work site in the morning, kids pop out of the bushes yelling MUZUNGU!! which means white person, but they don't say it to be rude. They are genuinely happy to see us and walk with us, holding our hands.

The work is tough: hammering, sawing, painting, shoveling. But it's fun to all work together and we break for great food. We're working with a group of local construction guys who are super cool as well as the Covaga women. They work with us, carrying things on top of their heads and strapping babies to their backs- pretty amazing women. They sit beside us, weaving their beautiful baskets, hats, bags etc. I went into their little shop yesterday and was overwhelmed with the amount of things to choose from. I selected a basket, 2 hot plates, a peace basket and a purse! On the work site I don't really think about if I can do it or not, I just go for it. I may be left with cuts and bruises by the end of the day but a bottle of cold Primus beer smooths everything over.

Amy Ruttan
DWC Participant 
Rwanda 2011

Celebrations and reflections: Student Team 2011

Back in Kigali after an excellent week of work and fun. Looks like the rain has finally stopped and that we are well and truly into the dry season, and it happened just in time for the celebration at the Nelson Mandela Education Centre. The Green Helmets, a German non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO) who have been working on developing a school for young students since 2005 has finished its term and has handed the school over to the Rwandan Government. It was an excellent ceremony. Illustrating all the new technologies and building principles that they have been working on for so long. It also showcased the CIC and the work that the NMEC students did last year before graduating and now the six former students have created their own construction company, Vision Construction Company. They have already received to job requests after showcasing their work in Gashora. Some members of the Covaga women were also there to show their appreciation to the Green Helmets and the school. All in all a great day for everyone.

We had lunch and dinner. Then took a group to the very emotional genocide memorial at Nyamata. A church which was used for the slaughter of over 5000. It is always so shocking even for myself after experiencing something so positive and uplifting and then having the reminder of the past...

So after getting all depressed once again. We headed off back down to NMEC for Irriguagua aka. banana beer and sang and danced the night away. A very memorable day indeed.

Yesterday was Liberation Day in Rwanda so we only worked a half day then visited the finally completed Girls Initiative School In Gashora. It has very impressive facilities and it makes school facilities in the West look poor. Its a very interesting experimental program only for women studying sciences. It hosts some of Rwandas most intelligent girls for three years before they hopefully go on to Universities in Rwanda and all over the world. The school is run at the moment through an NGO from Seattle, Washington. And the plan is to also hand the school over to the Rwandan government in 7 years. The school is especially special to the Vision Construction Company boys as well. They came with us to see the different construction methods and irrigation in place there and we hope can be integrated into the community gardens of the Covaga center.

Finally we are waiting to catch a bus to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu for some much deserved R&R. It will be a short trip as we will be returning to Kigali tomorrow so that we can catch the Festival of Independence day at Amahoro Stadium on July 4th to signify the end of the genocide.

Grant Jenkin
DWC Student Team Leader
Rwanda 2011

Sore Joints, Sore Muscles, Smiling Faces

Our first day in Gashora we were accompanied by students of KIST (Kigali Institute of Science and Technology) who have expressed interest in the development of the CIC. They presented the Covaga Women, the Nelson Mandela Education Centre and Developing World Connections, with a presentation about how to use the water hyacinth plant and different weaving techniques in the completion of the project. It was interesting to see the unique ways these creative and enthusiastic students applied traditional weaving mastered by the Covaga women to the building. We continued the day by taking a tour of the CIC work site. It is crazy to think that just over a year ago there was only a broken down foundation and now there is an almost complete building! We hope (fingers crossed!) to complete the building this month! After NMEC and KIST left the Covaga Women, the seven of us went into town and we all shared in Primus and Fanta at Le Bar Referrence. We were welcomed to Gashora with a song and dance preformed by the Covaga women, a very special experience indeed!

Our first work week brought us sore joints and muscles as we painted beams, sawed logs, hammered nails, crushed rocks, and made cement! The NMEC electricity students managed to give the building light on Wednesday and we started laying down the flooring on Friday! We eat lunch hosted in a local bar with the Covaga women who help with the work each day. Although shy on both sides, we are warming up to each other and trying to communicate better at lunch and during the work day. Language barriers can be so tough! Luckily we have the NMEC construction student graduates (who have now formed their own construction company) there to help with work and communication!

We have enjoyed goat brouchette, Primus, the beautiful landscape, the rain (very rare to have rain at this time of year but welcomed greatly for it cools things down a bit!), and the smiling faces of Gashora! This coming week we are invited to NMEC for the celebration of the handover of the school from the Green Helmets to the Rwandan government. We also hope to visit the Nyamata Memorial Site and the Girls Initiative School in Gashora to celebrate Canada Day and Rwanda's Liberation Day at the end of the week. And of course, we are looking forward for further progression of the CIC!

Cheers,

Robin Ripley
DWC Student Team Leader
Rwanda 2011

Amakuru from Beautiful Gashora

"Amakuru" from beautiful Gashora!

Our team has all arrived safely in Kigali and we hit the ground running by exploring the city of Kigali a bit before we headed out to Gashora. We visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre which was a difficult, yet rewarding educational experience that gave us a better understanding of Rwanda's history and hope for the future. We also toured the recently updated neighbourhood of Nyabugoro with Lama where we of course had some Primus and met up with Till, leader of the Green Helmets at the Nelson Mandela Education Centre (the other NGO that Developing World Connections works with here in Gashora through Building Bridges with Rwanda). He filled us in on the future plans of the Covaga Innovation Centre (CIC.) The plans look amazing! The building we are currently working on is the boutique where the Covaga women can showcase their work and also sell their work. The other three buildings will be a restaurant, a workplace, and an office. There are plans for fruit and vegetable gardens, a bus stop and a solar power station. The hope is that eventually the CIC will serve as a hub for innovated thinking and practices for the community of Gashora...and it all started with the Covaga women!!

Robin Ripley
DWC Student Team Leader
Rwanda 2011