Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tugenda! Let's go!


In the mini-bus! These vans can carry up to 25 people. Ours held a cozy 19.

Wow! It's been quite the whirlwind of activity this past week. I think we've managed to take just about every form of transport there exists here in Rwanda; i.e. buses, mini-buses, taxis, moto-taxis, trucks, back of trucks, and walking. Cramped knees, tight spaces, and claustrophobia are challenges of the past for this team of travel experts now. We are even getting a hang of the mzungu tax (which is the extra amount people attempt to charge the foreigners), though we've still a ways to go.


Having finished the bulk of our work at the Children's Village Kigarama, we swung back through Kigali for about 24 hours. Here, we visited the site of the Rwandan Orphan's Project, an organization dedicated to helping and raising rescued street boys without families. We met with members of the staff, Tom and Celestin, who introduced us to the facilities and gave us a tour of the new piece of land they had recently managed to purchase. As a quick anecdote, before leaving, they got all the boys together so that we could introduce ourselves. It cracked them up to find out that I, the tallest member of our group, was the youngest, and they doubled over when Steve told them he was 55 years old, since the life expectancy for men and women in Rwanda is in the mid 40's.

Meeting with leaders of the Twa community.
Then it was off to the northwest of the country, where we stayed in Gisenyi. There, we first visited the Imbambazi orphanage, founded by Roselin Carr, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 94, making her, at that time, the oldest living person in Rwanda. After a quick tour and stay, we proceeded to visit a small community of marginalized peoples in Rwanda. Ethnically, they're known as the Twa people, but politically, they're known roughly-translated as "the people who history left behind" (after the genocide, speaking of ethnic identity was forbidden). The need at the Twa village was greater than most places we'd seen and was a humbling experience for all of us.


Now, we’re back in Kigali, getting ready to head back to Children’s Village Kigarama. Yesterday, we were invited by a Peace Corps Volunteer, Tyler, to visit a community in Northern Rwanda called Bungwe. The community was a 3 hour car ride away from Kigali, one hour of which was on dirt roads that took us to this very rural, yet still highly populated area of Rwanda. The community was extremely welcoming and the smiles were a plenty. The main need of the entire community was the lack of access to water, especially during the dry season, meaning a steep and dangerous 30-45 minute hike downhill to the source. After meeting lots of people, playing with the kids, and gathering the necessary info, we hopped back into the car for the 3-hour ride back to Kigali.

Now it's time for the 3-hour bus ride to Kibuye, followed by the hour-long moto ride that will bring us back to the Children's Village Kigarama. Victor, the director, will be arriving back to the orphanage after time away, and we will be meeting and discussing the future with him.

Muraveho inshuti!

Andy



2 comments:

  1. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this blog. It's been very interesting reading. Can't wait to hear more details when you all return!

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  2. The Twa village and Bungwe sound like they might be excellent places for future projects. It will be exciting to see where EWB CU Rwanda can serve next.

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