Wow! What a crazy and fantastic week we have had so far! Although not everything has gone quite according to plans, our time has been productive, educational and unforgettable. From sourcing materials in Kigali and visiting the Genocide Memorial to arriving in Musanze and then Cyanika and visiting each site to playing with local children to surveying local water users, we have had quite a week!
Yesterday, the 31st of December was our first full day in Cyankia. Our main goal for the day was to finish a portion of the community surveys. First, let me start by explaining the 4 different types of surveys we came prepared to give. The first are community surveys; these are surveys geared towards gaining a better sense of the community of Cyankia as a whole. Questions included how many members of the family there were in the household, where they sourced their water, how often they were sick and what sector they were from. Ideally, we wanted to get 40 responses from several different villages for this survey. Mesack and Jacque helped us by asking 40 different volunteers from around Cyanika to participate in the survey. The second and third type of survey are the in-house surveys; these surveys are geared towards a more intimate, in-depth form of conversation. There are 2 different types of the in-house surveys. One is geared towards those using the water catchment system and one is geared towards those not using the system. We have asked Jacques to help us identify these families. It is then our plan to interview both the male and female from each family. The questions on this survey are more personal than those on the community survey. The final survey is meant for the water board; the purpose of this survey is to gain a better understanding, from a leadership's point-of-view, as to how the water systems are impacting the community as a whole and how sustainable the maintenance of the systems will be.
Anyways, now that I have explained the different types of surveys, let's get back to the exciting stuff! Our goal yesterday was to complete a portion of the community surveys (we weren't sure how many volunteers we would be able to collect on the first day). We arrived in Cyankia early and started the surveys soon after arriving. The first group of people that arrived was 18 strong. Mesack helped conduct the survey by reading it aloud and answering any questions that came up. Throughout the duration of this process additional volunteers continued to show up. Jacques helped transcribe for those who weren't able to write their feedback down on the surveys. The process was running very smoothly! By the end of the afternoon we had conducted 39 community surveys, 1 shy of our optimal goal. We have done a first walk through of the surveys and have collected some initial data that we hope to implement when adapting our lesson plans for the next couple of days.
In our down time throughout the day we were able to either play frisbee or patty cake with the kiddos in the village. Christian loves walking towards the kids and staring them down which usually freaks them out. Its so funny when he teases them and they refuse to walk near him and usually end up running in the opposite direction. I sat down to help a couple little girls shell beans, and the people passing by thought it was the most bizarre thing to see me sitting shelling beans. The kept stopping to stare and then wave. Jake and Mike enjoyed tossing the frisbee and playing soccer with them as well.
In the late afternoon we returned to Musanze and went into town to purchase several things we needed to make repairs on the tank. Christian gave Jake and me a quick walk through of town which was so exciting to see! We then stopped at the hardware store and purchased some glue and sandpaper. We also visited the bank and a general store. I got some chocolate that I can usually only get in South Africa (where my family is from) which was exciting!
And the evening was upon us faster than you can say Jimminy cricket! We spent a good portion of it playing our new favorite game - hearts. In the past, the games have been fairly evenly scored (apart from my first game that I played where my score was double that of anyone else's...). But this evening was completely different. Jake, who actually first taught me the game, was not quite in the mode of playing hearts! He won the queen of spades continually and often racked up a majority of the queens in the game... In the end he was rocking a 40 point loss. After about 2 hours of hearts, we decided to call it an evening.
We returned to our rooms and had a relatively quite New Year's Eve. While Mike turned in early, the three of us were determined to stay up at least until midnight. It was however quite challenging as we were all quite sleepy. We tried to come up with as many interesting and random questions to try to get to know each other better and to not fall asleep. We did all make it to midnight, but ended up going to bed fairly soon after the clock hit 12:00.
That takes us to today!
We had several fix-its to do today and then some land surveying to start.
On the 30th we had visited each site to check on how they were operating. We noted that several smaller things needed fixing - so we did what we could today! We sanded down and glued a first flush pipe back together at Gasebya. We also took water samples at both Gasebya and Nyrotosho. We did an in-depth inspection of the Nyrotosho site in general as well.
After we had finished all of this, we started a land survey of the next site we hope to build at - Ntarama. We took preliminary measurements and started to determine where we may place the catchment system. Throughout the entire duration of the process we had a parade of little kids sitting on the edge of the site watching us.
After completing this we returned to Munini and played frisbee and soccer for an hour or so before returning home.
This has been a decently long entry so I will stop here, but long story short we have had a fantastic couple of days!!
I am looking forward to writing more in the upcoming days!!
Smiles and love from Rwanda!
Nikki
Yesterday, the 31st of December was our first full day in Cyankia. Our main goal for the day was to finish a portion of the community surveys. First, let me start by explaining the 4 different types of surveys we came prepared to give. The first are community surveys; these are surveys geared towards gaining a better sense of the community of Cyankia as a whole. Questions included how many members of the family there were in the household, where they sourced their water, how often they were sick and what sector they were from. Ideally, we wanted to get 40 responses from several different villages for this survey. Mesack and Jacque helped us by asking 40 different volunteers from around Cyanika to participate in the survey. The second and third type of survey are the in-house surveys; these surveys are geared towards a more intimate, in-depth form of conversation. There are 2 different types of the in-house surveys. One is geared towards those using the water catchment system and one is geared towards those not using the system. We have asked Jacques to help us identify these families. It is then our plan to interview both the male and female from each family. The questions on this survey are more personal than those on the community survey. The final survey is meant for the water board; the purpose of this survey is to gain a better understanding, from a leadership's point-of-view, as to how the water systems are impacting the community as a whole and how sustainable the maintenance of the systems will be.
Anyways, now that I have explained the different types of surveys, let's get back to the exciting stuff! Our goal yesterday was to complete a portion of the community surveys (we weren't sure how many volunteers we would be able to collect on the first day). We arrived in Cyankia early and started the surveys soon after arriving. The first group of people that arrived was 18 strong. Mesack helped conduct the survey by reading it aloud and answering any questions that came up. Throughout the duration of this process additional volunteers continued to show up. Jacques helped transcribe for those who weren't able to write their feedback down on the surveys. The process was running very smoothly! By the end of the afternoon we had conducted 39 community surveys, 1 shy of our optimal goal. We have done a first walk through of the surveys and have collected some initial data that we hope to implement when adapting our lesson plans for the next couple of days.
In our down time throughout the day we were able to either play frisbee or patty cake with the kiddos in the village. Christian loves walking towards the kids and staring them down which usually freaks them out. Its so funny when he teases them and they refuse to walk near him and usually end up running in the opposite direction. I sat down to help a couple little girls shell beans, and the people passing by thought it was the most bizarre thing to see me sitting shelling beans. The kept stopping to stare and then wave. Jake and Mike enjoyed tossing the frisbee and playing soccer with them as well.
In the late afternoon we returned to Musanze and went into town to purchase several things we needed to make repairs on the tank. Christian gave Jake and me a quick walk through of town which was so exciting to see! We then stopped at the hardware store and purchased some glue and sandpaper. We also visited the bank and a general store. I got some chocolate that I can usually only get in South Africa (where my family is from) which was exciting!
And the evening was upon us faster than you can say Jimminy cricket! We spent a good portion of it playing our new favorite game - hearts. In the past, the games have been fairly evenly scored (apart from my first game that I played where my score was double that of anyone else's...). But this evening was completely different. Jake, who actually first taught me the game, was not quite in the mode of playing hearts! He won the queen of spades continually and often racked up a majority of the queens in the game... In the end he was rocking a 40 point loss. After about 2 hours of hearts, we decided to call it an evening.
We returned to our rooms and had a relatively quite New Year's Eve. While Mike turned in early, the three of us were determined to stay up at least until midnight. It was however quite challenging as we were all quite sleepy. We tried to come up with as many interesting and random questions to try to get to know each other better and to not fall asleep. We did all make it to midnight, but ended up going to bed fairly soon after the clock hit 12:00.
That takes us to today!
We had several fix-its to do today and then some land surveying to start.
On the 30th we had visited each site to check on how they were operating. We noted that several smaller things needed fixing - so we did what we could today! We sanded down and glued a first flush pipe back together at Gasebya. We also took water samples at both Gasebya and Nyrotosho. We did an in-depth inspection of the Nyrotosho site in general as well.
After we had finished all of this, we started a land survey of the next site we hope to build at - Ntarama. We took preliminary measurements and started to determine where we may place the catchment system. Throughout the entire duration of the process we had a parade of little kids sitting on the edge of the site watching us.
After completing this we returned to Munini and played frisbee and soccer for an hour or so before returning home.
This has been a decently long entry so I will stop here, but long story short we have had a fantastic couple of days!!
I am looking forward to writing more in the upcoming days!!
Smiles and love from Rwanda!
Nikki
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