EWB-CU Rwanda Blog: Three streams (Hair update!)

This is the newly formed Michael signing in for a very special edition of our blog..

We fly out two weeks from today. The times are passing quickly now, and before we know it, it seems we will be back in American arms.

Occasionally, I feel myself longing to be back there – my sister tells me this happens in waves. I attempt to experience what’s around me when this happens, although sometimes you just have to let the fantasy and the homesickness exist in the moment too.

Anyways, that’s something of my deeper experience, but now I want to get into the meat (or beans, for you herbivores out there) of what’s been going on in our neck of the world’s woods.

The first stream I have to talk about comes from Travis, our beloved mentor who is very dear to us. Travis is a professional engineer in Centennial, Colorado, and has taken work off to travel with us and ensure the success of our construction and implementation. He has been like a river as our trip has become enriched by his presence. It is his humor, his experience - in engineering, African travel, and life in general - and his strength that have brought joy to us in a new way. As a team, we have truly become fond of him, and he of us. He will be missed when it is time for all of us to part.

Next is Wally. Wally, who has been working closely with us as our NGO contact has been instrumental in getting all of our materials purchased and delivered on time – and for a fair price. (Without him, we pay what we call the ‘umuzungu’ price.) He has made our project an extremely smooth process and it is with his help that we have made the progress that we have.

He was the first person we met when we landed over 3 weeks ago and we have always been able to count on him. But his influence goes farther. He has taken to me as a long-time friend somehow, easily, naturally. He birthed my unexpected celebrity-like status among the people we work with just by the way he says my name, and he now calls me his Best Man. It is quite an honor. So thank you, Wally

Last is the river which drew me into a Musanze salon yesterday afternoon.

We got back from working in-community, and after some Chapati from the marketplace, I asked everyone if they wanted to shave my hair off. They enthusiastically confirmed, and we went back to the compound of our rooms, where Travis extracted his electric razor from his room. My only option here was the shortest length setting, and I was willing to become bald like a baby here.

We soon found out, though, as the machine produced a puttering sound, that my hair was too thick for his exhausted razor. He had warned me that it might die, that he didn’t bring the charger, and so it breathed its last breaths working on the first 15% of my headspace. So with a half-shaved head and an itchy shirt, I was escorted by Travis, Xilal, and Ellis to a barber shop down the road from our hotel.

We walked up the steps of it, surely a sight to see, and I showed them my head. They warmly ushered me inside and sat me down, and I explained to a young man who spoke English pretty well that I just wanted a buzz cut. But as the hair cut progressed slowly, I realized the stylist was doing his own thing. Although I was pretty concerned at the beginning, I finally accepted the haircut that was coming to me and let the world design me as it wished.

What came out was something like a fade, which you will see below. The man took great care in his work and did a fine job. Thanks, universe.

Construction Update:

Our project is going smoothly still – in fact, we are looking at finishing ahead of schedule. The masons we hired have built the 6 brick columns and have finished the foundations for our three 10,000-liter water tanks in the past few days. This puts us in good position to put up the trusses, rafters, roof, gutters, and tanks this week, which is basically the consummation of our system.

So again, thank you for tuning into our blog. We much appreciate being able to include you in our time here. Look back in a couple of days for a new post from Ellis!

Until next time,

Michael