First Days of in Cyanika

Muraho!

Nitwa Zayna. Ndi umuyeshuri. Ndi umufoni.  Niga science na University of Colorado Boulder, USA. Ndashaka kwiga kubyina.

This is similar to the introductions we gave when we met with the Community Vision Board of Cyanika yesterday.

For those of you who are curious, it translates to: My name is Zayna.  I am a student.  I am an engineer.  I study science with the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.  I want to learn to dance.
All of the chiefs also gave us an introduction about themselves.

Background:  The Community Vision Board is a board of all the chiefs who run the villages we work in.  We got to meet them thanks to our partner, Village Makeover.  They make all the decisions from where to build systems, when to build them, and how to arrange for community volunteers to make the building happen in just 5 weeks.  It is through their help and the guidance of our translator and guide, Wally, we were ready to begin building today.

Our major cultural experience of the week was the Kigali Genocide Memorial.  It is an intense experience that has a lot of impact on the way people live now as one Rwanda.  You can read the statistics but seeing the pictures people had hung of their loved ones, the clothes that were left behind, the mass graves, and the room of skulls is a whole other understanding.  At the memorial alone 250,000 people were buried, 80% of surviving children had watched someone be murdered, and 90% thought they would also die.  It was important for our team to understand this major piece of history, but it was hard.

On a happier note, we have successfully bought 75% of our materials, and they are being brought to the site right now!  The drive from Kigali, the capitol, to Cyanika, to where our site is, is about 3 hours long with a beautiful view of the many volcanoes from the National Volcano Park which surrounds this portion of Rwanda.

We spent today working to terrace the site so that we could build on level ground.  The family nearby made us a delicious lunch of Rwandan squash and beans, which we followed up with chapati (a Rwandan bread similar to naan.)  After a hard day of work, we are back at the hotel double checking our calculations for the foundations we will build in the upcoming week.

However, hands-down, the best part of today was a grandma.  We had an parade of children following and watching us work today when they left school.  The 50 children who had been watching slowly inched closer to the site every time we looked back.  Eventually they were too close for comfort for this grandma.  She picked up a huge branch and sprinted up the hill chasing the kids back to their homes and schools.  It was a great moment!

We hope you will check back in a few days,
EWB CU Rwanda