Boiling water and other adventures

Miriwe! 

That’s “good evening” in Kinyarwanda. Unfortunately, most of the other words are not nearly as simple or easy to remember. I’m feeling quite good about myself for finally remembering, during my second trip to Rwanda, how to say “I’m 24 years old” (and please excuse my spelling, but this is how it sounds): “Ifite imyaka makumyabiri na canne.” For some reason that was a really difficult one for me, but I’ve also learned that languages are not my forte.

We’ve been enjoying a healthy balance between work and play here at CVK. Sometimes it’s impossible to stay focused when a tiny, sticky hand slips into yours and pulls you away to join the kindergarten class or play with a giant parachute. Luckily, we are experts at guilt-tripping each other to do work, so we have managed to get a few things accomplished. 

Andrew playing guitar for some of the younger kids

On Wednesday, BJ and I led the effort to test a few of the cook stoves, which as Andrew mentioned in the previous post, are in need of major repair. Although one team member (I won’t mention names…) disregarded this nine-hour task as “just boiling water,” it was in fact quite an arduous experiment. First, we had to find some firewood and chop it into kindling that could fit into the stoves. Not wanting to inconvenience anyone, I tried to split wood with a machete by myself, much to the amusement of everyone around. A tiny boy with bare feet ended up taking over and chopping like a pro, while our safety officers winced behind him. 

 This is completely safe...

We tracked down water and pots, and had some great help starting a fire. We then had to weigh the wood and the water, time how long it took the water to boil, take the temperature throughout, then remove the flaming pieces of wood and ash and weigh it again, weigh the end amount of water, and repeat the process in different stoves under different conditions. It was a very long, hot, and sooty day, but the results of the testing showed us that the efficiency of the stoves is about 16%.

Weighing firewood! 

Today, Innocent helped us gauge which stoves should be fixed and approximate the costs. He’ll be helping to get the pumice, cement, sand, grates, and tiles to CVK next week so the repairs can begin—stay tuned for fun pictures! Unfortunately, we won’t be able to stay until the repairs are finished, but we hope to help as much as we can and learn from the masons.

Yesterday, we visited Mugonero Hospital, just up the hill from the orphanage, to check out a project there that is funded through a Rotary chapter in Colorado. We were asked to provide our professional opinion on a new potable water system being installed and to check on its progress. We dressed up in our nicest clothes to meet with the director, who spoke excellent English, wore a full jean ensemble, and was the most let’s-get-down-to-business Rwandan we have met so far. He gave us a tour of the facilities, where several young men were digging up pipes to try to find a leak in the system. The hospital looked nice from the outside, with brick building facades and impeccably trimmed lawns, but it’s hard to imagine a functional hospital without clean water. After asking lots of questions and taking notes and pictures of the water systems, we were led to a room full of dusty equipment with American power plugs in search of an incubator for our water testing needs at CVK. We found one, but surprisingly, no one at the hospital knows how to use it. All in all, it was an interesting experience.

We came back to the orphanage to find a new visitor named Amanda, who is on a quest to explore orphanages and gather information for starting a “sports center” in Tanzania. (AKA orphanage. As in Rwanda, the government of Tanzania is trying to close orphanages, so directors are creatively coming up with disguises such as sports centers or boarding schools to stay open for the children who will have nowhere to go.) She offered some great stories and insights from her 4+ years in Rwanda and Tanzania, and we gave her advice for submitting an EWB proposal to help with the design of the center. Our blog will soon be friends with her blog, so I encourage you all to check it out once that happens! It sounds like a wonderful project.

For the past two hours, BJ and I have been sitting in the classroom where we can charge our laptops with solar energy, writing emails and planning while the children play soccer in the field next to us. But now it is time for the Sabbath, and we’re not supposed to work anymore. Tomorrow will be a day of rest, although I’m sure we’ll still do our 6am team work out as per usual (usually I give up after 20 pushups and 5 minutes of ab exercises, and Steve is the last one standing). After breakfast, we plan to read (part of the Rwandan experience is to enhance our understanding of Rwandan history and culture through the rich library that Victor has here), eat good food, and hike down to the lake with the children.

As always, thanks for reading, and stay tuned!!

Sonya