Murabeho Rwanda!

Today is our last day in Rwanda and we are all excited, yet sad at the same time to leave this wonderful country.  We are happy to return to our regular ways of lives and to see our family and friends.  But we are sad to leave the way of life we have created here and the friends that we have made within the community and elsewhere.  These past few days have shown me that our relationship with the community is stronger than I have ever seen it, which is something that I am extremely thankful for.  But before I go on expressing my thanks, it might be nice to know what we have done these last couple days.

Yesterday, we had a very delicious lunch with the community.  The lunch was the typical Shakey’s style food, but 1000 times better.  We had potatoes, rice, beans, cassava leaves, pasta, and meat all drenched in peanut sauce.  We dined together with the chiefs and the secretaries of the villages.  There was a ton of food and all the bowls were filled to the very top.  It was hard for us to finish everything we had on our plates, but Jacques kept insisting that we keep filling them, especially “Samantha”.  After we had finished the meal, Jacques expressed how grateful he and the community were with our work.  We also made sure to express our thanks and mentioned that we were so happy that our friendship had grown to such an extent that they felt comfortable critiquing our systems, which will help us improve them in the future.  Jacques then asked us to take pictures with the cooks and then with everyone that attended the lunch.  Maguru (Japhet’s nickname, which means legs since he is so tall) was excited to take a picture next to the muzungu maguru (Travis).  

After lunch, Hassan accompanied us to Musanze to help us with our bags.  We embarked to Kigali packed in the Virunga bus.  A girl sat next to me and immediately began to converse in English.  This is something that I will truly miss from Rwanda and is something that I have never seen in any other countries that I have visited—the curiosity and the drive to learn from other people.  

Today we woke up and all of Kigali was silent.  Nobody was in the streets.  This was due to a policy that Rwanda has that is quite remarkable where all the people must volunteer on the last Saturday of the month.   After 11am, the streets swarmed again with life, so we took motos to grab a nice meal.  We went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Habesha, which was absolutely delicious.  I had accidentally eaten one of the hottest peppers I have had and even though I was tearing, Max decided he would try it as well—he suffered just as bad.  Wally decided to try it too and said it was fine, even though he was massaging his forehead and breathing loudly.  Between his breaths he told Sam that it was tasty and that she should taste it.  She took a small bite.  We then went to the genocide memorial, which was just as hard to see as the first time I had seen it.  Visiting the memorial as well were famous Nigerian stars and political figures of East Africa.  After the memorial, we went to a market where we each bought souvenirs.  Max bought the whole Rwandan armory.  We went to the convention center, which is a beautifully lit dome with the colors of the Rwandan flag.  This place is heavily guarded, yet Max got all of his weapons through (Wally had told the guards that we came from shopping).  We went in to find out that it was closed and left thereafter.  We took motos to our last meal as a team in Rwanda at a Chinese restaurant, where we talked and watched the Rwanda’s Got Talent on the TV.

This trip has been a wonderful experience, which is attributable to the awesome team that shared these experiences with me.  Travis, your help as a mentor is always exactly what the team needs.  You helped us both with the engineering and the team bonding aspects of this trip.  You are always fun to be around and your singing always brings in a new dynamic to our game of hearts or gin rummy.  Speaking of singing, thank you Sam for bringing your happy smile everywhere we would go.  Your happiness is unmatchable, which is no wonder why all the children loved being around you.  You are going to be a killer PM.  Max, your interest in the project was a huge asset to this trip.  I am excited, as I am sure the whole team is, to have you as a design lead.  Your knowledge and your interest in the project, which I had the fortune to see, is going to make you a perfect fit, even though you haven’t taken statics yet.

Ngaho Cyanika and Murakoze cyane!

Haven't seen Xilal in 4 days.....hope he's okay

Our last few days in Rwanda have been memorable to say the least. Yesterday we hiked out to Kibaya to inspect the land of our upcoming implementation. As it turns out, Kibaya is pretty far from where we get dropped off. For whoever is going to be hauling building materials to the sight next summer, I pity you. The sight is also really big, it took us the better part of an hour to thoroughly survey the land that we'll be building on. Since our arrival, we have come to realize how much we underestimated the size of these villages. Munini, Gasebya, Ntarma, and Nyrutosho all have close to nine hundred people, and Kibaya has almost fifteen hundred; needless to say these systems are important.

This morning we woke up, same as any other day. It has become pretty obvious to me that Xilal has much greater willpower than I do because somehow he wakes up every day and does pushups... I don't know how. Once again, the hot water/water pressure gods looked down angrily upon us this morning because showers this morning were not an option. Still, we all made it to breakfast relatively on time. It seems that every day the kitchen staff like to mess with us by changing out breakfast just a little but. I already mentioned that Travis got untoasted toast the other day, and yesterday they only gave pineapple to Travis. Regardless, the breakfasts here are pretty awesome, especially when compared to what we get for lunch and dinner. Everyday for lunch we come back and order chapatti and each get a Fanta, the american equivalent of bread and coke. Even though the chapatti is delicious, it's still obvious that we've been dining on a budget. Every other night we get to stay at the hotel and eat at the restaurant here, but when we don't get to eat here at our hotel, we go out into Musanze and eat very questionable food that is practically free. Last night was our first time trying Shakey's, and I must say I was rather pleased despite it being pretty sketchy in every sense of the word. The lighting is dim, the seats are uncomfortable, the food is good for little else other than sustenance, and everyone looks at us like we are from another planet. Still, compared to some of the other places that we have eaten, I liked it. 

Once we got to Cyanika this morning, we started the long and tedious walk. After making the same walk every day for the past week and a half, we have all gotten pretty used to it. That isn't to say that I don't enjoy the walk to the villages (for the most part). The road leads us through the bean fields which are currently being harvested, so we see a lot of people along the way. It's hard to get tired of hearing kids shouting "Mzungu!!!" in the distance as they first notice you. 

Once we got to Ntarma, we met Japhet. We came back to check out the silicon that we installed on Ntarma's tanks, and to fix a spillage issue that they had been having due to their filter. We came prepared to chop a few inches off of the gutter with some tin snips that we bought in Musanze, but after trying for ten minutes or so, it became obvious that the steel that the gutter was made out of was too thick to cut without a hack saw. I told Travis that next year I think we should try to bring a plasma cutter so that we don't run into these sort of problems. After we explained to Japhet that we weren't going to be able to cut the gutter, he explained that that wasn't the problem, but rather that leafs were getting caught on the filter which was in turn causing water to spill. This turned out to be a pretty simple fix, since all we had to do was cut the filter with tin snips and recess the filter into the catchment box (I don't know if this thing has a name but that is what I'm calling it). 

After visiting Japhet, we walked to Ignace's house to see if he was in need of any silicon. He wasn't home, but his wife explained to us that the tanks at Gasebya don't have a leakage issue, so we promptly left and continued to Nyrutosho. We had to go to Nyrutosho because we wanted to take measurements of the system. We think that based on community feedback, and the size of Kibaya, that the upcoming system should be similar to that of Nyrutosho. We also wanted to reapply some silicon since we trusted Travis to apply it the other day, and after I applied it to the tanks at Ntarama, we realized what a mediocre job Travis did (partially due to a defective silicon applicator, but still). That being said, Ntarma and Nyrutosho no longer have a leaking issue which is pretty awesome. Last on our agenda for today was to revisit Kibaya to get a sense of where we are planning on building. Once all was said and done, we still had an eighty minute walk back to Cyanika town center to buy some groceries for tomorrow's banquet with the Chiefs. Needless to say, we walked a lot today and my feet still hurt. 

Once we got back, we treated ourselves to some chapatti, some fantas, and a trip to the mall to pick up some clothes that we had made. I think we've been to that god forsaken mall eight or nine times now, and we have to go again tomorrow because the lady that Sam entrusted to sew her stuff still isn't done. We have a lot on our plate tomorrow, so stay tuned. Good bye Musanze, it's been fun!

-Max

Find Someone Who Looks at You the Way Travis Looks at Chapati

This is the picture that inspired the title for today's blog. We would like to comment that Travis loves his Chapati and we believe that he is only agreeing to come back with us for the Chapati. If anyone has successfully made Chapati at home, Travis is desperate for a working recipe. Thanks for your consideration.




I can't believe we are already into our last week! This trip has been amazing so far and I am sad to think about leaving this place. The people have all been extremely generous and friendly and I wish I had more time to interact with the community. Although we only have a few days left in community,    we still have a lot of work left to do.


On Sunday we had a day in Musanze. The group decided to wake up early and attend a church service. The hotel that we are staying at is tied to the catholic church, so sure enough there is a massive cathedral adjacent to our hotel. On Sunday morning there was an outdoor service so we dressed up nice and walked over the the church. We were greeted by a drum line and it felt more like a party than church. There were probably 10,000 people there so it was basically Red Rocks. We received a lot of weird looks but it was a lot of fun. The singing was beautiful, but I would suggest going to the English service instead of the one in Kinyarwanda.

Sunday afternoon, we went to the new mall in town. The mall in Musanze is not a mall like we have at home, but instead there are private vendors like they would have in the market. We tried to buy some souvenirs for the EWB auction and some fabric for clothes. African fabric is very popular here and there are many talented tailors who we wanted to buy clothes from. We had success finding everything at the mall and, if I were you, I would definitely go to the EWB auction because we got a lot of cool stuff!

Monday we met with the Community Vision Board again and handed out the surveys. Two members from the Cyanika leadership also attended the meeting. The minor fixes that we made last week to the systems are holding up and seem to have fixed the problem. We also warned the Board that we may not be able to implement next year if we cannot supplement the funding we lost in the last semester. The Chief of Gasebya asked if we had enough to money to add another tank to their system and we told him that such a change also depends on our funding. The community was understanding but hopes that we can build the system as soon as possible.

Following the meeting, we visited the water source that the communities use when they do not have systems. We asked Wally if it was walking distance and he said, "no, no, not for you guys." And he was right. We took Motos down to the lake, and even the Moto ride took 15 minutes! I can't imagine having to walk down to the lake every day for water. But we got to enjoy a nice motor boat ride. Even Hassan got in the boat and he hates water. These last few days, I believe our new travel team has bonded well with the community and I just wish we had more time to continue to grow this relationship.

 

Today we went to Ntarma to check on the system that we had implemented last year.  In general, there were no major problems with the system.  The only things that they told us that needed to be fixed, was that the water from the gutter would flow above the filter that we had added, that the glue that we had used was not good, and that the AfriTanks suck!  Jacques made sure to tell us many times how much he prefers Roto tanks.

After checking on Ntarma, we went down to the market to pick out clothing for ourselves and our family and friends.  As we went down to the mall we ran into the guy that sold us fabrics the day before, which to my surprise is one of the best entrepreneurs in Rwanda.  In fact, he was given the opportunity to travel to Dubai to compete internationally in a business competition, after having won in his region.  He helped us figure out what the true prices were (not the muzungu prices), which was very helpful, since they were lower than the prices Wally had told us were good.  Since we were the only Mzungus in the market, we were immediately swarmed by the seamstresses that wanted to help us with our clothing.  There were so many people that wanted to sew Max's fabrics that a fight almost broke out, until our friend Justin helped calm things down.  After much discussion, Max was able to get a nice price for his clothing.  Once again we ended the night with our usual tradition of playing cards and drinking local Rwandan beer.

-Sam and Xilal (not Max... even though he proof read)

Land of 1,000 Fantas

Hello again!

We've been making a lot of progress with the systems and the community bonding. Friday was our last day in community. We visited Nyrotosho and discussed a few problems the community had been facing. Last implementation trip, we added two more tanks to their system since Wilson, the chief of Nyrotosho, had been facing problems of erosion from too much water escaping the tanks; this puts Nyrotosho as the largest system with four tanks.

We connected the new tank to the original tanks with a long piece of PVC pipe, but when we visited this time, the pipe had been dislodged causing a large amount of water to leak out of the system. To solve this problem the community had blocked the pipe so the water would continue to fill the other three tanks instead of spilling over. The cause of the dislodging is not certain, but we believe the pipe was not placed far enough into the tank and when pressure was exerted on the pipe, it slid out. To fix this, we pulled more of the pipe into the new tank and placed new silicon around the pipe to hold it in place and keep water from coming out.

Nyrotosho is also worried about the longevity of the tanks. The tanks are not covered by the roof and therefore receive a lot of sunlight all day, every day. This has led to evaporation of the water inside the tank. We cannot move the tanks under the roof at this point, so we suggested to keep the lids tightly on the tanks to prevent evaporation, and plant avocado trees around the tanks to block the sunlight. The trees will take three years to grow, but the tanks will not degrade a large amount in that time.

The people of Nyrotosho also visited us at the site and talked about how much they appreciated the water. They said there have been no health problems since they have started using the water and it tastes great!

After visiting the system, we went to Jacques's house. Jacques is the Cyanika pastor who helps us in community. Jacques offered us bananas and Fantas and we talked about the upcoming election and his wife's business of making wax fabric shirts and skirts. It was nice to meet a lot of Jacques family.

On Saturday we decided to take our day off and visit Lake Kivu, which was one of my favorite places we visited last year.  We woke up early in the morning (for a weekend) and went to the bus station, where we awaited the Virunga bus.  The bus as usual was more packed than a can of sardines and the bus ride was a lot longer than I had remembered it to be.  We arrived in Rubavu and decided to check out the border with the Congo, since we were all so interested.  We stayed on the Rwanda side and were able to get a quick glimpse into Goma, which looked a lot more busy than Rwanda.

After looking into the DRC we took our preferred way of transportation down to lake Kivu: the moto!    The motos tried to make us pay the Muzungu price, but we were able to bring down the price by double of what they had originally wanted.  We then walked to Tam Tam, which is the place Wally took us last year.  There we ate some chicken and beef skewers, which tasted a lot better than Shaky's--a restaurant this team still has to taste!  Jacques' son, Byishimo, who studies in Rubavu made the trip down to Tam Tam to meet us.  We talked for a while and then Byishimo played cards with Max.  Byishimo taught Max a Rwandan card game, although I think at times they were both pretty confused with what was happening and what card game they were playing.  After Max had lost (I make sure to mention this, since he is beating us pretty badly in hearts) Sam decided to show Byishimo an American card game.  Byishimo was very good, in fact, he was a lot better than me.

Sometime after playing cards, we decided to go to the hot springs in town.  We did not go into the hot springs, but mainly went to see the views.  The moto ride was by far the most beautiful I have seen.  Travis was right when he had said that this will be our best moto ride.  On our way back, we all took videos of the ride, while on the motos.

On the bus, we were happy to see that the bus was pretty empty.  This quickly changed as the bus filled completely after the first stop.  A family of 10 people had entered.  Two children had shared the seat beside me, and Max was squished in the back.  In this family of 10 was the cutest baby, which I was allowed to hold for part of the drive.  Even though this bus was by far the most packed, it was probably the most fun.

When we returned to Musanze, I gave the team the choice to choose whatever restaurant they wanted to eat at and if it was expensive, we must eat at the dreaded Shaky's the next day.  Max was able to find a bakery, where we ordered many Sambusas from an Austrian lady.  They were very good, but not as tasty as the ones we had gotten along the way from street vendors.  We ended the night with our usual tradition of playing cards.

We will be staying in Musanze for Sunday and then get back to the community on Monday!

-Sam and Xilal (mostly Xilal)

Wally Sucks at Soccer

As it turns out, Rwanda is a pretty amazing country. This trip has certainly been a pain in a lot of ways for a lot of people, but that all changed the second that the plane landed in Kigali. Everyone here is more relaxed which I think helps to make all of us more relaxed. Yesterday was yet another early day--we had to wake up before 8:00-- and for whatever reason Travis's toast looked like it had never seen the likes of a toaster. That being said, the rest of us enjoyed a lovely breakfast. In fact, Xilal  was given a second round of toast and a second omelet which I think annoyed Travis even more which in turn lifted the rest of our spirits. It was at this point that I knew it was going to be a good day.

We got to Munini around 10:00 yesterday and from the get go it was very exciting. Travis and I were the first to climb atop the enormous 10.000 liter tanks--they use periods instead of commas here. One of the lids to the tanks at Munini is missing, and because of this there is algae in one of Munin's tanks. As gross as this sounds Hassan pointed out that before we added these tanks, these people drank the water from the lake, so either way this is an improvement. After we got done inspecting the tanks we got the chance to hang out with some of the kids in the village. I showed them--the kids and Wally--my magic trick. All of the kids smiled as I revealed their card, but Wally had his skepticisms. He tried to replicate my trick, but we're pretty certain that all of the local kids told him my card in Kinyarwanda because none of the locals seemed impressed even though he guessed my card correctly. Either way, we spent the rest of our time in the community playing soccer with the kids. We played for 10-15 minutes before Wally realized that all of the students were on a lunch break from school, and needed to go home to eat. He used a stick to herd the students back to their village in the same way that the locals herd the cows. After most of the students left, I asked Wally if he was any good at football (soccer), to which he replied "Yes yes, I am very good"... sure enough, he wasn't. Hassan started a Penalty Kick contest with Xilal, and as soon as Wally took over as Goal Keeper, he narrowed the goal from around 15 feet to around 6 feet, which confirmed my belief that Wally sucks at soccer.

When we got back to Musanze, we had little to do but sleep. So far, I have been participating in Ciesta by napping every afternoon, even though I am quite certain that this isn't customary in Rwanda. Yesterday I didn't wake up in time for dinner, so Xilal had to come wake me up.

I cannot get over how in love I am with this country. Even though this is my third time visiting Rwanda, I feel that every time I come here I fall even more in love with the way of life here. Everyone here is so humble--except for Wally-- and works so hard. Today we got the chance to meet with some of the oldest members of Gasebya as they expressed their appreciation for our work. After hearing their stories and how these systems have changed their lives, it's hard to fathom the difference that these systems make for these communities.

This morning was a good morning, they didn't screw up Travis's breakfast which I think he appreciated. We did a lot more walking today than we did yesterday. Today we inspected the systems as Gasebya, and learned that they are in desperate need of another tank... that will be a discussion for the fall. As it turns out, almost 900 people live in Gasebya, but they have one of the smallest systems (if not the smallest system). Travis asked to hike to the edge of Gasebya, through which we learned just how large Gasebya is (it's big). It took a while to get to the edge of Gasebya from Ignase's house (the chief of Gasebya). At one point along the hike, Hassan asked how much further it was to the boarder to which Ignase laughed and replied "not much farther".... it was. At the edge of Gasebya, Hassan pointed to the top of a hill off in the distance where Gasiza is (one of the villages in Cyanika). After seeing how far Gasiza is from the nearest road, I am so ****ing thankful that we aren't implementing there. We got back to Musanze around 2:00 and ate some chapati which as far as I can tell is the dankest food on this planet. I took another nap today, but this time Xilal didn't have to wake me up. I want to preface that Rwandan food can be very delicious, and in all my past experiences is quite tasty. That being said, apparently we budgeted for roughly $1.50 per person for dinner so some of our meals have been subpar. Tonight's dinner was one of those nights. Either way, we had fun tonight. We've been going back and fourth between playing Hearts and Gin Rummy after dinner, and I think it's worth mentioning that I am winning by a long shot in hearts (Travis got the queen of spades like four times tonight). It's almost midnight now, And all the staff seems mad that we're still awake so I suppose that we should go to bed. Until next time.

-Max

Riding Motos and Taking Names: First Days in Rwanda!

The flights went flawlessly and we landed in Kigali just after midnight on Sunday June 11th. During our layover in Toronto, we left the airport and ate at a delicious Chinese restaurant. We were not able to leave the airport in Turkey, but we did breath Turkish air when we descended the open air stairs to the airport, so we are counting it! Once in Kigali, we got our bags and Wally was nice enough to meet us and take us in a taxi to our hotel. The next morning we found Meze Fresh and had lunch there. Sam was able to take almost a whole burrito with her for the rest of the trip! After that, we had the wonderful experience of riding a Moto, a small motorcycle that is used as a taxi in Rwanda. We each rode a Moto to the mall where we bought minutes for our phones and exchanged cash. We stopped for coffee and realized that Max is an amateur magician, quite impressive!

Later that night, we took a bus to Kigali. The taxi park was overwhelming. Our taxi driver clipped a guy walking in front of us. When getting out of the car, Travis warned us to not let people take our bags because they will ask for money, but as he said that, two people walked away with our bags. Luckily, they took it to the right bus and after squishing everybody in, we were on our way to Musanze. The bus made a few pitstops along the way, one of which was to get roasted corn, which was delicious!

Once in Musanze, we walked to Fatima, our hotel. The hotel is attached to a prominent church in town so it is a very nice place to stay. We had dinner at the hotel and discussed our plan for the week. The beds all were covered in mosquito nets which was a helpful and cool experience.
The next morning, Tuesday June 14th, we woke up early to grab breakfast at the hotel, complete with regional fruit and Rwandan tea.

Wally met us in the morning and we hopped in a bus to Cyanika. We met Hassan along the way, who is our translator. Once in the city center, we met with the Community Vision Board. This is a group of chiefs and executive secretaries from the surrounding communities that discuss the problems with our current systems and decide where we will build our next system.

During the meeting they brought up a few concerns: the new tanks are not sturdy enough or large enough to clean, Nyrotosho has glue problems and filter issues, and water is overflowing the gutters in some systems. They also expressed their want for the butterfly roof design that we implemented in Ntarama. The last complaint is slightly out of our hands; with the changing global climate, there has just been less rain this season, depleting the water supply.

After the meeting, we visited all four systems and briefly walked through them to fully understand what the problems were. We had a small army of children following us around and a lot of them remembered Xilal and Travis and thanked them for the system. Once back in Musanze, we visited the open air market and the new mall, which has an amazing view from the upper floor. We had three locals following us throughout the mall, just wanting to practice their English. That night, Wally took us to a buffet restaurant, where Max spilled boiling African tea on himself and Sam found out that not all buffets are all you can eat. Tomorrow, we will be visiting Munini and meeting with the Chief there.

This trip has been successful and easy thus far. We are hoping to help the community fix some of the smaller issues with the systems in the upcoming week, and are excited to continue building community relationships!

My favorite part so far has been meeting the Chiefs and speaking with the locals and trying out some kinyarwanda!