Photo Dump No. 1

Kibaya System Construction
Week 2

Akagera National Park (July 29)
 

Post No. 3

Howdy!

This weekend we got to take some time off and explore some more of Rwanda. That being said, we are always thinking about our next steps and dinner conversations are often filled with a clutter of logistics. On Saturday, we took a bus to Lake Kivu. The countryside is beautiful with impressive terraced farms that climb up the steep hillsides. We found a beach by the lake and sat down for lunch. Listening to the crashing waves we became immersed in card games. It was four hours later when we finally got up from our chairs to explore more of the city. Rubavu was amazing and where, like all other Rwandan cities that we have seen, it is filled with a swarm of "motos" (motorcycle taxis). We returned to our beds late that night, after a relaxing and rejuvenating day. 

On Sunday, we took part in Jacques's church service in Cyanika. (Jacques is one of our main partners from our NGO partner, Village Makeover: he helps us buy materials and organize transportation and labor. He is also a pastor in Cyanika.) We arrived to find a group of kids and young adults singing and dancing. The church is one of the newest buildings in Cyanika but still very modest with unfinished walls and a concrete floor. The service was three hours long and was composed of singing, dancing, preaching, and reading excerpts from the Bible. During the service, Jacques brought us up the front and introduced each one of us individually. Before we went back to our seats, a couple community members greeted us. One of these members was Ignase, a village chief, who promptly lifted Carlo up by his hips and swirled him around. After the service we had a 2-3 hour lunch in Jacques house. The day was long but fulfilling. 

On Monday we got to return to Kibya. I kept sifting the surrounding soil for gravel for the concrete. And the others dug holes for the tank and column foundations. There was a breeze today which sprinkled us with the black volcanic soil from the site. By the end of the day we were caked with dirt and our eyes were itchy. But it was a great day and we are hoping to start mixing and pouring concrete tomorrow! 

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

We've Arrived!

Muraho friends!

We are in Rwanda!! Everyone arrived in Kigali on Sunday (July 15th) without a hitch. At the airport, we met Wally, our main translator and in-country contact with our partner-NGO, Village Makeover (VMO). It was a quick trip from the airport to the hotel, as Wally had to make sure we were done by the time the World Cup final started. We quickly dropped our bags at the hotel and took a taxi to a World Cup final viewing party at a city park. While most of the crowed was cheering for Croatia, they all cheered for any goal that was scored. The park was extremely crowded so Wally took us to a Chinese restaurant with a "good screen for the match." Sadly, according to Wally and Carlo, France won the game.

World Cup Final watch party in Kigali

Today was a day of errands and shopping around Kigali. We first went to the bank to make sure all of our finances were in order. The first shopping stop for the day was Safintra in the Kigali industrial district where we bought our roofing and gutters. When we were there, we saw a truck being loaded with building materials for the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
Next, we picked up an extra SIM card for our local phones and then moved on to the first of two piping store we visited during the day. The piping store had the lengths of PVC we needed for the piping between the tanks but didn't have the correct taps or caps for the first flush system so we had to visit a second store. On the way to the second piping store, we stopped to check out a store to buy rebar. When looking at rebar, we realized that our American rebar sizes were different than the Metric sizing but luckily we had a conversion chart that helped us figure out which Metric sizes we needed. We then stopped for a quick snack/lunch at a supermarket called Simba before going to our final shopping stop. The final shop we visited was a large warehouse style hardware store. After about two hours (at least) we were able to find the rest of the piping materials we needed.

Safintra Warehouse

Lunch at Simba: Will, Sonrisa, Wally, Zayna

(Max and Carlo were focused on water and chapati)

Throughout the whole day, we had a single cab driver who took all of us around the city. He spoke about 15 words the whole time we were with him but was a rockstar and deserves a shout out!
By the time we were finished with all of our shopping, it was about 6:30pm and we were ready for dinner at Max's favorite restaurant in Kigali, Meze Fresh (the Rwandan version of Chipotle). We were lucky enough to meet Austin Riley, the EWB USA CU Chapter President, at Meze Fresh for dinner! Austin is working in Rwanda with Water for People as his practical in the CU Mortensen Center's Engineering for Developing Communities master's program. During dinner, Austin was able to meet Wally and we had the chance to talk to him about our upcoming project. With both Austin and Carlo present, we were able to have a great conversation about project logistics and community sustainability.

We found Austin!!

(Will, Sonrisa, Zayna, and Austin)

Currently we are sitting in the common area of a great hostel Max found in Kigali, called Mijo, reworking mortar and concrete calculations so that we are prepared to purchase the materials to get started on the foundations for the tanks and columns once we get to Musanze. Mijo has a great view over Kigali where you can see all the lights dotting the hills of the city.

Carlo, Will, and Max

Tomorrow we will be finalizing a couple purchases here in Kigali and arranging transport for materials to the village (Kibaya) before visiting the Rwandan Genocide Memorial Museum. After our visit to the museum, we are traveling to Musanze, checking in at our hotel and getting ready to start the project! On Wednesday, we are planning to meet with local government officials and the Community Vision Board before beginning construction on Thursday when the materials we purchased in Kigali are scheduled to arrive.

Kigali at night from Mijo Hostel

Looking Forward to Summer 2018 Implementation!!

Hello!

As June comes to an end, our team wanted to take a moment before we leave for Rwanda to give everyone an update on the team, project, and to thank all of our partners and donors that helped us reach this point. Donors, thank you so much for your generosity; without you we would not have been able to finance this upcoming implementation trip. Special thanks to our Corporate Sponsor, Genesis Digital!

Before we, the travel team, give more updates throughout the implementation process via this blog, let me give you some background on our past implementations and the plan for this upcoming implementation.

This summer will be the fifth rainwater catchment system our team has implemented in the Cyanika sector, Northern Province of Rwanda (near the Rwandan border with the DRC and Uganda). Throughout this whole process, we have been working with our partnering NGO, Village Makeover. The last catchment system implemented was in the village of Ntarama. The other three systems are in the villages of Munini, Gasebya, and Nyarutosho. This upcoming implementation trip will be in the village of Kibaya. Currently, community members in Kibaya are leveling and clearing the land the system will be built on. We have ordered the four HUGE tanks that will be used for the system, gathered the tools we needed to purchase in the US, and have prepared all of the documentation we need.

When in country, we will be working with local community members and the Community Vision Board to construct the system and to evaluate/monitor the previous systems built. To complete the evaluation/monitoring process, we will personally visit the systems in Munini, Gasebya, Ntarama, and Nyarutosho, talk to local officials and community members, and distribute surveys to gather quantitative data. This year will be the first year the team is completing a photo survey! The goal is to complete the survey using a "Humans of New York" theme, allowing us to talk to individual volunteers in the villages/community who want to share their stories.  Hopefully it will give names and faces to the people we have dedicated our work to. We, the travel team, will take digital photos of the volunteer storytellers, and we will give them a polaroid copy of the photo to keep for themselves. Hopefully this survey will allow EWB CU Rwanda to build an even better and more trusting relationship with our friends in Rwanda.

I also realize that an introduction of the travel team is in order!

This year, the travel team is made up of four student members and one mentor. The four students traveling this year are Max Alger-Meyer, Sonrisa Macharia (myself), Will Nelson, and Zayna Pieper. Max, Sonrisa, and Zayna are all going into their Junior year at CU - Max in aerospace engineering and Sonrisa and Zayna in mechanical engineering. Will is going into his Senior year at CU for chemical engineering.

Our mentor is new to the team this year; as our mentor who has traveled with us in the past, Travis Grieman, was unable to travel this summer as he and his wife welcomed a baby earlier this month (congrats Travis!!). Our new mentor is Dr. Carlo Salvinelli, an instructor in the Mortensen Center in Engineering for Developing Communities. We are so lucky to have Carlo and his expertise traveling this summer!

The whole travel team will be meeting in Kigali, Rwanda on July 15th. We are all flying separately to Kigali from various places: Carlo from Italy, Max from Uganda, Will from Germany, Sonrisa from Kenya, and Zayna from the US. By happy coincidence, the president of the CU EWB USA chapter, Austin Riley, is also in Kigali working for Water for People.  We are excited to meet him there! For now, we'll be learning as much Kinyarwanda as possible, hopefully enough to have a good conversation or two!

This blog will be the best way for anyone who would like to keep up with the team's progress to do so. Throughout our trip, we will be updating the blog, about every other day - with pictures!!

Again, thank you to everyone who has supported, in any way, and the entire CU EWB Rwanda team throughout the year! We couldn't do it without you all!