Good Morning from Rwanda!

We realized yesterday that we are at exactly the half-way point in our trip – a pretty insane realization. So far since coming back, we have made a lot of new friends, had some memorable experiences, and made a ton of progress on the system. That being said, we still have two weeks to go, lots of new friends to meet, and a ton of work left to do.

              Last weekend, we went to Kigali for a few nights to buy some more materials, do a safari, and to say our farewells to Carlo. Wally went with us, and was obviously very excited to go to Akagera for a Safari; his favorite animal is the hippo. We were lucky enough to have Austin (and his safari playlist)  go on the safari with us. It was certainly an eventful, and tiring day, so we decided to stay an extra night in Kigali to rest before coming back to Musanze. We took Carlo out to a surprisingly authentic Italian restaurant called Sole Luna, which we all enjoyed. The restaurant even had Hawaiian pizza which Carlo told us is actually a staple of Italian culture. The food ended up being delicious, but we knew that the moment we walked in and saw a large, noisy, Italian family enjoying some pizza.

              The next day we woke up and drove around Kigali looking for materials. We bought all of the materials that we thought we would need from Kigali at the start of our trip, but after coming to Musanze it quickly became apparent to us that we needed more stuff from Kigali. In particular, two of the taps at Nyrotosho, and all four taps at Munini have to be replaced. Furthermore, after struggling to find rust-preventive paint without lead, we decided to scrap the traditional steel gutters and use PVC gutters instead. The PVC gutters are lighter, cheaper, easier to replace, won’t rust, and are much more sustainable. We think that this is a good idea for all systems going forward.

              As far as the construction itself goes, everything is going great! Five out of six of our trusses are built, the first two tank foundations are underway, and a meter of brick is up. We realized today that our current design might be taller than necessary and are starting to wonder if we can reduce the height of the columns by half a meter or so; the current design calls for the columns to be four meters tall. Either way, we are waiting for the tanks to be delivered before making that decision.

              This morning we met with the Community Vision Board again to meet with the Sector Director (he wasn’t able to make the last meeting). Needless to say, he didn’t show up again so we just ended up meeting with the Education Director again and talking some more with the chiefs of previous systems. Overall it was still a productive meeting since we were able to hand out surveys, update the Sector on our progress, and reaffirm that our next system should be in Gasiza. At some point we are going to hike up to Gasiza to check out the area and assess the feasibility of building a rainwater catchment system. All we know is that it is really far away – a much farther hike than the other villages—and up at the base of the Volcano. Currently we are skeptical that it will be feasible for our team to work in this village, but we remain optimistic until we know for sure. That’s all for today, Sonrisa will be back with the next blog this weekend!

Until then,

EWB-CU Rwanda (Max)