Ode to Chapati

To Chapati, 

My dearest, my first culinary love. We first met over a decade ago on a dusty street in Kampala, me at turns high on adventure and utterly overwhelmed, you couched in the glass case of a street food vendor. For mere pocket change, you called to me like a siren, the song of an African street tortilla, and then you danced over my tongue and brought me great delight. Ever since you have held my affection.

Mon amour, I studied your construction. I wondered, is it possible a pancake and a tortilla had a baby? No. Three simple ingredients: water, oil, flour. Pack to the consistency of pizza dough and let rise. Place on a sizzling hot cast iron skillet and flip. I marveled at how your simplicity could produce such satisfaction. Savory and slightly sweet, textured and hearty. [Chef’s kiss.]

Surely this could be replicated in America, right? But, no. I tried and tried, but like my Grandma’s crepe pancakes, no matter how closely I followed the recipe, you never turned out exactly right. There was always some missing ingredient: ambient humidity, perhaps, or a different strain of flour, a different flavor of oil, or maybe just the romantic chaos of an African capital city. I couldn’t figure it out, I still don’t know, and I have given up trying.

Life goes on. I live in America and you live all over the African continent. I grow older, you stay the same, and that’s just fine. It’s amazing to me that I still remember the way you made me feel that first time, and I am grateful that each time I come back to you and take that first bite, I feel the spark of that original joy and all the attendant wonder and wanderlust it carried with it. 

May you enchant EWB students for years to come, as you have me, forever and amen.

With deepest sincerity,

Travis

D’Amour!

I felt it only necessary to write a post about our wonderful host Jean D’Amour. After me only knowing him for almost a year, Aria knowing him since not too long ago and Megan and Jack knowing him for many years now, with our only communication being WhatsApp and Zoom, he is better than words can describe. Jean is thoughtful, caring, smart, funny, a wonderful host, a good friend to all…the list is long. 

As we drive through the ‘African massaging’ streets and near towards Kadahenda, you hear songs filled with his name. Kids jump on the tire on the back of his car, swarms of 15+ kids unite and follow us down the road running to the site. He is friends with and laughs with the masons, the children, the community members, us, and even random people we drive past on the road. He is famous here in Musanze, to say the least. 

What I’ve learned about him so far (even though we are only on day-4) is that he cares so much for his country and it’s people, that where he stands is that he is a humanitarian and has made it his life’s goal to provide rural communities with food and water here in Rwanda. He is well-traveled, speaks 4 languages (English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Swahili), is very smart, having earned is PhD in 4 challenging years from the University of Michigan, and is a member of the rotary club and works with the team based in Boulder. He knows and cares much for his county, friends, family, community and making global connections with us and his students at the university. 

Jean D’Amour has many lessons and stories to share and I cannot do him justice with this writing but am so excited for our next 10days spent with him in his lovely home and lovely county. 

Murakoze 

Catherine

Do you fear worms?

For one Aria Mundy, the answer is most certainly yes. More on this later. 

Muraho, Megan here! After 32.5 hours of travel, we have finally arrived in Rwanda. We have been here for one day now, and although we are all still jet lagged and exhausted, we are soaking everything in. The people here are so kind, the food is amazing, and the views are stunning. The morning after we landed, Jean D’Amour’s friend Yvonne showed us around Kigali. We were treated to coffee and fresh fruit from the market (stay tuned for a poem/ode to coffee in a future post by Aria). We then took motos to the genocide memorial, which was powerful and sad to say the least. In the afternoon, we drove to Musanze from Kigali through beautiful rolling hills of farms and small communities, little kids grinning and pointing at us shouting “Muzungu!” as we passed. To my delight, we also passed lots of goats and cool-looking trees. 

We are now staying at Jean D’Amour’s beautiful house in Musanze. He has dogs, chickens, Guinea fowl, and pigeons, one of which is now (albeit jokingly) named after me. We finally got a chance to relax a bit this evening over some beers and reignite the debate over wanting to fight snake sized worms or worm sized snakes- as a result of this discussion, it was discovered that Aria hates worms, I have a worm-themed playlist (happily available upon request), and there are no worms here in Rwanda to torment Aria. We later had an incredible home-made, garden-grown dinner of potatoes, peas, and vegetables. 

Today, we will be visiting the site at Kadahenda for the first time. We are all so excited to see the progress that has already been made and get to interact with the community.

We will back back on the blog in a few days. Until then, dreams of chapati will fill my head and I will do my best to come around to coffee and beer!

Megan

Summer 2022 Implementation - EWB CU is finally headed back to Rwanda!

 Muraho friends of EWB CU Rwanda!

This is Megan, updating the blog a little more than 2 weeks before we leave for Rwanda for the implementation of our team's seventh rainwater catchment system. A lot has happened since our last post in Summer 2019 (Covid, remote implementation at Gasiza, system upgrades, etc.), so it feels appropriate to write an update before we embark on our upcoming adventure.

Our team this year consists of four students and one professional mentor: myself (current Project Manager and Chapter Vice President), Jack (PM in 2021), Catherine (our team's treasurer), Aria (a newish, but very enthusiastic, team member), and Travis (our professional mentor who works as an engineer and has traveled with the team several times before). We will be setting out to build the team's seventh rainwater catchment system - preceded by Munini, Nyarutosho, Ntarama, Gasebaya, Kibaya, and Gasiza. We'll also be visiting these past systems to evaluate their performance and speak with community members who use them.

Covid-19 has certainly been a major challenge for the team, and we're excited to finally be able to travel again. I joined the team during the remote implementation of Gasiza in Fall 2020, and the struggles of remote, international communication put a lot of stress on us. Like many other clubs, we dealt with substantial turnover and decline in membership, which has been a setback to say the least. I'm excited to have the travel aspect of EWB back and to rekindle relationships with members of the community. It still blows my mind that I'll actually get to meet the people I've been on so many Zoom calls with over the past two years in person!

Pre-Travel Column Progress

Construction started with site clearing about two weeks ago, and so far everything is going smoothly. It's really helpful to have masons and other workers who have built a similar system in the past because they are familiar with our design and easy to work with. Columns have been constructed, and hopefully the tanks will arrive before we do so that we can complete the plumbing and roofing of the system while we're in-country.

Jack and Aria mixing concrete!

Our team has been doing our best to prepare for implementation, not only with required paperwork, but also by spending time together in preparation. We have attended a concrete mixing workshop and watched Hotel Rwanda together in the past few weeks, which have given us the opportunity to get to know each other better and think about the ethical implications of our work. 

Before we get going, I also wanted to take a moment to thank and acknowledge everyone who has helped us along the way. Thanks to everyone on our team, past and present, who has helped work on the project, to all of our generous donors who have helped to fund the trip, and to our incredible community partners at DRD who have supported preparations and been a voice and advocate for the community (thanks Jean!). Thanks also to our friends on the Guatemala team who have shared their wisdom with us, and our past team members who haven given us insights into what it's like to travel to Rwanda with EWB.

That's all folks! Stay tuned for daily-ish blog posts starting when we leave for Rwanda on July 22!

Much love,
Megan