Muraho inshute, Megan here! The safari continues to exist in my mind as a fever dream of playing the nicest sax I have ever played with an incredible band, the most wonderful hot shower of my life, and seeing 9 giraffes that looked like savanna dinosaurs. When we returned to Kadahenda after our safari in Akagera National Park on Monday morning, the system was nearly finished and the rain had started to come. Aside from providing moral support to the plumber, Claude, and taking turns standing as goal posts for the kids’ soccer game (just as glamorous as it sounds), we felt like most of our work was complete. It was so exciting to see the system in action, with the first flushes and taps working exactly as expected. One of the concrete tap stands was even labeled “ALIA” in honor of Aria’s newfound masonry skills. We collected water samples from the first flush, tap, and original community water source, and then made our way back to Musanze with only two stops for Macgyvered engine repair along the way. We are the only team to have seen rain in the systems, which was very exciting for us.
The next day and a half continued to bring rain to the systems and gave us the opportunity to rest and recover a bit before the final stretch of the trip. We walked to Crema, which lives up to the hype from past teams, for Aria’s favorite honey latte and we wandered through the shops in downtown Musanze. In the evenings, we have taken advantage of free time to stream the Lion King in painstaking 5 minute segments. This down time has been much appreciated after a very busy week!
Last night, I started feeling pretty sick. I’m taking antibiotics now that will hopefully help me kick this bug, but it’s been tough to sit in bed like banana beer waiting to brew. The rest of the team learned how to make chapati this morning and went to the university, INES, in the afternoon to test water samples we’ve taken over the past few days with help from our pal Hasan. As I write this post, I continue to be pretty useless but hopefully on the mend, looking forward to our last three busy days in Rwanda. I’ll be back on the blog after we return to the US to write a wrap-up post and add pictures to our previous post. Until then, I’ll be trying to drink as much pineapple Fanta as I can and savoring the last of our time with our friends and community!
Megan
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