Celebrating life is a little foreign

Yesterday brought a birthday and a site visit into my day. Dennis and I began the day with munching some left over rice and a sauce for breakfast (it had been reheated- and so far not sick, so that is a plus!). Two of the facilitators here on the ground living with us cooked the sauce up to delicious perfection (thanks go to Isugi and Anathalie)! Some extremely hot peppers go into the mix (piripiri), but just enough to add flavor without burning you from the tongue and tummy out! The peppers went into a tomato paste with onions, eggplant and more. It tasted just as good the second time around, though after eating it, I hoped it would semi-double as my lunch…but nope! Everyone was hungry enough that we ended up at a buffet!

After a little more data entry, Dennis, Isugi and Anathalie were up for a Rwandan buffet. These buffets can be purchased with or without meat, and all for about 2 dollars. The buffet had cassava, beans, plantain (matooke), potatoes, rice, pasta, cabbage, and then either goat, chicken, or beef brouchets (like shishkabobs). I took far too much- because of course my stomach is much smaller than my brain thought it was! In the States I wouldn’t have felt badly, and would have ended up with a doggie-bag (a foreign concept to even Dennis haha). Here, however, I had to leave it on the table, feeling guilty for the waste of perfectly delicious food. By this time we were clearly going to be late to the community, but then again, everyone is late to just about everything in Africa (or at least so I have heard/experienced). So when I suggested we go to the buffet after visiting the site, I was jokingly told, ‘that would be a sin, so eat up!’

Afterwards, we hopped on motos and where off to visit a lovely bunch of women who were part of a women’s cooperative working to raise pigs and grow maize. It is interesting to note, that communities here in Rwanda are dictated what they can and cannot grow in terms of vegetables. So while one community can grow bananas, another maize, and another beans, they cannot grow whatever is not in their zone. This is incredibly limiting in some regards, because soil that is better for some types of plants vs others may not be used in the most effective manner. But on the other hand, when a plant sickness destroys crops or a specific food plummets in value, not everyone is affected. So if the price of potatoes drops, not all of the country is impacted (presuming that all of the country would have grown potatoes in the first place). This is a challenge, but also an attempt to maintain a relatively stable economy. For better or worse, that is how these communities are required to focus their efforts in cultivating the land.

In terms of animals, there is far more leniency, but tends to be pockets of people tending to one or another animal. The regions near Musanze have many sheep. Lovely colors (through probably filthy enough you would just through away the rug rather than take it to the cleaners back home. But, having said that, I have yet to see anyone here using the furry wool at all! I guess time will tell on that one! Cows are popular in Isugi’s hometown area and goats tend to be relatively prevalent all over (as far as I have seen). Piggery is clearly catching on, but I find it interesting since so few people actually eat pork in Rwanda. Our visit was very interesting, though sadly much was lost in a lack of translation. The women were very friendly though, and one thing that continuously strikes me is color. If I listed all the colors I saw in their clothing in Cyabingo, it would take an entire post! But I love it, it’s so much braver than the dull subway browns, greys and blacks of our cities where occasionally someone is bold enough to buy a red peacoat or have a yellow raincoat with say….purple boots. J

Here to be in those colors is professional the black slacks and pressed shirts of white and blue, but the color in the African fabrics are just exquisite! I would just walk around wrapped in them if the extra layer wouldn’t have me in a melted puddle by the side of the road. I look forward to doing some fabric shopping here (either in Kigali or here in Musanze) though, so that I can wear them before I return to the States where they are far too bold for everyday wearing!

As for the birthday, Ernest, one of our fabulous facilitators had his 23^rd birthday the 13^th, so we wanted to celebrate it with/for him! Turns out he has only celebrated it 3 times in his life. It merely was dinner a few beers and some biscuit cookies- NICE biscuits. The evening resulted in a dance lesson between Isugi and I (Thanks Eva for taking me out to learn the two step) and some relatively hilarious dancing by Ernest to “Call me maybe.” Ernest did a little speech on how people do not celebrate birthdays here, but I find that on its own ironic. In a place like the US where you are almost guaranteed another birthday we celebrate; where living day to day can be a miracle, people don’t count the years as reason to celebrate their survival.

As for today (the 14^th), I visited two more communities outside of Musanze in the area surrounding Lac Bulera. After a relatively long bus ride toward the volcano named Muhabura, we finally hopped off the bus to jump on motos for our first meeting of the day. We were welcomed with the most beautiful welcome song. I wanted to get up and dance and sing with them, or at least video it, but alas I did not, because I honestly didn’t want to break the reality of the moment. Then, we got into introducing Spark and the more serious matters began. The community had a sad story, many of the workers in the communities had left to go work fields in Uganda, because here in Rwanda there was not enough land, and little (if any) choice on what to plant.

There seemed to be little hope in cultivating much of the rocky landscape though it would be hard to tell by how green everything was in the parts of the villages that I traversed. Even in a spot that I thought the weather must have been killing a bean crop, I was told that actually the plot was designated to provide the seeds for the next bean crop! (Oh but of course, the non-farmer in me realized immediately what a silly thought that was for a place so green! They were being dried on purpose). Mostly maize and beans were growing around me though we drove past some sorghum drying, a few avocado and banana trees on our moto ride to the next site visit.

The road from our first meeting to the second was so bumpy that we had to pay the moto drivers double what would have normally been necessary for such a distance! It was beautiful, (beyond my death grip on the back handle of the moto) with a lovely lake view and more than a few adorable children running to the side of the road shouting out the ever present “muzungu”! There are no other NGOs working in these districts (probably in part because it is so hard to reach), and so this meant that only maybe once a month did anyone see or hear motos, let alone see one with a muzungu on the back with a shiny silver helmet hiding her mouth. It was sad but interesting that so many of the villagers saw us as a blessing long awaited for in their prayers, and yet I know very well that $3000 will not entirely uproot their circumstance. There is so much need and so the work is so hard.

Since the villagers were not yet gathered, I went for a walk with Anathalie, our two moto drivers, and a few villagers that tagged along. We didn’t get very far before I told Anathalie to ask these people if they had any questions for me. And once the flood gates opened there were so many! About farming machinery, techniques for small farms (I talked about the organic ones I had been to) and even about poverty and climate. It is amazing how different our two homes are yet, they are just beginning to realize how wonderful their own land is. I was asked why it is that people come back to Rwanda and if I would choose to live here if I had the choice to stay with the same pay as in the States. It was an interesting question (particularly due to the pay stipulation), but was followed up by this one question: “Is there any one thing about Rwanda that you find unique or wonderful?” 

My answer was of course yes, that there are many wonderful things, but I was completely honest in my response that community cohesion after the genocide, being able to put it in the past is one of the most incredible character feats I have ever witnessed. It is not forgotten, but remembered, and yet, there is person after person choosing every day to wake-up and trust. This spirit is one of the most amazing aspects of Rwanda, and something that I don’t think Rwandans truly can appreciate without seeing places like the Middle East where people never let go of the past and continue to fight one another rather than live in harmony. While education and solid leadership among Rwandans is needed for industries to prosper there is so much potential here. It just needs a person to come around who is not interested in power, but merely the ability to help communities learn to solve their own problems- get electricity through solar or other alternative energies than firewood, buy machines for farming in large groups so that the equipment is economical, and even drills to create latrines- but this has to come from within. If there are not young Rwandans educated enough to understand these concepts, then there will always be needs for us muzungus, and then development has failed. Perhaps we are needed for initial momentum to be built, but in the end, it’s about communities taking ownership and sustaining the progress they want to see.

When we finally came back to the community gathered around a beautiful shady area, we learned about this lake view properties challenges. This area had no electricity, latrines, or even a hospital/clinic within an hour walk. They had a water tap, but it was 200RWF per jerry can filled. Many a fruit were squished into the openings of the cans to keep water from spilling out as lids seemed to have been lost or broken. In the end, there was still a little girl with a water bottle from home that was milky as could be. The babies were full of energy (which is a good sign rather than being lethargic), but I think for the young children with their big tummies the prospect of having a muzungu in their village was shocking enough that their attention did not waiver. There is so much to be done, and yet the rocky landscape seems to provide an impediment in every step one takes. The children there have learned to run without hurting themselves (whereas I am lucky to walk normally)- and like these children learning how to get by, I think there must be ways for their communities to improve upon their circumstances.

The practicality and genuine curiosity seen in the communities we visited was reassuring. I hope that their first NGO interaction will be successful and give them hope rather than leave them dismayed. Again I was reminded that things are not always as they seem, and that there are wonderful people everywhere just struggling to make a difference.