Reciprocal Learning

After returning from Bihanga, our group decided that we would turn the left over rice from our failed M&E discussion into a Mexican food feast. It was delicious! Natasha sautéed some onions and peppers, I made guacamole, and we heated up the rice. It hit the spot, and enticed our friend from Gisenyi to stay the night as well! This turned out to be a fabulous evening with Igisoro, a game of Mafia, and an incredibly intense discussion on personal privacy versus the government’s information collection for national security ‘needs.’ 

We were actually talking far less about information privacy in Rwanda, and really focused on that in the US. It was intriguing to hear the opinions being defended, and the differences in logic models that made freedom of speech (aka private speech as well as public speech) made for interesting back and forth. There were of course no sound conclusions, but nonetheless, it was a fascinating discussion that brought out an impressive defense of data collection by government and of privacy of communication being the only thing worth protecting as a means to oppose your government should things go astray. It was a bit mind-numbing by the end, but I definitely came out on the side of protecting communication privacy in the US. I am not sure it’s the same side I would come out on for all countries, but I would need some serious evidence that a lack of privacy was necessary for national stability (not just security). We chatted late into the night, which was probably a risky decision due to the early morning we had planned for visiting Shingiro on Wednesday. It worked out well (aka I was able to wake-up the next morning), and I definitely would not take back my involvement in that conversation!

Shingiro is a community that Dennis and I have visited before, so it was nice to be returning to a Spark community for a second time. When you return people really do remember you, and this time we “sparklers” were returning en masse! The muzngu population sky rocketed. Dennis, Natasha, Emily, Sasha, Sofia and I returned together to talk with both our adult grantees and the youth group. Isugi and Aime took motos after us muzngus, so when we got to Shingiro we weren’t sure what our next step was. The motos headed back to town to pick-up the rest of the party. Sophia and I sat for a little while with the women of the adult group, but then I went back to the road to be sure I could pay for out motos upon their return. This, like most good plans, didn’t quite happen. I went back to the road and was taken on a walk into town to see the ‘city center’. The center consisted of a small office building, some restaurants, shops and a water tap with a neatly lined-up array of different sizes of rectangular jerry cans. The woman leading me led me to a cave near the town’s main office, a miniature version of a city hall. The place was beautiful, and while I am not sure why I was taken there, I worked on my numbers during the walk and learned a little of a Kinyarwanda song. If only I could learn to speak it, I could definitely get more attention. Upon our arrival, Natasha had begun with the youth group, and therefore, I spoke through Isugi with the adult group to follow-up on the surveys we had done the week before as Dennis completed another two interviews with new meeting attendees. It was a bit slow at first, but worked out well by picking-up speed, because I got to hear about how some of the animals were dying and others were being saved. It was good to hear that animals that were falling sick were not dying, because their owners could afford to buy them medicines.

The one that I heard about dying was a relatively gruesome story, but seeing it enacted by the women before I knew what it meant by the women of Shingiro took a significant amount of self-control not to laugh at! One of the sheep/goats had been partially eaten by something that had come out of the forest (not really sure what kind of creatures would do this from the woods). This is clearly a very negative thing, but the way the woman described it was by standing up waving at her tush and making faces. Since she was speaking in Kinyarwanda, I couldn’t understand what she was saying (until after Isugi translated it for me), so all I see is the lady waving at her bottom and talking very excitedly. As the story settled in, its severity did as well, because many of the families did not have protective shelters for their animals even after this had happened. So in the end, there were only two options- leave the animal outside and risk its loss or bring it to sleep inside with the family. Neither of which are ideal options, and the sheep that was lost had special significance to the community, because it had birthed 2 babies! One productive critter for sure, and therefore one of the success stories of sustainability. Even after giving away one sheep and losing the other to this creature, the family was still left with one sheep to continue breeding. Ideally, this sheep would have been sold, but the process at least had not ended in failure of the potential for income generation. Isugi and I left the adults in the hands of Natasha and Claude (another intern/facilitator pair) as we joined the youth club in a ‘yard’ nearby.

The youth were an interesting case. They too had chosen to have a sheep rearing project in order to get money to have events on HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns and plays. While there have been no plays conducted, that is not to say that awareness is not increasing. The sheep may have had nothing to do with it beyond helping the youth become more prominent in the community, but in the end, the club was hosting testing days for village members to find their status and learn how to prevent future infections. Isugi and I worked together as Dennis and Aime conducted surveys elsewhere. It was really refreshing to be able to interview all of the people present in a timely manner! 

While we were not able to complete all of the interviews we needed, we scheduled a follow-up for next week to interview more students. I was particularly impressed with one mother’s support for her child in the youth group. The student had been ill (not from HIV/AIDS), but was so passionate about the project, that here mother had traveled all the way to our meeting spot in order to be interviewed in his stead. It makes for less accurate data perhaps, but also for fascinating third person stories.

Shingiro is a bit of a moto ride from the road, but it only has a few particularly rocky sections, so it goes by quickly. The hard part is the amount of dust that gets kicked up- now that we are in dry season (until September), little keeps the dirt down and I get home from the villages coated in dirt from head to toe- continuously makes me grateful for my full-face helmet! The trip home via matatu was uneventful, and the girls met us back in town (Musanze) to try Dennis and I’s cheap lunch find. We went to Volcano Restaurant near the ‘stuff’ market (vs the ‘food’ market). Then, being as exhausted as I was, I headed to bed for a nap in order to make sure I was capable of being awake far later for our presentation of M&E (monitoring and evaluation) for the Spark Facilitators.

Our meeting started before dinner was finished being cooked. We have two house girls that help with cooking the ‘big meals’ (for more than just us interns). There certainly was an anticipation of good food coming out, but definitely not many people would have missed some good African cooking, so the meeting was perfectly attended. We started out teaching our facilitators about the differences in monitoring and evaluation, and also between qualitative and quantitative data. Then, we delved into the collection process itself, how it applies to Spark, why it is critical to maintaining a steady donor support and how it can help improve the Spark’s process along the way. Since Dennis and I have been focused on collecting quantitative data for our group through surveys, I have definitely been looking forward to talking about the how, what, and why of survey-taking to prevent survey fatigue in our facilitators. Natasha (another of the interns) then taught about the most significant change (in-depth qualitative) interviews. It was really great to see the facilitators learning about the differences and similarities, and asking some good questions too! The night ended well, and hopefully with much learned. Since the next day would be mostly data entry, it was good to give things a bit of time to settle down.

This trip has been a wonderful introduction to life in Rwanda and the expat scene, but it it also important to leave something productive behind. The adage teaching a person to fish, rather than giving them a fish applies immensely to the work that Spark is trying to do, and the position we have as interns. Being able to teach our Rwandese facilitators how to collect, enter and analyze data won't all happen in 2 months, but the collection process of collection should be much further along than when we came!