Back in time

I’m really mind blown at how time could have seemed to stand still around here in terms of development. I still remember my Sub B (year 2) class where we drew pictures of the development of housing over the ages. One of the very early phases of housing was mud houses. These should have been imitations in museums by now, but here, a vast number of people have no alternative. Many houses are really just a construction of wooden poles with a mud filling as walls. Although clay brick houses are more common, mud houses are still a reality with the really poor households.

Transport

The main modus of transport in Rwanda is per foot. Everywhere you go, you see people walking along the road. No-one even try to hitch hike, as there are so few car’s on the road and they are always jam packed already. For short distances, you can make use of motorbike taxis. You jump on the back of a motorbike, put on your passenger helmet (in stead of safety belt) and off you go (not that I’ve tried it … yet … toemaar, ek sal nie ma). Or you can make use of the minibus typical African taxis, as seen in this pic. Very few people have cars. In fact, the roads are so quiet, that people walk in the road until they are hooted to make way. There are also no speed limit signs, as the pedestrian hazards, the quality of road and the lack of street lights kindly regulates speed by itself. Yes, there are no street lights outside towns, even if it’s a highway. And in some parts roads have so many pot holes that your speed averages only 30km/hr. For example, it took us 4 hours to drive 240km! This is now talking about the tar roads, not even to speak about smaller roads to remote villages. Those roads are so bad, your top speed is 20km, making a 2 hour journey of just 40km. I definitely don’t have enough patience yet to be a driver on these roads.

Visit to Butare’s Bishop

On our way, we paid a quick visit to each diocese’s bishop. These visits helped me a lot to understand today’s setup of communities. The bishop basically serves as the ‘tribe leader’. Much more than being just concerned about church matters, the bishops spoke of community and poverty issues with such wisdom and insight. They are definitely the people most in touch with reality. People come to them for advice, guidance and help out of spiritual and physical poverty. I can now understand why RDIS and Tearfund choose to work through the local churches. Church leaders know the people and their circumstances better than any NGO could ever dream of and it has been proven time and again that addressing just the people’s physical needs is not enough to get them out of the poverty cycle. Their needs as a person need to be addressed as a whole. Also, what differentiate the churches’ approach is that it looks at a community as a whole, in stead of just focussing on the people with the greatest need.

Butare’s bishop sat in a small office with a small window with a few beams streaming through. In our world, we would have had the light on for sure, but here, when daylight shines with enough light to see (no matter how little) energy is conserved (I’m just worried about their poor eyes, working in this poor lighting). The bishop gave us a quick overview of his involvement in the community: coffee plantations, bee hives, literacy and functional accountancy education, environment management, fighting HIV AIDS and Malaria, land development and more. These are some of the issues they just can’t ignore.

A reflection of poverty levels

On our way to a rural village, we made a pit stop (I think the bushes would have been a better bet than the long drop though). These two were playing on the road, keeping themselves occupied by picking up little stones and shells. If I wasn’t on another photo spree, I might have missed them as they were completely camouflaged by dust. I think this photo speaks for itself.

Hase kos

We had rabit for dinner tonight. Dear Beatrice (our cook) makes great food, but her meat cooking skills needs a bit more than just a bit more of work (sy kook daai hoender/haas/beesvleis omtrent tot dit biltong is!). I couldn’t really expect more though, seeing that the normal Rwandan family can afford to eat meat only once a year. So meat preparation skills are a shortage in general.

Rwandan Stoves

Electricity and gas is very expensive, so most families cook with wood. This has lead to a very creative way of efficient cooking. The stove consists of 5 to 6 bricks (from clay and sand). This bricks are then built into the ground with an opening for fire wood. Only 3 pieces of wood is required to keep the cooking going for a whole day. More than one stove can be positioned adjacent to each other, with sand filling the gap in between to conduct heat from the one stove to the other. The normal amount of wood required for cooking has been reduced with a 3rd using this oven.This stove was invented locally and the people have now been contracted by the local authority to spread the stoves to the surrounding regions. You can buy a stove for just £15. And it’s easy transportable when you move. Just dig the bricks out of the ground and reassemble when you get to your new place. Any orders?

Farming project in Shyogwe

This 40 hectares of swamp has been transformed under RDIS’s direction for agricultural purpose. 600 Families, around 3000 people, have been lifted from poverty as the result. In the valley, the practice crop rotation, planting corn, carrots, tomatoes cabbage and beans. Then there’s also animal activities. They keep cows, chickens, pigs and have fish breeding ponds. The farming is run by a committee of local people. RDIS provide the people with agricultural and animal rearing training and advise the committee on management issues.

Education

It’s currently school holidays but English afternoon classes are provided at this school. We arrived 30min late for the class. The teacher hasn’t pitched yet but around 60 people varying from 4 years to probably 34 were waiting eagerly to learn more. Classes were separated in beginners, intermediate and advanced. I went to sit in on the advanced English class but before I new it, the teacher has introduced me and disappeared after he told the class that I would take the lesson for the next hour! My first day in Rwanda and I’m teaching English (with my Afrikaans accent). And guess the first question I got from a teener … are you married?

Last year, the government implemented ‘education for all’. Primary school is now free for everyone. Even adults that didn’t have the opportunity before can now return to school. Classes are held in morning and afternoon sessions, so that more people can get through school with the limited number of schools and teachers. English is especially very important to the Rwandese education, as it empowers them to acquire knowledge with most books and internet information in English. Hence a major requirement for foreign English teachers.

Compassion Childcare Project

We paid a quick visit to the Gitarama Parish Compassion project. 226 Children are sponsored here. If you don’t know much about CompassionUK, visit their website, but in essence, children at risk are identified and supported by a sponsor to receive education, food, clothes and social and spiritual development. Here are some of the kiddies with me!

Water Sanitation Project

An artificial lake in between hills outside Gitarama is used for water sanitation and serves three regions. The water is pumped from the lake and treated with four products for purification. With gravity, this water is then fed to water kiosks in the surrounding regions.

Water Kiosks

Very few people can afford to have clean running water at their homes. The majority fetch water for cooking and cleaning from a water kiosk such as this one. The people here walk an average of 1 km to this kiosk, but in other areas they might need to walk much further. 20 Litres cost £1.

Energy

Electricity shortage is a real problem here … as I’m writing now, the power has gone out a few times during the last hour so my fingers are fiddling their way around the key-board in darkness. Luckily my laptop can last a while on power saving settings. And the bit of inconvenience is good practice for touch-typing in any case!

First week’s agenda

RDIS is supported by Tearfund UK. Tearfund has recently taken on a new country director (serving the whole of Rwanda and Burundi). The manager of RDIS organised a tour through the four dioceses for the Tearfund director to introduce him to the variety of projects, and I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the party. This was an amazing experience, travelling for three days with these remarkable two people who have worked across quite a number of African countries in development roles.
We started in Gitarama, proceding to Butare, then Kigeme and finally through the rain forest to Cyangugu at lake Kivu.
Back in Gitarama today (Saturday the 25th) to catch up with rest, reading and writing.

Interesting Facts

• Total population: 10 million
• Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa
• Children borne per women: 5.25
• Infant mortality rate: 8.5%
• People living with HIV/AIDS: 1 million
• Percentage living on agricultural activities (mainly subsistence): 90%
• Percentage living below poverty level of $1 per day: 70%
• Inflation rate: 9.5% (2008)
• Languages: Kinyarwanda as 1st language, French as 2nd language (16%), English(8%) as 3rd.
• Export: mainly tee and coffee (restrictions currently prevents export exploitation)
• Major issues: food security, malnutrition, AIDS/Malaria, population growth, environment degradation, quality education

First Impressions

Wow, this place is clean. People live so basic, with bare concrete floors in the best of homes, but everything is spotless clean and no litter is seen anywhere.
People are really friendly and take personal interest. And I feel safe. The title of a ‘country of a 1000 hills’ is an understatement, but its beauty is definitely not credited enough! Weather is great. Warm, not hot, during the day and mild during night time. And the food is right down my line – any type of fruit or veg you can think of!

RDIS

RDIS’s head office is in Gitarama. The building is sort of a combined jam factory/office/guest house. It consists of an office, three rooms for their jam factory, a kitchen, three bedrooms and a bathroom. This is my new home. I will be based here for the duration of my stay, with field trips to other Dioceses every now and again. RDIS work across four dioceses (regions) in central and south-western Rwanda, serving nearly half the country’s population.

RDIS has witnessed the central role that the church plays in the socio-economic development of the people. Much progress has been made as the organization focus on promoting unity and participation in the healing process of the people through social transformation brought about by spiritual change and participation of the community in identifying and implementing relevant projects to overcoming their daily problems.

Main focus of activities:
- Capacity building for sustainable development;
- Child care and youth development;
- Food security interventions and water improvement;
- Evangelism and land management;
- Environment management.

Over the next week or so, I will be exposed to real projects as an introduction on how the organisation operates … and hope to get my hand in the pie soon after!

Arrival

I arrived just past 11pm on Sunday at Kigali airport, and was really relieved when I saw someone holding a piece of cart board with some words resembling my name. Vieter and Frederick from RDIS greeted me with broken English and tired yet really friendly eyes. We got in to a Toyota bakkie and made our way to Gitarama, an hour’s drive outside Kigali. So there I was, sitting in a car with two complete strangers as if their best friends in this far off country (which they actually did become later), cruising towards some place, somewhere and I realised how much I’ll have to trust in God during the coming 10 weeks.