Teachers Help Please!

I’m a bit thrown in to the deep en here – now delivering two English classes a day for up to 90min each! Everyone wants to learn English as they regard it as their key to knowledge. So the need is big and here I am, trying to help where I can but with very little skill in this area. These lot are any teacher’s dream, but any non-teacher’s fear … when I end off the class, they just keep sitting wanting to learn more, or run after me as I leave to get a few more words in with me.

I’m taking the beginners in the morning and the advanced English students in the afternoon, which means they can speak broken sentences at least. BUT I’ve got no teaching training and very little experience, so I’m ‘phoning my friends’ and calling on all teachers to PLEASE send me some advice, tips, ideas or anything that will help!

African Style Church

Yep, true to its reputation, church goes on for 3 hours, and now I’ve experienced it as well. Though I need to admit that their services are action packed and it actually feels like an hour only. What really helps is that we have someone translating everything to us. The church we’re attending in Gitarama is only two years old and therefore doesn’t have its own building yet. I really enjoy how young and old engage fully, especially when it comes to dancing on songs!

Kitchen Gardens

Here is a wide-practiced initiative of conserving water when managing crops for own consumption, called the Kitchen Garden (pronounced ‘chicken’ garden by the locals). The pyramid effect supposedly causes that water draining down from the top gets consumed by the crops on lower level and therefore less water is required for the same area of land. This is typically used for growing a variety of veg for the house. Mmm, might give it a go at home!

Organic Farmers

Rwanda’s great asset of the spectacular rolling green hills, is also a big drawback to the people’s prosperity. Because of the majority of land on an incline, little is suitable for agricultural and animal farming, so the space they do have needs to be used optimally. RDIS introduced a 3-layered animal cage for this purpose. Not sure what I think of it, but it was quite a sight to see. When you enter in to the little shed, you find on one level some pigs and goats, on the next a few rabbits and at the top a hole lot of chickens. Their agricultural issues still need some work. It’s quite difficult to provide general solutions or code of practice to communities like these, as each family’s situation of land is different.

Sunbathing

After lunch one day, I was ‘slurp’ing in the sun, sitting on the grass outside. I soon was so lekker lui that I decided to take a quick nap on the grass. A little while later, I heard some voices coming around the corner and when I looked behind me there were five people staring at this woman all spread out on the grass. I quickly got up, collected my shoes from where I kicked them off and went to greet the visitors, only to find out that it’s the lady Mayor and her committee members, paying RDIS a visit. Speaking about first impressions! Oops!

Bugarama Rice Plantation

This project visit was completely crazy. When we got out of the car, we were surrounded by children immediately, and as we did our walk through the rice plantation, they kept appearing till there were probably hundreds nosily following us. I later learnt that the rice valley hosts around 50 000 people! Though no-one really knows how many for sure.

We started our visit with a meeting in a small dark building where the local leaders informed us on the project and its progress. They actually invited villagers to tell their testimonies themselves. Initially, the people suffered from very poor housing, clothing, education and nutrition. RDIS identified the potential of using the valley for rice plantations and started the work of facilitating this through the local parish in the year 2000. This plantation is now one of the very few that serves the whole country, and provides an income for 90 families with many more involved with consequent village activities.

The locals told the following stories:

• Before, our houses were made of only banana leaves because of the shortage in trees. Now, after assistance with growing trees, we have much more sturdy houses.
• Before, we (mainly women) had to process the rice with hand tools which took very long. Now, with the new machine, we are able to process rice much faster and to a better standard.
• Before, I didn’t have proper clothes. I didn’t even have soap. Now, because of the benefits of the rice plantation, I have good quality clothes (and she stood up to show us) and my children can go to school. I belong to the Mother’s Union (around 30 women per group meeting on a regular basis). We learn to make clothes and sell to the people. With the profit we make, we run a microfinance programme to support other women in need. We also learn to read and write and we pray together.
• Before, our widows, elderly people and the sick were left to look after themselves as we were not able to. Now, we are financially strong enough to support them in their needs.
• Before, I wasn’t able to obtain education. Now, I am literate and have been trained to teach others in literacy and funds management.
• Before, I was an orphan living on the streets. Now, I have a wife, a house, clothes and I was taught about the Bible, all made possible by the support of the community.

We were sent off with a glass bottle of Fanta each. It must have been a real expense for those people, but it was a real blessing for us in the heat!

Kigeme Remote Village

I joined a group of youth from the UK for a day. We drove for 2 hours (at 10 to 20 km/h) from the town Kigeme to get to this remote village. The journey gave me once again very good insight in to the life of the really rural. All over I saw people working in fields: men, women, women with babies on their backs, older people and children. The main challenge these people have to fight is the access to larger villages and markets. Because this is so hard, they need to survive with what resources they have, literally living from hand to mouth.

RDIS identified the dire need for intervention of this village and through the village parish, started their project in 2001. RDIS first of all listened to what the parish leaders reckoned the greatest need was and then planned their actions from there. Before 2001, the village had no facilities at all. Since then, major growth had occurred.

Upon arrival, we were made to sit down on a bench in the field and were welcomed by a team of parish leaders (serving as the town council) with song and then prayer. We were told that our interest in their activities, shown by coming all the way from England, is a big encouragement to the local people. After the short ‘meeting’, we were taken on a little tour to see the development achievements over that last eight years: three classrooms were built for primary school (no nearby school before); secondary school was started (50 students attending, with 8 sent to University from this school); literacy programme was started (for those who never had the opportunity to go to school); potato food storage building was built (no place existed before to store excess produce and hence lots was wasted); animal rearing, a.o. made possible by RDIS (Tearfund) with the provision of 10 cows to the community on a revolving loan basis; microfinance and savings programme initiated (people taught how to manage funds and could borrow money); widows support programme started. In addition, as the parish got more established through managing these activities, people were encouraged to fight witchcraft. 76 People turned from witchcraft practice – they even showed us the complete list of names and photo’s as evidence!

This project is a very good example of RDIS’s approach of church and community mobilisation. RDIS didn’t go in and manage the work. They simply mobilised the church and community to do it themselves. I’m all for this approach, as I’ve come to witness that one of the key failures of aid is the dependency and hence slackness it creates.

Water Supply

The other day, we stayed at a Guest House on our visit to a project. I was quite impressed with the standard, but little did I know that water supply is still a problem for everyone. I only realised it when I took a shower during the morning peak time. I was standing there, all soaped up, when the water suddenly stopped. I actually felt ashamed when I found myself praying for just a little bit more water to rinse myself because I realised that most out there don’t even have showers to start off with. But I still did long for that bit of water because I wasn’t exactly looking forward to going through the day with a soapy body and hence an itching bum. After a minute or two, a few more droplets trickled down. What a relief! How we get dependant on such basic things so heavily.

Welding Workshop

In welding classes, children learn to make items such as doors, windows, tables and transport mechanisms.

Carpentry Workshop

Wherever you go in Rwanda, you’re bound to see some carpenter entrepreneurs with small businesses on the road. It is from their products that people furnish their houses with beds, tables, chairs, benches and cupboards. These boys are therefore well off if they are educated in making these items themselves!

Sewing Training

Here is Martha, a girl that graduated from the Youth at Risk programme and is now employed to teach other children. She’s also one of my top students in my morning English class! Martha teaches them sewing techniques and how to make mainly skirts, shirts and trousers. It is a great asset for a woman in Rwanda to be able to make clothes, as clothes are otherwise imported and cost a lot more than the locally made.

Youth at Risk

Children between the age of 14 and 22 who have been orphaned (either as a result of HIV AIDS, malaria, the 1994 genocide or their parents jailed after the war) are a real concern everywhere in Rwanda. ‘Youth at Risk’ are those from this target group that live on the street or under severe poverty in child headed households and with no access to education, basic needs or proper nutrition. They are therefore at risk of engaging in prostitution and crime. RDIS initiated centres where these children can be trained in various trades for very low tuition fees. The types of trade include sewing, shoe making, crafts, carpentry and welding. At these centres, children are also educated in English (that’s where I come in), agriculture, family planning, HIV prevention and Bible studies and they participate in sport and cultural activities such as traditional Rwandan songs and dancing. The centres are managed by the Anglican church, but children from all denominations are taken in.

Depending on the resources available, the programme length at such a centre varies between 1 and 3 years. After graduation, the youth can then be selected to be a teacher for the next year’s group, or join an association to manufacture products for an income. Such jobs are scarce though, so ways to fund equipment for lending to the graduates, enabling self-start-ups, are currently being investigated. There are now 10 projects running with a total of 405 scholars enrolled this year. This initiative has lots more potential but already makes a huge difference in empowering in the order of 400 children a year to earn an income.

Mother’s Union

After the genocide, the country was left with a vast number of widows, many of whose husbands died and other whose husbands were jailed. A lady from Gitarama decided to do something about the widows’ struggle to adjust to living on their own and founded the Mother’s Union (MU). MU’s are now run in all dioceses. This association aims to look after widows and their families as a whole in managing Youth at Risk projects (see below above for more detail), educating widows in finance and savings, nutrition and hygiene and training them to make hand crafts for additional income. These ladies meet regularly to support each other morally and spiritually. Here is a photo of some of the crafts produced by the ladies.

Oh the Cow is a wonderful thing…

Amazing, one cow actually has the potential to assist a family out of poverty. Its manure increases soil nourishing for increased crop production. It produces milk (the only diary product available) for the family as well as to be sold. And then of course the meat. This family told us that through the products of their cow, they are now able to send their three children to school. One cow costs in the order of £80 – that’s all it takes (potentially) to free a whole family to live.

Animal Pharmacy

Shyogwe’s animal care / agriculture centre. Here, locals can buy all sorts of products to look after their animals, as well as plant seeds – a one stop for the farmer! On Wednesdays, people can come to receive free training and advice on looking after animals and their crops.

Trees – Climate Change Prevention

Why then are so much more trees required? Shouldn’t there be lots already seeing that the country is on the equator with a favourable climate for growth? The answer lies in over population, creation care and the genocide. After the genocide, a vast majority of the country had to relocate, choosing bushy areas not previously lived in. Much trees ware cut to make space for homes, and to build the homes with.
Because Rwanda is so hilly, it is naturally suppose to have lots of rain. But because of the deforestation, rainfall has decreased substantially. Having more trees enforces cloud accumulation in the area and hence increases rainfall.

Tree Nurseries

Who wants a more idyllic setting to work in? In the outdoors with enough shade and the rolling green hills as surrounding. Tree nurseries is an established yet still immerging initiative by the RDIS, beneficial to the individual households, the community and the globe. People can come to the nursery to learn how to grow all sorts of trees and fruit plants. They pay between 5 and 10 Rwandan Francs (that’s 0.5 to 1 pence), depending on their capability, as a token of valuing the service, to decrease their dependence on NGO aid and to increase the project’s sustainability (decrease its dependence on external funding). The nursery also produces its own trees to be sold to the community for very little, in order to promote their vision of each household with arable land to plant at least 5 trees per year. Each nursery produces in the order of 100 000 trees per year.

Three types of plants are grown: Forestry (e.g. timber for building houses, fire wood), agriculture (e.g. leaves providing feed for animals; trees that enhance soil fertility) and fruit. Around 35% of the country suffers from malnutrition, most instances because there is simply not a fruit-eating culture, even though the country is able to produce almost every kind of fruit available. Apart from the benefits to the households, excess trees could be sold by them to generate income. It clearly holds lots of benefits!

Tackling the issue of HIV-AIDS

Behind this door, in the Shyogwe diocese, I met a lady who’s contributed so much to the community in terms of addressing HIV and I really admire her endurance with the challenges she face. Beatrice lives her concern for the HIV epidemic by training representatives in all parishes in the region to address the issue by: 1) promoting prevention, 2) fighting discrimination against those who are affected, and most of all 3) encouraging people to be tested. She explained to me why this last point is so integral to combating the spread of the virus. Most people don’t want to know if they are positive, with the fear that they’ll know whether they are going to die and with the fear of being rejected by their community after being diagnosed. This of course eases the spread of the virus as people live obliviously. When people are tested negative, they are encouraged to stay clean. Their testimonies many times help a great deal to encourage others to follow the same route. If tested positive, the person is invited to join an association that helps them to adjust to living, obtain medication and educate them on why not to spread the virus. Sounds easy, but then there’s always the case of the poorest of the poor that sees prostitution as the only way to survive. How ironic.

Mahongo Market

I paid the local market a visit today. Here is the food section. Apart from this, they sell mainly clothes and shoes (all imported). You’d probably call this the shopping mall of the town, as the only other places where you can buy anything are the small shops on the road as I mentioned below.

Local Shops

I’ve had the question about shops around here. Well there’s actually not much to tell on this topic, ‘cause there are very few. With the exception of business people (10% if that much), Rwandese can’t afford anything but the very necessary food which they aren’t able to produce in and around their homes themselves. This they’ll buy in outdoor markets. Therefore there is a very small demand for things sold in shops. All I’ve seen so far are little house-shops like this one, where people sell a few drinks with basic household items or material for clothes. Kigali apparently has more shops resembling what we know, and Butare is the only other town with a proper food supermarket. Even then, predominantly imported items are sold ‘ten duurste’ as Rwanda hardly process or manufacture anything other than tee and coffee. This place has an infinite number of development opportunities. The positive side of the lack of shops is that I am definitely saving money!