Thanks so much all!

To those who supported me by reading these stories, with financial support, email encouragements and prayer. As the saying go ‘it wouldn’t have been possible without you!’

Lasting impressions

What will remain with me:
Time for people – the Rwandese always have time for people, no matter what the schedule says. There is time to talk to you and have a proper in depth conversation, and the rest can wait.
Inclusion – everyone is welcome in every event. You can attend anyone’s wedding, you can attend a meeting even if it doesn’t pertain to you, and as a stranger you will be asked to give a speech at a gathering (informal or formal) as a token that they want you to feel included.
Appreciation – everyone shows sincere appreciation for every little thing you help with, no matter how small or simple it might seem, and to me that’s what makes it worth doing. When going to say bye to children I taught during the first few weeks, I was bowled over by their appreciation for what I did. And then I realised how something so basic (which I actually dreaded doing) was a top privilege to them, something they’ll never forget.
Forgiveness & Reconciliation – Picture this: your next door neighbour, someone you’ve known for ages and shared meals with, one day turns against you (un-understandably) and kills your family members. This is the reality that so many Rwandese now live with after the Genocide. How do they do it? Three words: forgiveness, reconciliation and God. Those very neighbours have been brought to repentance, they have been forgiven by the survivors of those very people they killed, reconciliation has united both sides, and all made possible only through their surrender to God. This is the true story of lives of many – an amazing inspiration to all of us – but unfortunately not the story of still many more. And therefore we need to pray for them as living with such fear and un-forgiveness is destroying their lives and keeping them in poverty.

Meeting my girl at last

I’ve been sponsoring a girl in Nairobi, Kenya, through Compassion for just over 3 years now and on my way back to the UK I stopped over to visit her the first time. It was a very special way of ending off my trip!

I was told that I would visit the project office first and would then be taken to her house afterwards. Upon arrival, they surprised me - Lilian and her mother ware waiting for me at the office. They took her out of school to spend the day with me. There she stood in her, probably, nicest dress (all tattered and very old fashioned) but she looked lovely. We had the chance to quickly talk a bit and she then guided us to her house. Fortunately, being only 12 years old, she peaks English almost perfectly and made more in depth conversations possible. As we walked to her home, she tried to teach me a song in Kiswahili, her mother tongue, and I think I didn’t do too badly. I wasn’t aware of this before, but she actually lives in a slum in Nairobi. I’ve driven past slumb/plakkerskampe a thousand times in my live in SA, but never entered one deeply. This was a shock but exactly as TV prepared me. Raw sewage and horrible smells, litter everywhere and dilapidated houses (made of mud and sinkplaat) almost on top of each other. Luckily hers wasn’t far away and we reached it within five minutes’ walk. I got to meet her family and hear more about their situations. Afterwards, I had a bit more private time with Lilian and then we had lunch together before I had to say bye.

This was such a very brief meeting but meant the world to me, and I hope to her. Through letters and pictures, you can only gather so much about a person and now at least both of us have some reality to hold on to. I also know that no matter what, I want to see this girl through University in order to make sure that nothing keeps her from fulfilling her potential in life.

My Activity Summary

Week 1 – Visit a variety of projects throughout southern Rwanda.
Week 2 – Gitarama/Shyogwe: Teaching English; visit more projects in the vicinity; assist with jam/juice bottle labelling and planting seed for trees.
Week 3 – Gitarama: Assist with writing project progress reports; banana leave cards marketing; teaching English; assist in juice factory.
Week 4 – Gitarama: RDIS Newsletter compilation; assist with various projects in different capacities; teaching English.
Week 5 – Gitarama: Develop a practically implementable performance management model; visit rural farmers; teaching English.
Week 6 – Gitarama: Present my performance monitoring model; ICT training; teaching English.
Week 7 – Gitarama/Shyogwe: Stat’s formula template; Financial reporting assistance; Video recording of projects; ICT training.
Week 8 – Butare/Kigeme/Cyangugu: training RDIS staff on implementing Performance Monitoring tools in the field; ICT training.
Week 9 – Nyungwe/Gitarama: Visit Chimps in the rain forest; Community Action Plan project participation
Week 10 – Gitarama: Newsletter finalisation; produce 2nd dvd of project video recordings

Full on till completion

My last week was quite jam-packed trying to get all my little projects finished off properly before I leave, in between visiting friends and colleagues for the last time, go for runs and walks on my favourite routes, eat as much I can of my favourite food, ‘slurp’ing in as much I can of African sun and finishing the last of my books I brought with.
A few things I’ve been working on for a while came to conclusion:
- The compilation of a 10 page newsletter, RDIS’ second addition
- The production of another dvd with my video recordings on RDIS’ work in various projects
- The completion and distribution of my guide to monitoring performance in development projects

I’m satisfied with what I got accomplished during the 10 weeks, and especially as leaders from different communities expressed their appreciation just before I left. I only hope that where I sowed words of ‘consultancy’, it won’t be buried in note books and locked in drawers, but that it will be planted on the land of the poorest and erupt to make a difference.

But this is not the end, I’m afraid. Nothing annoys me more than being introduced to problems and not doing something about it. And of course rural Rwanda still faces ginormous challenges. So I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve which I’m going to try get off the ground … at God’s timing.

Community Action Planning

‘Food Security and Livelihoods Improvement through Disaster Risk Reduction’ is the theme of RDIS’ work for the three year period 2008 to 2010. RDIS realised that addressing the first part is not feasible before the latter is actioned and hence disaster risk reduction receives much emphasis in every project they undertake. In order to improve effectiveness even further, RDIS staff devoted a whole week in September to be trained by an expert in this field, Dr Willie Nkamuhebwa, a Tearfund consultant from Uganda. The topic was discussed under the banner of Community Action Planning. In essence, change can’t be imposed on community members if they don’t understand, embrace and take ownership of it fully. The training therefore focussed on theory first and then followed by practical application where the Gahogo community was invited to participate. Over 100 people met under the trees in Gitarama for two mornings. They firstly drew a community map, then identified their major hazards, prioritising them by assessing their likelihood and level of impact, and thereafter collectively agreed on actions to be taken. Water shortage and food security were the two hazards identified to bare most risk to the locals. With the community action plan resulting from this intense week, the community will hopefully not only cooperate with RDIS, but also take ownership of seeing these risks diminishing.

Tracking Chimpanzees in the rain forest

This was quite exciting. We left at 4:30 in the morning to arrive at 6am, when dawn breaks, at the area in the forest where the chimps live. Upon arrival, our guide contacted the chimp trackers (staff of the nature reserve) to find out exactly which tree the chimps chose this morning as their breakfast table. We then started to make our way in that direction. About and hour’s walk in to the forest, we met with a tracker and was asked to stay put and be quiet for a while so that we can listen to the chimp’s call in order to find their precise location. We waited for about 5 min and then heard the first soft cry of the chimps which got loader and loader until it felt like they were on top of us. Quickly, the tracker started bashing straight down the steep slope, cutting away vegetation with his machete, and then motioned towards us to follow. We weren’t prompted to, but naturally all kept quiet as we stumbled in his tracks. A few minutes’ bundu-bashing and we came to a halt as right in front of us, about 20m away, 3 big chimps were feasting on fruit and leaves high in a tree. We all made ourselves comfortable on the twigs and bushes, took out our cameras and stared at the apes for the hour that we were allowed. Every now and again they would start calling again. The guide explained that they are calling the rest of their group to come and eat, but we reckoned that they were calling their friends to come and look at the muzungo (white people).

The whole experience was one of those once in a lifetime ones, definitely worth seeing the chimps in their natural environment. And definitely a highlight of my trip.