Week Four and counting...

First of all, Good Morning! It's been a pretty busy few days for us this week. Picking up from where we ended on Sunday, we hosted Boniface, one of the choristers at church for dinner in the evening. The girls (Roxane and Faith) made pancakes and Speciose roasted peanuts for pre-dinner appetisers. All together it was a great night. We had lots of stories to share and throughout dinner the jokes continued. Boniface was great company and it just confirmed how much we have settled in here. The bad news was that our water flow stopped that evening. We did not have water from Sunday night until Tuesday afternoon; apparently all the houses in the neighbourhood were affected and it has something to do with the location on the hill. Where we live is called Mont Cyangugu - so you get the point…

On Monday, God blessed us with rain – and I say that for a reason. Myself and Faith were so desperate to flush the toilet, that at the first drop of rain, we rushed to get some bowls to collect rainwater. We called it ‘being resourceful’, Valentin called it getting Malaria (really?!) and Speciose said we could get Hyperthermia (understandable). Anyways, we are perfectly fine, no coughing, sneezing or symptoms of Malaria.
All through the day on Monday, we had been working on an Action Plan for the Improved Cooking Stoves project.

So Tuesday, we went back to Gatovu, got signatures to approve the photos we had taken previously and went round the houses we surveyed to find out if the households had indoor kitchen spaces as well the type of cooking stoves used. The day was productive but on Thursday we concluded that we should have checked these when we did the survey.

The next day, Michael, Faith and Patrice went to Mundima village while the rest of us went to town to find out the availability of the resources needed for the Rondereza stove. While in town, we bought a card and chose a birthday present for Speciose (hostess/best cook in the world!).

On Friday the first thing we did was to give Speciose a birthday surprise.We sang happy birthday and presented her with a card and a gift, she was very surprised and quite emotional. It definitely lifted her spirit; she’s been going through a tough time recently. Like a family, we shared hugs and kisses and made sure we ended her day by showering her with lots of prayers. The rest of the day consisted of discussions and planning.

At team meeting we discussed our progress with the cooking stoves and made a plan for the following week. Actually, this is concrete proof of how busy our week has been. We are basically co-managing the Improved Cooking Stoves project so we have to set everything in place in order for a smooth running, and we only have 5 weeks left to select, train and install 50 stoves in Mundima and Gatovu! Anyway, so we have meetings three times a day, basically before or after breakfast, lunch and dinner

We also looked at some examples of how organisations implemented cooking stoves in other countries. It is a big project and we need a few lessons from the professionals, as they say ‘Experience is the best teacher’.

Later in the evening, we were invited to dinner with some colleagues from England, they also happened to be members of Faith’s church (Her church has a partnership with the church here in Cyangugu)…The food was delicious and we thank God for a beautiful day.

So today was Umuganda; national cleaning day. Every last Saturday of the month, citizens are obliged to participate in a communal clean-up. We joined the citizens in hoeing the weeds on the cliff and digging trenches to aid rainfall run-off. We got a lot of attention when we first arrived, everyone talking about the ‘muzungus’ (white person/s), I'm sure they made comments on how we handled the hoe but we didn’t really pay attention to that and they got used to us after a short time. Roxane, Faith and I started with hoeing but after 5 minutes, soldiers took over. I thought it was because we were ‘young ladies’ or because we were doing it wrong but I noticed, that only men were doing the hard work. The women collected the rubbish (weeds) to clear the road. An hour and a half later, Umuganda in our neighbourhood was over.

In the afternoon, we went to help out at the feeding clinic nearby run by the Mother’s Union. We helped clean the centre and played with the children. Before porridge was served, we were happy just watching the children plays some local games. I joined in one of the games; I call it “only girls allowed”J. We sang some songs and helped serve porridge, it was an eventful day and there were more children than last week.

Tomorrow, we will be attending Zion Temple, a local charismatic church instead of our usual early morning service. Service is from 9am to 12pm, it will be our second time there. Really looking forward to tomorrow and the week ahead.

Till next time – Happy Reading! God bless X

Cooking Stoves Project

It’s exactly two weeks since we arrived in Rwanda. We are all keen to get started on some big projects. At the moment, we have just completed creating a survey for the cooking stoves project. RDIS is planning to replace the current stoves in Gatovu and Mundima villages for better, longer lasting and improved cooking stoves. The Rwandese government wants every household to be using these new stoves. Our timetable for this week is to finish creating the surveys in English and Kinyarwanda, distribute them in the villages, compile the data and analyse it. We will be presenting the data to the RDIS EP1VAT project manager at the end of the week.

So on Wednesday, we spent all day collecting the data. We had to do data collection in Gatovu village. Patrice went to help Sam with a training programme at Murangi Farm, so it was just the 4 of us and Michael. 

We divided ourselves into 2 groups, Michael was assisted by Faith or Roxane and Valentin was assisted by Faith or Roxane. I designated myself as the videographer/photographer so I could capture most of the action.

It was a long afternoon; it took 4 hours to complete the survey in Mundima. We got home about 1.30pm, to have lunch and take a short break. We set off for Mundima Village at 3pm, this time we had Patrice with us so it took less than half the time. Michael and Faith, Valentin and Roxane and myself and Patrice went in three different directions.

We managed to collect both sets of data in one day - Praise God! Next day, we started entering data onto an Excel worksheet, created tables, graphs, pie charts to illustrate the important data.

In the afternoon, Sam (RDIS Co-ordinator) had planned an excursion trip to Bugarama Hot Springs. The landscape was so beautiful, it is so strange to imagine the science behind it and apparently it has something to do with tectonic plates. It was great to see another part of Rwanda, everything about the day was lovely- even the journey! So we met Cristin an intern from Canada, she is working with RDIS for her semester abroad. She lives in Muhanga so tells us a lot about the ICS Muhanga team and what they have been up to. She is only in Cyangugu for 3 days though…L

On Friday, we had a meeting with Sam and Emmanuel (EP1VAT Project manager) to discuss the cooking stoves project, we got the chance to ask questions and find out more about it. It also gave us an opportunity to learn more about RDIS; Emmanuel gave us a brief overview, again. J

Our week so far has been productive. Still to come, we will have a presentation from Patrice (the agriculturist in the team, so clever he is!) for our weekly structured learning and tomorrow we will probably go to St Matthews to work with Compassion or help at the feeding centre run by the Mothers’ Union.  On Sunday after church we will be planning our timetable for the next week.

Okay so that’s it for the week, till next time…Murabeho(Good bye!) God bless

- Claudia

Cyangugu...Let's get to work

On Saturday the 5^th of October 2013, we arrived in Cyangugu to begin our 10 week programme with RDIS. Some representatives from the Diocese of Cyangugu including Sam RDIS ICS Co-ordinator, Michael RDIS Facilitator, Rev Ephraim and his wife Rev Berthe, Boaz Cyangugu Diocese Accountant, Enid, Assistant Manager at Peace Guest House were already at the house to meet us. After our welcomes and introductions, we were given a brief introduction to RDIS and the projects we would be working in. They informed us how much people in the community were looking forward to meeting us. The team felt very welcome and certain that our time spent here would be a fruitful and memorable one.

On Sunday, we woke up early to attend the English service at the Cathedral, which starts from 8am to 9:30am. Church service was very interesting as we were all looking forward to attending church in Rwanda. As the first ICS Team in Cyangugu, we were called up to the front to introduce ourselves. I was later surprised to find out most of the congregation thought I was Rwandese! I was a bit shocked by this but I have become more accustomed to people assuming I am Rwandese. In fact, this has encouraged me to learn more Kinyarwanda so I blend in J

On each day of our first week, we visited all the places we would be working at during this project. On Monday, we visited the Murangi Farm Training Centre; a project run under the EP1VAT (Ending Poverty One Village At A Time) programme. It was great to see the work of RDIS in helping local people out of poverty by training them to improve farming practices as well as educating them on hygiene, sanitation and water safety.

Valentin, our Team Leader, Roxane and Faith showed how keen they were to learn different farming techniques by practising their hoeing; they also tried their hands on using the grinding machine which is used to chop the grass to feed the cows. We had the opportunity to speak to some workers and beneficiaries to find out their experiences of the Murangi Farm.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we visited the tree nurseries at the Jill Barham/Peace Guest House site. Jill Barham and Peace Guest House share a compound and are both managed by the Diocese of Cyangugu. On Tuesday, Sam the Field Co-ordinator showed us the different plants grown and highlighted the problems and challenges faced on the site.

Afterwards we went to see the Peace Guest House. It was impressive and exciting to see the artistic creations made by the Mothers’ Union. Before leaving the gift shop, we had already reserved some of our favourite items to buy later.

In the evening, we visited Mundima; one of the villages where the locals benefit from the EP1VAT programme. We visited over five families including that of Jane and Eugene (two of the beneficiaries we met at the Murangi Farm). Most people were very happy to see us and even welcomed us into their homes.  Valentin and Michael gave a short introduction and explained our purpose for visiting. We all got to practise our ‘Muraho, Mwiriwe, Murakoze’, ‘Nitwa…’ and ‘Murabeho’ by interacting with the locals. I can say that we were all touched by the stories of the families we visited, it is very difficult to imagine their struggles but we prayed and lift their burdens to God, the only one who understands and is with them in their struggles. He is the one whose Love binds us together in hope and unity, the team felt that God blessed them immensely.

On Wednesday, we paid a second visit to the tree nurseries at the Jill Barham/Peace Guest House site; this time fully geared up to do some farm work. The team and Michael, RDIS facilitator worked with Everiste, the caretaker in preparing polly pots. The morning was fun and productive because we all worked together in preparing about 270 polly pots for planting.

In the afternoon, we visited another village; Gatovu, for the same purpose we had visited Mundima the previous day. We were excited to meet the locals; touched by the joy of the people with their friendly Mwiriwe! and Amakuru?. Each member of the team led a prayer in every household we visited and at the end of the visit we went home feeling glad because we knew we are in Cyangugu for a great mission.

As usual, Faith’s cheerful and loving nature attracted the kids in the village. At the end of the day she had made friends with most of the kids from Gatovu village and those in our neighbourhood.

On Thursday, we were divided into pairs but Roxane had to work on her own at St Matthews’ Secondary School, a short distance from the house. She had her first experience as an exam invigilator and she found it interesting. Faith and Valentin went to Peace Guest House and worked very hard doing some washing up and housekeeping. Myself (Claudia) and Patrice went to the RDIS office and assisted Sam, our co-ordinator by typing up some reports and filing some paperwork. He was very happy about this because he is a very busy man and we helped clear up some work. For me it gave me an opportunity to learn about other RDIS projects outside of Cyangugu and I am very pleased with the work they do.

From Friday to Sunday we don’t work with RDIS, we have our leisure time. We used this time for team planning and outings. On Friday we had a team meeting to discuss our progress and the next steps. Afterwards, we had a short but reviving team prayer meeting. I did a presentation on Manual Labour, Development and Agriculture for Structured Learning. It was put together based on my knowledge of agriculture and some observations I made in Rwanda. It was a relaxed day and think we got to know more about each other.

 On Saturday, the highlight of our day was our walk to Lake Kivu. We visited a restaurant on the shore of the Lake and discussed some very interesting topics concerning the world and Christendom, while enjoying some soft drinks. After we got home we had dinner and made sure we had perfected our song for Sunday. As usual, we had a difficult time preventing ourselves from laughing and Valentin told us off.

Sunday, we practised our song for the last time before leaving for church at 7:25am. Valentin didn’t have breakfast; we had noticed from a few days that he was very nervous about preaching on Sunday. After a short prayer we set off.

Church was great as usual and from the compliments we received it seems people enjoyed it. I can safely say, there were no hitches – it was perfect. Glory to God!

- Claudia

Hello Rwanda!

1st October 2013 - UK Team arrive at Kigali
4.30pm West Central Africa Time, our UK Team of 14 arrive at Tearfund Headquarters in Kacyiru, Kigali . Roxane, Faith and myself(Claudia) are settling down into our temporary accomodation at the Moucecore office. After we managed to get out our essentials from our suitcases, Beth comes to our room to introduce us to the other half of our team. Valentin, our team leader, was smiling the first we met him and he still is - God bless Him!
Anyway, so he had this massive grin on his face as he introduced himself; "My name is Valentin, people call me Valentine but its Valentin. And my rwandan name means 'I am happy' Ndishimye and I love to meet people"...We still remember it like it was yesterday, Valentin is a lovely guy, in all honesty, he is never angry we thank God for that because it's peace, joy, love and happiness in our house.

30 minutes after Valentin introduces us to Patrice, he was cool right from the start but very quiet, he is very clever, it even reflects in his jokes. So after being introduced to each other, we had lunch together, all 25 of us. Before heading off to our various project areas in Muhanga, Rwamagana, Kigali and Cyangugu, we undertook training at the Tearfund/Moucecore headquarters. It was opportunity to meet other national volunteers outside our teams, we established good relationships, prayed and worshipped together as a whole. Friday was the day we were supposed to leave for our various project locations so within the next 3 days we had a few training sessions. The training sessions were based on important topics such as Understanding our different cultures, Health and Safety, Child Protection and Kinyarwanda lessons too. On our final night a talent show had been organised to showcase our various talents and also just to entertain ourselves. It was a fantastic night, filled with music, dance,  drama and laughs. Our presentation was based on a gospel concert/church service. 


Valentin trained Faith and Roxane to be exceptional ushers, Patrice was the sound engineer/DJ, myself as the host and Valentin was a Preacher.Our team won - but everyone really did something unique, we had fun and I am certain we would all remember that night.

- Claudia