Goodbye Cyangugu, Goodbye Kigali

So this is it - We are in the finally in week 10 - literally the end of our placement. The week has consisted of thoughts and reflections. We spent three days concentrating own finishing our paperwork.

On Wednesday, we went to the feeding clinic for the last time. A  few of the mothers were present and they gave us a closing speech, sang songs for us and we prayed together. In the evening, we had a farewell gathering with all our friends, staff from the Diocese and Peace Guest House. We got the chance to say thank you and goodbye to everyone

By thursday we are packed up and ready to go back to Kigali. We will miss Cyangugu so so much! It's been an unbelievable journey, we have grown so much and discovered new things about ourselves, each other and GOD!

Another Chapter has ended - A new chapter begins. Glory to God!

- Claudia

Week 9

So it’s our last but one week in Cyangugu, we can’t believe it’s already coming to an end. The reality of it is hard to take in but we know it is life-changing for each and every one of us. So without taking much time, this week we began by visiting the tree nurseries as we had planned with Sam last week.

On Monday, we set off for the tree nurseries with Michael around 9am, for three and a half hours we worked tiresomely, counting and re-counting the Grevella polly pots. Believe me, it might seem like a simple task, but these 9.5cm by 8cm polly pots were tightly packed together and did not contain plants. Our different methods of counting took a good 3 hours! At the end of which we were exhausted. We arrived back home for lunch, and took the rest of the day as a team to plan for the days ahead as well as to work on our individual plans.

We were free till 4pm. Speciose had invited us to hers for Evening Tea. We had some beautiful African Tea with cake, samosas and chapatti. All fresh prepared on site, I am sure by Diane, her daughter. It was a night of laughs, music and love. Her home is blessed and her house is Magnificent!

On Tuesday we went back to the tree nurseries. We set off with Michael – again to finish counting the Calladrilla and Carralld polly pots. Faith emerged Chief Statistician, working out a formula for finding an estimate to work out the population of polly pots in the Shortest time – HOORAY! I think it’s

ALL PP(L * B) – BPP

See Appendix for explanation

Back at home, Faith and I prepared doughnuts for some very important guests. Faith invited a few of the local kids for a movie night. Just for one night they had a few sweets, small chops and comfy sofas and WALL-E to demonstrate her love.

The following day, we went to Murangi Farm to see the progress made since our last visit. The farm had filled the chicken coops with 500 new Belgium chicks. The cows were back from grazing and we assisted with feeding them grass – They really are spoilt! We saw the new biogas plant, which would provide electricity and power from cow dung; the awesomeness of nature!

Best of all, the maize crops had grown so much since our last visit. They stood over 6 feet high compared to the little shoots we saw about 2 months ago. What was impressive was the fact that they were very healthy too. That is what counts the most; they are truly demonstrating good farming techniques.

In the afternoon, we worked on our reports and proposals together as a group. Faith and Patrice also worked on the team case study. At early evening, we ended group work for the day and continued at 9.30am on Thursday.

The next two days we spent most of our time working on the project report and other Tearfund documents we had to complete. 

On Saturday(the 30th), we participated in our last Umuganda. The district office and the Agroforestry Commission contacted RDIS because they wanted trees to be planted for Umuganda. Sam was very happy because the grevella plants at the tree nurseries were needed by the government! He is always talking about the benefits of agroforestry plants for disaster risk management and that call was definitely a prayer answered. 

We met the team of RDIS staff from Muhanga that has come to partake in umuganda in Cyangugu. At 4pm, we all sat down to enjoy tea and talked about our 9 weeks in Rwanda working with RDIS. It was a time to hear anycomments, suggestions and criticisms that we had. It was great meeting the staff of Muhanga, we rounded the evening off posing for group photos

On sunday, we attended English service as usual at the Kamembe Parish. Afterwards, Faith, Patrice and I went with RDIS Muhanga staff to another parish under the Cyangugu diocese. Words can't describe what we saw. Check out this sneak-peek 1 minute video of the action at church.

Told you - A M A Z I N G...right!? This rounded off a brillant week, it was indeed a Sunday to round off all our Sundays in Cyangugu. Glory to God!

- Claudia