Voila voiture!

Its fixed! One of the project drivers has taken it as his responsibility to ensure that we are safe on the road. Thank goodness for him! He came over this weekend with a mechanic. They played around with the clutch, then took a part out. The part seemed to be for hydrolic fluid or something. Apparently it was broken, so they took it out, went to the parts shop to buy a new one and came back and replaced it. The truck now shifts gears with ease. I swear her rumbling voice actually sounded happier too! Now just a few more things to fix... radiator/overheating problem and the fact that she leans to the right... we should count our blessings though as at least she is drive-able! Baby steps...

Wish List

My Mom recently told me to send her a wish list. I think she felt guilty when I mentioned that I was baking brownies which arrived in the mail for my housemate. Believe me, I don't really mind. People are starving in Rwanda, but its certainly not me. For entertainment, I stay pretty content with yoga downloads, books, and whatever DVDs are getting passed around. Of all of the things I listed there is actually only one really important one - Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap in Peppermint. This stuff is amazing!! Its the best all natural mosquito repellant I have found. I shower with it every night and never get a mossie bite. If, however, I use the Khiel's Eucalyptus Shower Gel, they buzz around like crazy. Its awesome. You can buy it at Health Food stores like Whole Foods. I got mine at some sports shop in San Fran. Apparently you can buy the soap in bar form, though I use the liquid form. That might be difficult to ship over though. Oh yes, and Mom, as always I need my Shaklee. I'm almost out! So although I added the Wishlist on the side, no pressure. I am getting along just fine! (though packages and letters do make my day... thank you Anna for all of the postcards!)

First Flat

On my trip to Uganda last month, I got my first flat. It was a slow leak so it didn't happen when we were driving, but by the time we got back to the car a day later, the tire was flat as can be. I decided not to write about it at the time because I wanted to include evidence that I changed it! We were offered help, but I said no. 1) I wanted to change it myself and 2) I wasn't sure if it was punctured by some guy thinking 5 muzungu women couldn't change a tire. It took a while because we had a hard time getting the jack to work. But in the end all changed and off we went back to Kigali!

Dancing with Friends

I'm beginning to make some good friends in the community. One in particular is an old lady in our basket weaving cooperative. The ladies call her Mademoiselle for her charisma and spunk. She's not necessarily a great weaver... she's too old. But she does seem to be a great friend and member of the community. Our latest "thing" together is dancing. A few weekends ago we were at visit from the head of UNDP in New York. There were some kids dancing and I must have been stopping and swaying a long with them without realizing it. Afterwards while hanging out in a classroom with about 60 of our weavers, Mademoiselle comes up to me grabs my hands and starts dancing in traditional Rwandese style, encouraging me to join. So, I join her, laughing along. Before I knew it the group of 60 women began clapping and singing in a circle around us, filling the room with music and energy. We danced away for about 10 minutes and it was one of those experiences which makes my life here so unique. I'm barely able to converse with these women, but we can share plenty of meaning in a circle of singing and dancing. Now, whenever I see Mademoiselle around Mayange or Nyamata, she grabs me and we dance for a few minutes. We laugh and she tells anyone around her how I know how to do traditional Rwandese dancing.

Partners in Pomegranates!

This week's big news is that the Turwanyubukene Farmers Cooperative (TFC) signed their investment documents with USADF. It was a momentous occasion. Almost all of the beneficiaries of the grant came to the farm on Thursday to meet with the country representative and MVP to go through the documents and sign the agreement. The group took the process very seriously asking many questions and promising their commitment to the farm and their responsibilities of implementation. Once it was signed, the group threw their arms up in the air and yelled out in joy! Just as we finished with this group photo, the skies opened up and it started raining. Apparently in Rwanda its a good sign when it rains on a big occassion. I think we all felt that this farm and group of 32 farmers are going to be blessed with a lot of good fortune in the coming years.

And no clutch...

So on my way home from our new weekly yoga routine, I got stuck in the middle of the road with no clutch, or at least what I thought having no clutch would be like. Basically the truck would not get into gear. It took me 5 minutes and a conversation with a police man to get the car into first. Moving along up the hill, I thought I'd try second, but bad idea. Got stuck again and had to pull over to the side of the road. Finally got it into first and decided to drive home without shifting. The car has been sitting in the driveway for a week now. Today a mechanic is supposed to come by. Fingers crossed its fixable without forking over too many $$$!

No Sex, No City

That about sums up life in Kigali after life in a city like Hong Kong, New York, or Washington. However, with a group of friends who are determined to make like here feel a little like life where we come from, I have started a weekend yoga class. Last weekend, two of us went and got a manicure and pedicure before the class - for $12! Even cheaper than Hong Kong! Then we went over to her house and we set up on her roof. I have joined www.yogadownloads.com and get to download 6 yoga class mp3s a month for $10. Its pretty cool and the classes so far have been great. At around 5:30 we set up the yoga mats, a citronella candle for the mossies, and my computer and speakers. Doing yoga over looking the hills during sunset was amazing. We may be existing with "No Sex, No City" but we do have sunset yoga with flocks of birds flying by and by the time we are cooling down into shivasana we have the moon and the stars and a flickering candle. Pretty cool, I must say. This weekend, the plan is to follow class with dinner and an episode of Sex in the City. Its a balance of give and take and all in all we get along just fine.

Angels

Today I went to the local home for disabled children. When my colleague told me about the place, I figured it was something more formalized. I'm not sure why... in a country where there is only one text book per classrooms and village kids ask for pens instead of money, I'm not sure why I thought that there would be a formal home for disabled children.
When we got out of the car, we received the most welcoming greating. 5 children with varying disabilities ran up with huge grins and gave us both enormous bear hugs. It was the best part of my day. We stayed and played for 20 minutes or so. There were about 10 children or so there. Most of them had been abandonded by their families. It was started by a woman who saw a need, and just started taking in kids until she had to expand. She rents a house for US$200 a month and pays 4 staff, living penny to penny. The kids had clothes with holes. But they felt lucky. It appeared someone had donated some bouncy balls and stickers, so today's entertainment was all set!
This is the perfect setting for small donations. People ask what they can do for our project and most times things are so large scale its hard. But this is tangible... you can donate used children's clothes, toys, etc and of course money. Those of you that have clothes that your kids have grown out of, I'll take them there. If you are in Hong Kong, just let Dennis know and he'll bring them over when he comes.
Next time I go I'll take photos so you can also see those big toothy grins which melt your heart!

First taste of profit!

After the books were ready, it was time to distribute the money. The committee announced that on Tuesday all of the women could come to receive their payment. Tuesday morning the President, Umutoni, and the Treasurer, Drocella, went to the bank to pick up their cash. Chantal and I went over to pick them up and when we arrived found out that their bank had allocated the money to a local bee keeping cooperative!! Unbelievable!! Chantal went in to sort it all out. Once they had reallocated the money, the bank proceeds to tell us that they don't have enough cash in the bank to cover their withdraw. At this point it was 12:00 and the women had been waiting since the morning to collect their funds. The bank said they wouldn't have the money until 2. We left. Chantal had to go explain to 100 women why there was no money yet (photo is of the room full of women). 2 and a half hours later we arrived at their main stock location with Rwf 1,300,000. About US$2,600 in cash. The women clapped and shouted in joy! 4 and a half hours later in complete darkness except for the light of my computer screen we completed distribution of all of the money we had brought with us. It was an intense day. A lot of the women had to face the reality that the materials they were given were only a loan and that they didn't get paid for their baskets unless their quality was good. A few women left unhappy, but the majority of the women were very happy to have a decent chunk of cash to bring home. Our most active women were paid up to US$75. In some cases this could be a third of what a household sees in a year and these ladies made that much in 6 weeks. It was incredibly inspiring and now its time to bust my butt to get more orders! Happy to say we just got another one for 900 pieces!

Village Accounting

These last 2 weeks I have been working with Chantal and the basket weaving coop on their accounting. They received their money from their last big order and had to ensure proper book keeping in order to distribute the large sum to all of the women who sold baskets for this order. It took a while to figure out that they actually had no idea where to start. I finally asked them at a meeting if they were ready to distribute and there was silence. Finally someone spoke up and told us that they were not comfortable doing it. So we had a look at their books and redesigned their accounting based on each woman and the transactions which she has with the cooperative. Loan - she takes a material loan from the coop of Rwf X. Stock - she puts X number of baskets at X value into the stock room. Sale - her basket is sold by the coop for Rwf X. 10% - 10% of the sale is kept by the coop for management fees. Pay - she is paid the sum of all of the above. After designing the sheet, we had 2 training sessions with the executive committee. The first one was a bit overwhelming. We also introduced a calculator and taught them how to use it. The second one was a bit better. We spent a half day with the committee doing practice records. 4 days later, the Sales Manager, Jeanne, had completed recording all of the books in the new accounting system. It was quite a process and quite humbling for us all. For me to remember that we sometimes need to slow down. For the ladies that they have a lot to learn, but they are still very competant and able to handle it.

First Visitors!

I had my first visitors to Rwanda last week. Belinda and Adam came from Hong Kong! It was SO nice to have them here and be able to share everything new with some old faces. They were lovely guests and took advantage of the opportunity to see lots of the country! The weekend they were here we went to Gisenyi on Lake Kivu. It was another lovely relaxing trip with lots of food, reading, and swimming.
The best story from the week they were here was on our way back from the lake. That morning I had drank several cups of coffee and proceeded to drink tons of water on our way back down to Kigali. About an hour and a half into the ride I couldn't hold it anymore and really had to go to the bathroom. The problem with Rwanda countryside however, is that there is not a single bit without tons of people! So every place I thought I could pull over on the side of the road, there were more people. I finally couldn't hold it anymore and jumped out of the car where i thought there were no people. Unfortunately the kids up the road that we had passed saw us and shouted "Muzungo!!" This is like the national children's call for "Come quick! There are some white people and we might get something from them. If not at least they are entertaining!" I ran across the street and up a little hill only to run straight into a little group of houses and more children shouting "Muzungo!!!" I ran back down the hill and up to where Belinda and Adam were standing outside of the car. I quickly told Belinda to entertain them. I thought she'd take out her camera or something, but she took me very seriously and proceeded to start dancing, singing and clapping. The kids killed themselves laughing and 2 keen little girls started immitading her. It was just enough time for me to run quickly back to the trees on the other side of the road and relieve myself. Ahh! Thank you Belinda! (Don't worry we have it all on video!)
So once again it was a lovely time having Bel and Ads in Rwanda. It was a great time and of course you are always welcome again! I hope to see many more of you here at some stage.

To Uganda on Umaganda

Susan's neice was in town for a long weekend, so we decided to take the opportunity to go to a little lake resort in Uganda for Sat and Sun. The Sat we left was the last Saturday of the month, which means it is Umaganda. Its a nation-wide community service day. You are not supposed to work or go anywhere but to your community service location for the entire morning. As a result we tried to leave by 7am so we could get out of Kigali before Umaganda started. We were a little late and got stopped and reprimanded on our way out of town. Opps. The cop let us go anyway. We explained we had a meeting outside of Kigali.
After a 3 hour drive and a 1 hour boarder crossing (stops on both the Rwanda side and the Uganda side for passports, car registration, paying for the car, stamping the forms, shuffling the forms, stamping them again), we arrived at the lake. It was a peaceful little tent camp on top of a hill with views overlooking Lake Bunyonyi. Bunyonyi means Place of Little Birds and it lives up to its namesake. Birds where flying all over the place singing lots of songs. So to the backdrop of a clear lake and the songs of birds, we began to relax over books, swings, lots of food and a long swim across the lake. It was really lovely and definitely on my list of future weekend visits!

Sorry!!

Well, its been a month since my last post! Sorry, sorry! It all started with a crazy return from Europe and having to catch up with a lot of things. Then the internet went down at the office and then at my house for a week. I was checking email, but didn't have the time to post since internet connection wasn't readily available. Then I went away for a weekend to Lake Bunonyi in Uganda and right after that my friends from Hong Kong came for a visit. So lots of excuses, but I plan to spend the morning telling a few stories of the last few weeks. From now on, I'll try my best to write more often!!