jeudi 17 janvier 2013

Yesterday I Was on Safari, I think...

Whereas on the way to the eastern hemisphere of the world, the days fly by, on the way back to the United States, it sort of stretches into one very long, very strange day.  How many times will I eat all three meals and call them breakfast?  Will I eat lunch on the plane since I am leaving Frankfurt at lunch time, then eat lunch when I get to DC because I arrive at lunch time on the same day?  I am not really sure.  It is all very confusing.

Needless to say, I am in Frankfurt, Germany right now waiting to board my flight to Washington, DC.  I left Rwanda yesterday at 3:30 pm.  I stopped in Entebbe, Uganda on my way to Addis Ababa.  From Addis I flew to Khartoum, Sudan.  I was essentially unconscious for this stopover.  From Khartoum we flew to Frankfurt. I woke up with about 90 minutes left in the flight.  It was enough time to eat some scrambled eggs, drink coffee and realize that my hair looked like I slept on my face for 6 hours.  Because I did.

It seems strange that only yesterday-ish I was on Safari in Akagera park watching the sun rise over lake Ihema and Tanzania.  It is even stranger to me that I have been afforded the opportunity to do such a thing.  I never thought in my life that I would be able to do that.  I feel so fortunate. It puts into sharp contrast the difference in lifestyle that I am afforded as a 'middle class' American compared to that of a middle class Rwandan.  I get to leave their every day struggle when I am done with an evaluation and go on safari and go to Lake Kivu.  They have to stay where they are and keeping forging ahead.

The evaluation process ended well with a successful presentation to CHF and their staff.  Now the hard work is ahead of us.  Flight is now boarding!

cheers
AJ

mardi 8 janvier 2013

Making House Calls

This week we have started our second round of interviewing in rural Rwanda.  We have been going to individual households rather than speaking to beneficiaries at the distribution centers.  The change in demeanor of the participants and the difference in interview quality has been astounding.  It is amazing to see people and how they are able to open up when the are in the safety of their homes.

We were in a rural sector about 2 hours from Kigali, but it felt as remote as any place I have ever been.  I was working with Laura, and our interview styles coalesced well.  The idea of the methodology we are using is to let interviewees talk and have a conversation with us about the most significant changes in their lives that have resulted from the program.  So, having a natural conversation through a translator is tough, but doing it at a distribution point is even tougher.

The first house we went to was small and compact.  It was constructed of mud and clay and had a dirt floor. It was dark and cool inside, and very smoky from the cook stove.  We sat on small wooden stools in the entry way while the participant, her daughter, her grand daughter, her neighbor and our translator all stood and looked at us.  I tried waving to the baby grand daughter, and this sent inter into wracking sobs.  She had never seen a white person before.  Let alone one in her house.  We talked for about 40 minutes, and then the beneficiary led us around to see her garden, her goats, her rabbits and the pig should buy after participating in the program.  We took some photos and it was amazing to see this woman beaming at what she had accomplished.

She then led us across a field to her  neighbors house (the same neighbor who was in her house).  He was also a beneficiary and so he took us to his place to talk.  It was also constructed of mud and clay, and behind the house was a sort of outdoor compound.  He showed us his cows and rabbits, the water catchment system he made, and the goats he had.  He talked about how he uses the manure for organic fertilizer and can now produce enough food for his family.  He talked about living with HIV and how he had depended on the program for psychosocial support after losing the majority of his family in the genocide.  It was amazing to see his resilience, meet his wife and children (who stared wide eyed at us throughout the interview).  After talking he invited us to have fresh corn on the cob that he grew in his yard.  We all prayed together in Kinyarwanda before eating and then laughed and joked and ate around the small wooden table in the smoky entry room of the home.  I was told I must get to eat eggs and milk every day to be as big as I am.

We heard a lot about the tough process of reconciliation after the genocide and how community members have had to learn to lean on each other to survive.  We were then lead to our last house and were told it would be a 10 minute walk.  The walk turned into a 70 minute hike/intense descent down the steep face of a mountain.  It was rainy and the red mud was very slippery.  Every direction but up dropped down to the valley floor, so it was hard to not think of falling all the way down.  We were groaning internally as it was hot and humid and drizzling and buggy but it was so beautiful, and half way down the clouds broke open and gave us a glorious view all the way down the valley.

It was worth the trek to visit this woman's home.  She was so honored to have visitors come see her, and felt relieved and encouraged to have program staff come all the way to her home.  She told of her successes and challenges and showed us around her property.  It is amazing the bond that can form through smiling, nodding and trying to listen.  Even through the translator we were able to feel connected to her.  Her children would glance suspiciously at us, the giggle and run away if we made eye contact.  We saw her cows and her chickens, and learned about the techniques she had received for growing a home vegetable garden.  We took pictures with her and her family, and then she walked us to the valley floor in flip flops with a baby on her back and had no trouble at all.

The path up from the valley floor dead ended at and elementary school and about 200 Rwandan children were let out of class to watch us white folks walk by.  The word for white folks is Muzungu and it echoed through the crowd of children like a song.  The littlest ones were elated and shouted it happily.  The middle ones giggled and tried to not look at us.  The older kids knew they shouldnt yell muzungu, but they all said it anyway, like something they could not stop from coming out.  Like a hiccup or a startled gasp..."muzungu!"  The crowded tightly around us and it was quite the scene.  We were the day's field trip.  I took a couple of pictures because it was so unusual.

Our truck was waiting on the road for us.  I got in delighted.  This is what I have wanted to do.  I want to continue to seek people out, to validate their hard work, to help them get access to resources, and to help them to develop the inherent skills they already have.  It was a marvelous day.

samedi 5 janvier 2013

The First Week in Rwanda


Rwanda is really a beautiful country.  We are located in Kigali, the capitol, and it is a surprisingly ordered developing world city.  The city itself is built across many dramatic hills, and nearly everywhere you look is a breathtaking view.  It is lush and verdant.  There are many tropical flowering trees and bushes and birds that chirp lovely songs and dramatic valleys whose walls are lined with tiny huts, shacks and houses.  The roads in the city are generally good, its only when you get of the main arteries that they are unpaved.

We went upcountry yesterday for our interviews and drove 3 hours from the capital to a small village on the top of a mountain.  Rwanda is called the land of 1,000 hills, and it earns its nick name.  We wound up and down past steeply terraced farmland, tea plantations, small mud huts, past rivers and waterfalls and eventually up to the top of a high mountain.  According to my GPS we were at 7,200 feet.  The village is isolated as the roads are steep, deeply rutted and muddy, hugging like copper-red gashes the sides of the mountains.  It is hard to get there and remote.  The cluster of huts was proper in the small village.  One Rwandan man took us past some of the huts to a vista point and pointed out the hill that started the border with Uganda.  We were only a few kilometers away. Though the drive was long and bumpy and slow, it was worth it just to meet people, hear stories about how this development project is changing their life, and take in the fresh air.

I was partnered with Diana for the day to complete our interviews, and we were the center of attention as soon as we pulled into the village.  You could hear little children squeak “muzungu” or white person.  The word sort of rippled through the crowd of people waiting for their delivery of school supplies, and all eyes were trained on us.  No one smiled until we would wave or say “muraho” which is hello in Kinyarwanda and their faces would break into a large grin.  We conducted interviews inside a small municipal building for nearly 5 hours and the whole time there were small curious faces peeking over the windows to get a glimpse of the muzungus doing their interviewing.

Rwanda is certainly a developing country, and it is certainly poor, but meeting people and hearing about the context of their lives through the lens of this development project is really exciting.  It is amazing to hear success stories and see the projects I have learned about in development come to life, and to know that they are real.  People are still suffering, but it is not the focus of the people we have been speaking with.  It has been reassuring to me to come here and to realize that yes, I do want to do this.

We have been working 10 to 12 hour days for the most part since we got here, so it has been exhausting. There have been so many meetings, so much to prepare and so many different things to see that it is hard to soak everything in.  My brain is on overload, and I don’t know quite how to process it all.  It is good to be working in a group, because this would be monstrous to tackle alone.  Tomorrow is our first day off, so we are going to lighten things up by going to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial…

I have so much more to say but it will need to be updated for tomorrow.  At this juncture I am going to go nap for a bit.  Or maybe I will go for a walk. Yes.  I will go for a walk. More later.