Hotel Rwanda

Bonjour mes amis!

I am writing this update from the beautiful land of the Milles Collines (thousand hills) Rwanda, where I am touring around for a few days before visiting a nearby SODIS (solar disinfection of water) project and heading back to the Rainwater Catchment Project in Kikagati.

The Long Road to Kigali

I was supposed to take a bus from Mbarara (in Uganda) to Kigali (in Rwanda) but all the buses (originating from Kampala) were full. So instead I took a Matatoo. This is a passenger mini van famous for filling up way past capacity. The trip took an entire day because the matatoo made so many stops and took it's time to get going again each time. I spent the long journey crammed in the 14 person passenger van with 20 people including a screaming baby and a live chicken. At the border I had to wait another hour or more for a matatoo to fill up with enough people to make it profitable for the driver and then we got stopped at every single check stop on the way to Kigali. There were 7 of them. Each time we all had to get out and show our passports and people waved their declaration cards for the goods they purchased in Uganda. Our driver got in some big trouble for not having any driver's license, registration for the vehicle or any other documentation that was asked of him. The police kept his wallet so that he would return after dropping his passengers off in Kigali. Kigali is a very cool city. Very small and charming with bustling activity. Like Ugandan cities, it is very safe and the people are very friendly but there are definitely a lot more people begging for money there. Like before, I smile and say, "no you give me money" and they often laugh and shake my hand. The children however, are less likely to give up so easy.

Genocide

I went to a very moving and well done genocide memorial. The memorial also highlighted genocide in the Balkans, Namibia, Cambodia, Armenia, and the one that affected my family - the holocaust. Seeing them all lined up together helps to see some patterns, for example the dehumanization that took place leading up to all those terrible tragedies. I am now in Rwanda's intellectual capital of Butare to see some more genocide sites, the museum (supposed to be the best in East Africa) and do a bit of shopping. The French language barrier makes me wish I took french classes a little more seriously in school, but I have still managed to have some interesting spontaneous conversations with people who told me about their memories of the 1994 genocide.

Time…is on my side!

It’s strange to think I have been in Uganda for a month and a half already because overall it has gone by in a flash but on a day to day level, life seems to move at a snail’s pace in Uganda. It is a nice departure from the hustle and bustle of life in North America but I can still feel a part of me that gets impatient and frustrated by the constant waiting. Make sure you bring a good book with you.

Just as momentum seems to build and things get moving, nightfall arrives. We are just barely below the equator so there is no gradual descent into darkness. When the night comes, it falls fast and if you are without a flashlight you’re in trouble. The darkness tricks your body into thinking it’s very late. By 8pm, it feels like midnight. The only reward is the spectacular starlit Ugandan sky. The nights are rich with clusters of twinkling and shooting stars competing for brightness. The Milky Way is visible to the naked eye and the big dipper is upside down. I think this is because we are on the other side of the equator.

I’ve discovered that many Ugandans especially in the rural regions keep time differently. They operate on a 12 hour clock. Sunrise (or 7:00am our time) is 0:00 and sunset (or 7:00pm our time) is 12:00. This can be very confusing when arranging to meet someone or asking children what time they go to and return from school. It takes getting used to.

I Saw the Rain Down in Africa!

Besides nightfall, the torrential downpours are another hindrance to getting things done. When the sky erupts with rain, people run indoors or under the cover of overhang from the mud hut roofs until the storm subsides. Now, however we have entered the dry season. This means less downpours and mosquitoes but unfortunately also less available water.

In Kikagati, we have used up all the water from the water tank in our backyard. I am really coming to understand how as a westerner, I am such a water hog. It’s amazing how obvious this becomes when you are preoccupied daily by where you will get your water from and how clean it will be. For us, this lack of water has meant a long drive to obtain water from a gravity flow system (water from the nearby hills channeled through pipes and governed by a tap) in another village or buying warm bottled water for drinking and washing. Water for cooking and mixing concrete has been coming from an abandoned tin mine about a 20 minute drive away, which happens to be the cleanest water source in Kikagati according to the turbidity testing that Rebecca has been doing.

The Project Team

Our original 5 person team has gone through an evolution since we started out. Regretfully, Lorne (Geoff’s Dad) has completed his time with us and returned to his work in Canada and Jeff (Shandro) is spending the last few weeks of his time in East Africa traveling through Tanzania. Rebecca is a new addition to the team from Yellowknife and is doing water quality testing on all the water sources in Kikagati. Ed is the other new addition to the team. He is an active volunteer at CAWST (my employer) in Calgary and he and I have often gone hiking together in Kananaskis. Ed is the one who first introduced me to Geoff (Owen - Project Manager) which led to my being here. Ed is quite the technical expert on many aspects of this project and has helped me a lot with some of the BioSand Filter work I’ve been doing. Lastly, Paula – Geoff’s girlfriend has been hanging out with us over the last couple of weeks before she begins her teaching job at an orphanage outside of Kampala.

BioSand Filters

I was recently treated to a site visit with Samaritan's Purse. They are a large implementer of the BioSand Filter technology worldwide. I met their local field manager in Uganda and I learned so much from him in terms of how he has implemented his program which now sees an overwhelming demand for the technology above the 900 filters that have already been installed in a remote area of the country.

I have installed a BioSand Filter at the catchment site for the workers. The workers are using it daily to purify their water. In fact they are over using it. The filter is designed to handle approximately 40 gallons of water a day and they are pouring about 140 gallons of water through it. Ed has helped to install another filter at the site. Besides providing cleaner water for the workers, having a BioSand Filter at the site has gotten many community members curious about what these things are and tasting the water coming out. Some of the workers who are drinking from the filters daily have asked if it’s possible to get one installed in their home.

For those of you asking “what is a BioSand Filter?” a BioSand Filter is a small water treatment device made from sand, gravel and pipe encased in a concrete box. It’s an effective technology in removing pathogens (viruses, parasites, bacteria) from drinking water. To read more about it see the CAWST website on www.cawst.org under the technology section.

Rainwater Catchment Project

This is the project I am in Uganda to work on. When this catchment project is completed it should provide at least 15 liters of water per day, for two months during the dry season without any additional rain, for a community of 1500 (plus) people.

The front loader (tractor) we were going to hire to excavate (in my last update) never showed up and so our team made the decision to give the work to local people and hired an excavation crew of 20 “Returnees.” Returnees are families who escaped to Tanzania during the Idi Ammin wars and have been living there for the last 25 years or so. Two years ago the Tanzanian government decided that these Ugandan refugees were too much of a cost burden and decided to send them back across the border. They have proven to be extremely hard workers.

I have been getting good at negotiating with locals for bargains and have been put on material purchasing duty a few times now. Haggling is easier when you know what the locals pay.

Currently, about half of the walls are already constructed, but there is still a very large quantity of clay in the middle of the catchment that must be removed. We’re employing around 30 people a day, and are using voluntary labour from the community twice a week. It is amazing to see women with babies strapped to their backs removing large chunks of clay with their hands. It will take another month or so of excavations to pull out all the material.

We have also been spending some time trying to fix some of the problems at the old catchment that Geoff built. We have designed and installed a new low tech pump and are looking at some modifications to the roof.

CNN

The work to date has been very good. Community turn out has been excellent with between 200 and 280 people coming out for collecting hardcore and/ or digging out material from the catchment. The mobilization has been so good, that CNN International sent a camera crew to the project site last week to do a feature story on the catchment we are building. It will have a 5 minute spot as part of a 25 minute Inside Africa program to air on CNN at a date to be announced.

Stay tuned as I will post the air date of the CNN program on this blog.

Life in the “Kik”

In many ways the house in Kikagati has started to feel a lot more like home. I feel sad whenever I have to leave. Geckos and mosquito nets are my allies in this alternate universe. Living among the people here is a bit like being a local celebrity and despite a lack of electricity and running water it’s very possible to live a relatively normal existence. Major events for the locals include funerals, the monthly Coke truck visit, Sundays at church, and market day on Tuesdays in a nearby village. Twice we have gone there shopping for egg-laying hens and have come back empty handed. We live in a house right in the centre of town so we have people hanging around our place quite a lot.

There is a tiny variety shop next door where you can buy everything from slippers to kerosene in a soda bottle. A few doors down, there’s a little barber shop where a man plugs a hair clipper into a loud gas powered generator to shave his customers’ heads. We are also treated to an hourly display of cows herded past our window (the cows here have huge horns) and the local kids peek in and sneak into our backyard to see what we’re doing or dance to our guitar/ drumming jam sessions. At night I have been kept awake by screaming children, annoying car horns, loud music, Ed’s snoring, and goats that make sounds as though they are experiencing slow, agonizing death. However, I am becoming desensitized to all these sounds and am now experiencing better sleep.

It’s very humbling to see what hard working people the local Ugandans are. Some mornings, the people of Kitezo would go and collect large hardcore rocks for the catchment project and carry many down on their heads over several hours. Then they would either go to school or back to plowing their plantations among the vast acres of banana fields.

Girl Power

The women in the community really do all the work. They plow the fields, whack the beans out of the weeds, sift the millet, prepare the meals, take care of the children and carry water from far distances. Some of the men in the community are a bit more interested in sitting around, waiting for someone to hire them for a labour job and then get drunk on “waragi” (the local gin-like alcohol) in the evenings.

It never ceases to amaze me how the local women carry absolutely everything on their heads including rocks, bananas, water jugs, fire wood, milk jugs, linen, clothing, machetes, mattresses, and even handbags. I want to take pictures of such sights but some people are sensitive about having their pictures taken and I’m trying to be respectful by fighting the urge or asking for permission.

Preparing grasshoppers

On Sunday’s everything seems to shut down. On one lazy Sunday, our cook – Peace taught me how to prepare grasshoppers properly. Grasshoppers are a delicacy, available at only certain times throughout the year. See the photo and accompanying caption below for a full explanation on how to prepare this tasty treat.

Bowel Movements

Diarrhea and bowl movements in general tend to become regular topics of conversation around here. After more than a month of trying to master the delicate art of using a pit latrine, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no graceful way to use one. Entering the latrine alone takes some courage. Opening the door invites a swarm of flies riding an unpleasant wave of pungent odours.

Many people I know, including our cook and landlord, have recently gotten malaria. I’ve been told that doctors here are quick to diagnose just about anything as malaria. But when I became ill I got a little scared that I had malaria as well. The test that I had done came back negative. There were a few days when I had a fever, headache, hot and cold flashes, a sore throat, loss of appetite, and some nasty explosive diarrhea. A little too much information for you? Well thanks to a straight 30 hour sleep session I recovered in top form. My health has been very good ever since. The experience did make me wonder how it is humanly possible for any human being to endure severe diarrhea like that for several years. For millions of people around the world, especially children, that is a daily occurrence without reprieve.

Kikagati Children

The children in Kikagati seem to be feeling a lot braver to approach us. In fact, it can be a challenge to get them out of our yard. Each day, when I arrive at the house I’m staying in, children run up to hug my legs and grab whatever is in my hands so they can carry it to the house for me. Many of them practice their “funny faces” for me and yell “Kabunga,” which combined with a child’s fist punching mine has somehow caught on as my name. This is likely because people have a difficult time saying my name. An “L” sound seems to be very difficult for them and so many people in Kikagati have begun calling me Kabunga.

The children teach me many words in the local language of “Runyankole” (pronounced Runny-ankoree) as well as songs and games. Reciprocally, my contribution has been the “Chicken Dance” and I’ve successfully taught some of the kids to say “hello.” It seems the only English any of them know is “how are you?” and “I’m fine.” The language barrier is the greatest challenge living in southwestern Uganda. Despite it being Uganda’s official language, there are perhaps only 10 – 15 people in all of Kikagati who speak fluent English. Runyankole is a really difficult language but I have begun nightly language lessons so hopefully it will get easier.

Listening to the shoeless children in their tattered hand-me-down clothing, singing and laughing, I can’t help looking at their unclean hands and wondering if they would wash them before their next meal. Many if them have swollen stomachs – a sign of severe malnutrition. It saddens me to consider how many of these children will die before their next birthday due to poor hygiene, waterborne illness, malaria, or other diseases. What do you do when the problem is so overwhelming and staring you in the face? Enjoy the singing and carry the songs with you in your heart as you continue with the water project you’ve come to work on.

My Moment of Zen

It was my first night alone in Kikagati. Dax got sick and Geoff drove him to Mbarara to see a doctor. The others went with too. I stayed behind to hold down the fort. Usually we would be wrapping up our candlelight dinners with a few rounds of poker and other card games or drumming and sing a longs while Geoff and Dax strum their guitars but this night was a bit lonelier than most. In the distance I could hear the beat of a large drum and decided that I would venture out through a large field in the dark to discover the source. I was rewarded by a rousing display of people dancing and passionately singing some of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. I recognized two of them as Returnees who work as part of our excavation team and they motioned me to join in. I suddenly found myself dancing the night away to some the African melodies in a small manger type structure with no walls or roof, only a wooden frame, celebrating with a group of hospitable African strangers under so many stars that you’d think it was actually a white sky with black stars. This was my pinnacle moment of Zen in Africa.

The hours melted away. The singing was so hypnotic and the songs so catchy. The drum kept the beat while everyone else’s instrument was the clapping of our hands. I clapped so hard and so often that the blisters-turned scabs on my hands, which I earned through manual labour on the catchment were opening and stinging, but I kept on clapping. The children in the group stared at me in amazement as they danced and sang. The dance-a-thon ended with some prayer, which made me realize that I had actually crashed a religious ceremony. I could not understand a word but I did catch them referring to my presence as part of their prayer. All I could say was “Webare munonga” (Thank you very much) to which they all replied in unison “Webare Kuwesia!” (You are welcome here!)

Slow Ride…Take it Easy…!

Driving in Uganda and the chance of being in an automobile accident is the single most dangerous activity in this country. Rural Uganda is connected through a series of dusty red dirt roads that make you feel you are off-roading instead of driving down a main highway. Hitting a massive bump versus going over a two foot pothole or through a slippery mudslide is a constant decision that must be made while driving. It has taken me quite a while to grow accustomed to the driving conditions, especially because I am not used to the British style of driving on the left hand side of the road. Sharing the one lane dirt roads with oncoming trucks, buses, boda bodas, bikes, pedestrians, and livestock while transporting 20 Returnees is also an interesting experience. But don’t ever drive at night. That’s pure suicide.

One morning riding with Apollo (local Ugandan working for ACTS) on a road even bumpier than most, we experienced a flat tire. We arrived at a nearby village and had the tire sealed and inflated again with the help of a bicycle pump. I put the tire back on but foolishly forgot to completely tighten the lugnuts after the jack was lowered. As soon as we were driving back down that bumpy road, I saw the front passenger tire, which should have been underneath me and the truck, ascend into the air and completely fly away. The truck immediately took a sharp nosedive into a sandbank and I bolted in the direction of the flying tire. Because it somewhere in a large cornfield, it took more than 20 minutes to locate. I apologized about forgetting to tighten the bolts and Apollo replied in typically Ugandan fashion: “Don’t worry, these things happen.”

Kampala

I visited the capital city of Kampala recently and stayed a week. I had some great meetings with NGOs and Rotary Clubs. I was invited to a couple of Rotary meetings and was the feature speaker at one of the meetings. It seemed to go well as many people had a great deal of good questions and they expressed interest in raising money through Rotary International to fund a CAWST workshop in the near future. At another Rotary meeting that I attended as a guest, I was surprised and pleased to have a chance to meet the federal Minister of Defense who was there to accept some award that evening.

Driving through Kampala on the back of a boda-boda is a lot like being inside a fast paced video game. There I am holding on for dear life as the flowing tears stream across my face and the boda driver asks me, "Do you fear speed?" I replied, "No Ssebo, I fear death!" He laughed as he drove even faster weaving in and out of heavy traffic and onto the sidewalk at times.

I saw a great waterfall, a tomb for 4 of Uganda's old Kings, but the highlight had to be when I saw the Star Wars movie. I am a big fan and was so upset that I hadn't the chance to see it in North America. I was the only one at the theatre, right up until it began. They were about to cancel the showing until three others showed up and I was as happy as an ewok on valium.

Thanks for reading this far. I'll load more photos soon.

LR