Volunteer in the Mist

Making bricks for the school

Volunteer in the Mist 

Greetings from beautiful rainy Zaza. It is so easy to get seasonally disoriented here.  Sixteen months gone and here we are, May already. (OK OK, it's June now.  That's how long it takes me to get this out) It's well into the rainy season but with none of that familiar euphoric springtime sense of cyclical rebirth and new life that makes it arguably my favourite  time year of in B.C. ( Apart from summer, fall and winter) The garden is growing like mad though and the avocados are raining down like delicious green cannonballs out in the front yard.  If you're alert you can usually beat the local kids to them. I remain guardedly optimistic that  before the year is out I will have successfully grown a pineapple.  In the meantime, they're abundant and affordable and everywhere you go you see men pushing bicycles laden with what must be over 100 kilos of them bundled together, headed for market.  Hard hard work!

We had the better part of April off between terms and also because it is a time set aside for memorials and commemoration of the genocide.  On the surface it can almost seem things go on as usual but everywhere there are poignant reminders of the depth of trauma still underlying and strongly affecting life here.   
It  was indescribably wonderful having Daphne visit for the whole month.  She hadn't been here a day before attending a traditional Rwandan wedding, getting a sunburn, blitzing around Kigali on motorcycle taxis,  and enjoying her first Primus at  a party.  We spent some time here in the village where she was warmly welcomed at school and in the homes of several Rwandan friends, mini-adventures in their own right. She was a faithful and thoughtful chronicler of her visit and I would recommend you read her blog if you're interested in the details. (http://daphodild.blogspot.ca/)   Besides travelling here and there in Rwanda and a memorable visit to the gorillas we went up to Uganda for a week or so.  I won't even try to describe the whole time but in a word, it was delightful.  I realized how long it has been since I've laughed helplessly until I cried and could barely breathe.  There were a few choice moments when the absolute absurdity of our circumstances just put us both completely over the edge.  She is the perfect traveling companion.

Jen Kamashaba last January, walls going up

We spent Easter in Uganda with my friend Jen Kamashaba and a houseful of friends and relatives out in the countryside near Mbarara.  She is the remarkable woman I have mentioned in previous blogs…an extraordinarily committed woman who is in the process of building a community school on the land beside her home.  When I stopped in last January the walls of the first building, consisting of three rooms,  were about halfway up and the mud bricks were being made on site.  Now, although the floors are still dirt and the walls plain unplastered brick, two of the rooms are being used, one for a pre-primary and the other for grade one.  We arrived early in the morning and watched as the students, many of them orphans, went through their morning ritual of songs, chants and thorough fingernail and behind-the-ears inspection. 

The teachers have done a great job of making and displaying all sorts of visual aids and activity centres (something our Rwandan primary teachers could learn a thing or two from).  The community is coming forward with materials and labor to build a good fence and provide other help as and how it is able.  Plans are in the works to continue building more classrooms. This is a very poor rural area with many children being raised by grandmothers  and there is enormous appreciation of and support 
for this little school.
**Sooooo.....It's a long, long way downhill from the school to the nearest water source and it has to be carried up in jerrycans.  If there was a storage tank they could collect rainwater from the roof.  I would like to try to raise enough money to build one.   The quotes for materials and labor are $1580 for a 20,000 litre and $2600 for a 50,000 litre tank.  Naturally, the larger one would be the one to aim for, but that will be a choice left to the universe.  If anyone is interested, the best way I know of to send money here is by Western Union, although it does cost according to the amount sent.  So, there it is..just casting my line into the water and hoping for some nibbles. And all of us former upper Fraser valley types remember what it's like to pack our water, eh?  (Please feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested.) 


A few weeks later…this thing is getting pretty stale on my desktop so if I can get some pictures together it'll get posted today.  Since starting to write this, weeks ago, it has transitioned to the dry season with its accompanying joys…dust instead of mud and water off more often than on.   

Also, it's a time of fond farewells to many people who have become good friends as their placements end and they scatter around the planet.  Before long it'll be my turn but in the meantime there's plenty of work to do. 
So, Murabeho for now. Hope this find everyone well and all of your gardens growing.