Signs

I love this sign - aliens at work!

Elections

15 September 2008 there will be elections again in Rwanda. Although this is not good new in many African country, we are not worried because of several reasons.
These are parliamental elections, the prensidential elections will be in 2010.
The president (and therefor his party) is still populair even though some say he is not fully democratic.
The army is on the presedents side and has no reason not to be.
The main party linked op with some others limmiting the choise to three. It is already clear the the main party will get the vast mayority of the votes.

The campaign has started, we only noticed a vihicle of the RPF (the main party) yet. Parliament is sent home, so there is no parliament for aprox. 1 month.
There is an elections commitee sponsored by many donors, amongst which the Dutch.
The european commission has sent observers. For some reason the French and Spanish observers didn't get in the country, some technical problem. According to Rwanda complete coincidence that these are the countries which have lists of Rwandans they want to interigate.

Anyway the EU observers are in allready a couple of weeks busy, I do not know what they are actually doing.
On the day itself more observers are needed. For this the National Election Commitee (NEC) asks foreign embassies to send some people. I have the honour (a lot of people didn't want it) to be one of them. This will mean that I have to be available on the day, will get a checklist and go somewhere to see what is going on. I hope it will be some outpost so I get to see some real live.

I will keep you posted on the outcome, or maybe you will see it on the news ;)

Klik here for more info (mainly in French) or just Google for elections 2008 Rwanda.

Send a Cow - Visit to Kayonza district

On Thursday I went out armed with a bottle of water, my camera and a notebook to visit some of the Send a Cow Rwanda participants. I went again with David Musoni - an extension worker from a different district, and one of the trainers as a workshop was being given. In all I visited 4 (out of 6 planned) farmers in the Kayonza district who were helped by SAC. (one was at the workshop the other was sick)

I'm currently working on the full stories and profiles for SAC, and can pass on to anyone who's interested when I finish..

Fred and Florence's cow has already had a female calf which will be passed on to another recipient of the project in another three months, Fred had cattle before the genocide so is really happy to have cattle again. The money they have made from selling milk and vegetables has gone towards having their three roomed house plastered, having electricity installed and of course towards sending their seven children to school.

This is Specioza, a recent widow, and below "stretchmarks" who is currently nine months pregnant (I think cows calve at 12 months or so) - this is Specioza's first cow, but she is already reaping the benefits of larger harvests due to stretchmarks dung

This is Dancilla and her family - they are building the cow shed in preparation for the arrival of their cow on August 29th (the cutey pie below has a name I didn't get - only the translation of "lover"..)



Clemence and baby Fiona, their cow has calved during the dry season which has been difficult, and it is also a male cow, which are not economically viable (as they drink more milk than the meat will fetch at market). The family have never owned a cow before, and have someone to help with the milking as they don't quite have the knack yet!

Some facts and figures - each cow drinks about 80 litres of water per day. Each owner makes the trip down to the local lake in order to collect this water in 20 litre jerry cans (between 10 and 30 mins away). Water is available closer from a tap, but this costs money (50 rwf per jerry can), and although some of the farmers collect rainwater during rainy season, the cows prefer the lake water. The cows remain in the sheds / shelters, as grazing is discouraged for environmental reasons - so the owners have to go and cut fresh fodder daily.

At the end of the day I was shattered as it is quite an intensive process - I was also somewhat dehydrated as it is difficult to balance water intake without drinking so much as to need to use the loo...

Still not 40

We decided to celebrate the fact that we are still young.

I took the Friday of and after a lazy morning we left for Gisenyi. We stopped at Muzanse (Ruhengeri) for lunch. The place we knew was open but did not look it. The sign outside was taken down and men were busy (relatively) sweeping and working. The food however was still as lovely as we remembered. Worth over an hour waiting for.

We carried on on the partly new road, partly past roadworks, it seems to progress at an reasonable level. We were happy to see most workman were Rwandans and it was done by Strabag, not the cheap Chinese competitor.

We made the costly error to stop at our, by now usual, souvenir shop. KIAKA is a cooperative with nice products and good prices (and a clean loo). So now we have a drum, a stool and some statues.

So finally we got to our destination, a ride that should take less than four ours took us most of the day.

SERENA KIVU SUN ****
The only four star hotel out of Kigali. It is posh and men were helping us inside with umbrellas, as it was raining heavily. Gisenyi is known for its rain, fortunately often late afternoon or at night.


The hotel deserves its four stars with a lake view and beach. The staff however don't. The free water is delivered in the afternoon, well after you need it. Half the cutlery is missing, and will only arrive after asked for. The beach towels came after asking twice and with half an hour delay.etc. etc. We had a lovely massage on Saturday, of course at a different time than ordered. The dinner was buffet, so at least no problems with service, however it takes some skill to get your drinks at the same time as your dinner.

Saturday morning we had a stroll into town. It has a nice atmosphere. We visited the market and even bought cloth, cheaper than in Kigali. We couldn't resist the artist shops and bought a tam tam of raw wood and a mask, as if we needed it.

The way back was much quicker, I claim it on my shortcut. On the way there I noticed there was a road being build which would skip on hill, so on the way back we took it. It turned out that this was indeed a shortcut, a shame that it wasn't entirely ready, but that was half the fun.

We only stopped for a quick samosa and breakfast apple half way and were within four hours home.

So we have still some Sunday afternoon left to put cream on my sunburn, have tea and play with the cats. Oh, and spray the purchases with Doom.

In short, I can recommend this weekend away, but it might be worthwhile stay at a cheaper hotel and coming to Serena for the beach and a drink.

Dance troop

The short version of why we went on Saturday to watch a dance performance...

One of Lon's colleague's went on a visit to his guards house, two of the daughters performed a Rwandan dance - it turned out they were part of a local group that needed help with funds for costumes etc - they put some photos on their blog, and friends and family chipped in to help fund the troop.

We were treated to an energetic (if not synchronised) hours dance












Lon struts his stuff ...
To be honest we enjoyed watching the neighbours and the kids who surrounded the back yard almost as much as the performance itself..





the first Rwandan toddler I've noticed thumbsuckingour escort out of the neighbourhood

Send a cow

Last week I went along with a group to visit the offices of Send a Cow Rwanda, which is a UK based NGO which provides livestock to vulnerable people as part of a 4 year cycle which involves training in sustainable agriculture and livestock husbandry. For more details see Send a Cow


yesterday we paid a follow up visit and went out into the field to visit three cow recipients. We were accompanied by one of the social development officers and David, a field officer. Each district has a field officer with a motor bike - he provides basic veterinary care including articifical insemination (European bulls donations at 1500 Rwf a shot), as well as keeping in regular contact with the families.







All three were widows with adult children and grandchildren living in the compound
One of the cows (very well groomed and very tame) her name means "Something which brings joy"


We were able to ask lots of questions about life before the cow, and how it has changed and hopes for the future.



This time I have been able to offer something useful in return for the time that the staff of the organisation have given us (I know at ACCESS I would spend a lot of time providing information to people for no return...) recently a photographer Wayne Hutchinson went to visit a number of participants and took amazing photos http://www.farm-images.co.uk/news/
I'll be visiting some over the coming weeks in order to get some profile / case histories which can be used in promotional materials, and to put some stories to the faces.


this is a trough used for brewing local banana beer (an income generating idea if ever I saw one..)









This is a tip tap system. There is place for your soap, and you can wash your hands after visiting the WC without using much water




washing up left out to dry...

Harvest

well...
the box veg growing scheme isn't as successful as I may have hoped, but here is a photo of one of our tomatoes

we had a harvest of 6

there are another 6 or so in various stages of development.
A kilo of tomatoes from the veg man costs less than a euro.....

les Soeurs Bernadine

Recently some of the NL partners went to visit les Soeurs Bernadine. Sister Stephanie and Sister Marie Michel are Belgian and our contact point, sister Marie Michel (on the left in the white T shirt) has been in Rwanda for 50 years.


Sister Dorothea is Rwandan and 90 years old - she supervises the meals for patients in the hospital which is next door to the convent. Here in hospital your family is supposed to provide food for you. There are however, large numbers of people who have no-one to do that, either they have no-one, or they live far away and have come to Kigali for specialist treatment. There is a social worker in the hospital who identifies these people (60 -120 per day depending on the Specialist doctors list etc) and the nuns try to provide a healthy warm meal for them.
Depending on what is in season there will be sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice or cassava with beans and a vegetable sauce.



the food preparation and cooking area is very basic but also very clean.
These pots are then loaded into wheelbarrows and taken to the hospital.

One of the reasons we went along also is that the African International Club which I am a member of supports the sisters by paying 125,000 Rwf (about 150 Euro) per month, which due to rising costs of basics like rice and cooking oil is no longer enough, so our arms were twisted to try and increase this amount. We are not the only supporters of the initiative, but were certainly a regular income source.

To say that visiting the nuns made an impression on me is an understatement.
The sisters have incredibly warm hearts, and are compassionate, while still being surprisingly worldly and funny.

Freedom!

...though sadly only temporary

Yesterday was the kits first (legal) foray into the garden which has duly been sniffed and explored



Dobby is fully recuperated and back to her usual naughty playful sef