New School Doors Open in Nemba

This past week I attended an inauguration ceremony for a remodeled high school facility in my town. The school is part of Catholic charities supporting my community. The charities include a hospital, a health center, this school, as well as other social services which include services to orphans, survivors of the genocide, and people with HIV/AIDS. The charity that's behind all this is called Medicos Mundi (www.medicosmundi.es) a Spanish charity that supports charitable efforts in my district.

The school runs from first grade all the way to Senior 6, so it's actually more than a high school. The building renovation efforts were managed by a Spanish architect and medical doctor, Mariano Perez. The financial contribution and architect support from Universidad Miguel Hernandez (http://www.umh.es)

The inauguration event was attended by the Spanish minister of international development, as well as the Rwandan minister of education. Others in attendance included the governor of the Northern Province, the mayor of the district as well as representatives from the Catholic Arch diocese of Musanze, and many others. Attendees braved the rainy day and the event continued as planned despite the nonstop rain and the muddy grounds!!

After the cutting of the ribbon, the guests and invitees were taken on a tour of the new facility. The guests were greeted by the drumming group and dance troops from various schools. The new building is exceptional. The new facility includes new classrooms, a laboratory, a teachers' lounge, meeting room, and hygienic bathrooms for both boys and girls and separate toilettes for the staff.

The students will also enjoy a large play ground, a nice garden, a clean source of drinking water. Following the tour, it was time for a Rwandan favorite pastime, SPEECHES!! Many lines up to give speeches starting with the Mayor, the Governor, Dr Mariano, the Rwandan and the Spanish ministers. The main guests were then presented with presents that consisted of Rwandan handmade baskets and straw plates with designs made with dry banana leaves.


My favourite part of the event was the closing ceremony with more dancing and drumming and the practice of another Rwandan tradition, sharing a meal of corn-on-the-cob. I first declined to take in the tradition as I felt bad eating a corn while 100s of hungry eyes are staring, but then accepted once I saw that everybody was receiving one, all 2,000 in attendance!!

I happened to visit the school in the past on more than one occasion, and seeing the before and after, I can really appreciate the difference. With a focus on health and education Medicos Mundi is doing great job on improving living conditions, creating opportunities, and help lift a community from poverty.

One Year at Site

This past weekend marked exactly one year since we each packed a bike, an aluminum chest, and personal belongings onto a pickup truck and each headed to their assigned site. It's amazing to see most of us had survived the experience and now we're into the count down.

A year ago when I arrived at my site I was received by my counterpart and resource family' walked into a house that needed scrubbing floor to ceiling, had to kick the old tenants of spiders and rats out' and in the process settle in. A year later today, I have a better command of the language, I rule the streets and hills of my umudugudu (village, made many friends, turned a house into home, and worked on many projects to improve the living conditions and knowledge of my neighbors and colleagues.

It's sad to think that there will be a day that we'll all have to leave. In my constant thoughts about leaving, when the tide is high and the waves are crushing (which happens often), I find sadness and a sense of longing for this place.

Things I got to enjoy about my site include:
- kids calling my name 'Nsabimana' and running behind me on my walk to work
- strapping my hiking shoes on and going out hiking in the various mountain trails and valleys just out my backyard
- the pleasure of seeing some of my recommendations implemented at the health center
- the agony of having the opposite be the case
- 2-hour road trips in the Rwandan country side on dirt roads on visits to health centers
- having conversations with friends and neighbors around a bowl of M&Ms; where M&Ms is the subject of conversation
- the look on people's face when I speak Kinyarwanda

The next few months should be interesting especially that now after being here a year, people are realizing that I'm one of them and are open and more accepting.

Genocide Memorial Week_2010

This week is Genocide Memorial week which commences on April 7th through the 13th. This week commemorates the 1994 ethnic Genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. More than one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed in horrific ways over the course of 100 days.

April 7th is a holiday and commemoration events take place all over the country to unit people on reconciliation and prosperity. In my continuous effort to integrate with the community and support their efforts towards progress, I checked with my counterpart on the schedule of events for this week. On the first day we were going to either join the district officials on a special ceremony along the river (where many bodies were dumped) or participate in the event at the sector level. My counterpart asked me to show up at the soccer field in my town around 9 AM.
I got up early in the morning, turned on the radio and quickly realized the theme of the somber music related to the genocide. The street outside was very quite and almost deserted except for very few people. As I reached the stadium, it was 9:12 at this point; there was nothing to indicate a planned event except for 7 chairs, 6 long benches, a coffee table, and 5 people standing in the middle of the field. I immediately called my counterpart and asked him if he was sure about an event taking place here (I really wanted to observe this day and stand in solidarity with the local population). He assured me and told me that he was leaving the house right now along with the sector officials.

By 10:00 am there were more and more signs. At this point a few people responded to the executive secretary’s assistance who went walking around town with a blow horn calling on people to come to the soccer field. People sat on the grass hill (make shift stands) as VIPs occupied the set of chairs and benches!! By 10:30 the grass hills were filled with men, women, and children descending from all directions.
The ceremony started with a signal from the sector official for people to stand up for the national anthem. A guy stepped up to the blow horn and everybody removed their hats, village women removed their head covers!! All sang the national anthem and took their seats. Next, the muszungu Padre (Father) from the Catholic Church led a prayer in Kinyarwanda (impressive) followed by a short speech from the Adventist priest. In between, the assistant secretary gave charged speeches.
Next, the executive sector secretary gave her ijambo (speech) and highlighted the weeklong events encouraging people to attend. The next 45 minutes were very interesting with a survivor who came up and spoke about her experience surviving the genocide. The floor was then open to people from the audience to come up and talk about what they witnessed 16 years ago (the north continued to be a hot spot and experienced many horrors compared to the rest of the country). Some were génocidaires, which I though was amazing to see them stand before this growing crowd and speak!!
At noon, Radios were turned on and held against the blow horn. We were all to listen to the President speak from a big event at Amahoro stadium in Kigali. The president’s speech was very interesting. He delivered it in both English and Kinyarwanda. His speech focused on three main points. First, was the importance of fighting “bad politics” from within, as well as from the international community. Bad politics I understood is politics of division, politics that criticize the current regime on issues of freedom of speech and political freedom!! Good politics is politics promoting peace, unity, and prosperity. Rwandans do have more to worry about in terms of getting themselves out of poverty and into progress!!
The remaining of the week, businesses are allowed to open till noon only and then everything closes in the afternoon to attend events and functions for conciliation and remembrance. Otherwise, this week and the next 100 days it will be interesting to observe the subtle changes in mood and behavior of a nation in morning!!

The Amazing Mountain Gorillas

This past weekend I finally had a chance to go trekking in the Volcano National Park to see the mountain gorillas. It was an incredible experience. I went with my two friends, Ilona and Kristi, who are currently visiting me to volunteer in Rwanda. We got to Musanze on Friday and stayed with Jessica, another PCV based near there. A car that I arranged for in advance came and picked us up at 6:15 am. We then drove to the tourist office in Kinigi to get our entrance tickets to the National Park and to get briefed on etiquettes and proper behavior when around the gorillas.
After the briefing, we got assigned to a gorilla group to visit. I wanted to see the Sosa group, the largest and more secluded of all, but we couldn’t go there since a team from the National Geographic had already booked that group to film for a documentary on the Mountain Gorillas. Instead we got to see the Umubano group. The umubano group consisted of a silverback, two blackbacks, three famales, and 6 baby gorillas.
It took us about 2.5 hours to get our first sighting of the gorillas, Charles the silverback. We then got to see a mother and her child, then more of the Umubano group. We got to get so close to the gorillas and experience them in their natural habitat. One of the little baby gorillas was so curious of us and kept coming towards us. However, we had to move back keeping with the 7m distance rule from the gorillas.
The gorillas exhibit a very close behavior to humans, in their looks, they way the nurse and care for their babies, and they way they interact and look.

Operation Smile Rwanda

This week I signed up to volunteer with Operation Smile, Op Smile is an American NGO out of Norfolk, VA (check 'em out operationsmile.org). It’s a volunteer organization where surgeons, anesthesiologist, dentists, nurses, camera crew, photographers, local interpreters and support staff as well as many other specialized nurses volunteer their time for 10 days to go on a mission in developing countries to treat patients with Cleft pellets.
This was Op Smile’s first mission to Rwanda and they’re already scheduled to be back again next year. The first two days of the mission were spent conducting screening interviews. Many patients lined the waiting area of the University Teaching Hospital where the mission was to work out of. Many Rwandan volunteers helped conducting the screening interviews that were part of the patient chart. The patients then went through different rooms for vitals check-up, surgical team assessment, anesthesia assessment, blood work, dental assessment, speech therapy.
I was lucky to volunteer with Op smile and be part of this amazing team. It’s incredible how many patients lined up in the waiting area waiting for the opportunity to be selected for this surgery that would forever change their lives!! The first day there were over 500 people with their families and friends waiting. The first day we limited the screening to 264 patients. The next day we screened another 169.
I must say that I was really touched by the experience and looking at the faces of mothers holding their infant children with hope for a new outlook on life for their children was incredible. I volunteered during the first two days of screening. My assignment was to take pictures of all patients going through the screening process to be including in their charts. I then came back three days later to see some of the same patients who received surgeries already. Comparing the before and after was amazing. The team of volunteer surgeons, dentists and nursing staff did an amazing job with these patients. And comparing the before and after shots side by side reveals the amazing outcomes.
It’s an amazing thing to know that the lucky patients who had their cleft lips fixed will now have a better chance of integrating into their society, be able to go to school without being laughed at, having girl/boyfriends, and not be scared to be in public or interact with others. I would definitely sign up in the future to volunteer with Op Smile and would even consider being part of their team. The work they do brings many smiles to many unfortunate people all around the world.