Late Updates from 2010_Dec (Part 2)

In December I also got to travel to South Africa on Med Evac. I broke my tooth a couple of weeks before while I was eating some dried cherries that my sister sent to me from the US in a care package. The bag contained a pit that I bit hard on. The same tooth was already cracked from biting on a little rock mixed up with my rice and beans about two months prior. So the second hard object was sure to break my tooth into three pieces.

One of the great values from volunteering with the Peace Corps is medical coverage which includes Med Evac. If the service cannot be done in the host country, Rwanda, then we get to be med evaced, first to Kenya or South Africa for more complex cases such as dental. Dental care in Africa in general is very poor and only covers basic procedures such as extractions.

IN a nut shell, I got to go on an awesome trip to SA, mainly Pretoria and hang out there for a week. It was very refreshing and rejuvenating. South Africa felt just like home from the minute you land. The airport is very modern, wide clean streets, highways, McD's and all other American chains, shopping malls with all the brand stores and more.

The only difference was the heightened sense of security. All houses are behind erect walls with electrical wires, walking outside at night is considered dangerous. You must call a cab to go anywhere at night, wait for the cab to call back and let you know they're outside before you leave your house or any establishment.

The people there seem to have gotten used to this and don't even think about it. The other disturbing observation is the racist comments and segregation between white and blacks. I guess 16 years is not a long time to completely change people's minds against Apartheid! It took decades before the US came to terms with segregation, and Rwanda still suffers from the effects of the Genocide 16 years ago!

The younger generation, however, seem to be more tolerant and together they're building their country.

I didn't get to do much site seeing while there since I had frequent dentist visits while there. But it was great to experience SA and I will definitely be back there soon.

Late Updates from 2010_Dec

December was a quiet month. Many Muzungu go home for the holiday and many of the locals also take vacations around this time to spend CHristmas with family. I was one of very few people left around which provided for a nice and relaxing time, even at work without the hassle and the endless emails and requests to resolve pharmaceitical stockouts from any of the three hospitals and other pharmacy supply chain fires!!

In a previous post I talked about the new hospital project I'm involved in with PIH and how it wassupposed to open in October 2010. Well, the new date is end of January. A lot has been done and the hospital is in a great shape with lots of completed sections. We;re now in the process of getting the furniture and all medical equipment in place. II've been working with my counterpart on the hospital side to put together a distribution plan that we've been executing the past couple of weeks.

At this point, all available equipment and furniture is in place. However, we're still waiting on two other shipments to sort through and distribute as well as moving existing equipment fro mthe exsting facility.

Next week, the final touches in terms of site construction crew will be completed, IT connections, etc. The following week, my team's work will need to come to an end, and the planning for the inauguration event will begin. Expected at the inauguration event will be attended by the president, Paul Kagame, Paul Farmer, Bill Clinton (Clinton FOundation is a major donor), as well as other international and national guests.

Here're some picture updates. OR, one of the patient wards, and a garden shot

Rabbit Farm Project

Today was a great day. I woke up early in the morning and headed out to my old site at Gakenke, where I’m still maintaining two of my community projects. One of those is the Rabbit farm at Karambo. The Karambo project will support the malnutrition program at the health center there. The rabbit farm is meant to be a model compared to the type of construction done here. The farm will have capacity to house 50 rabbits. The farm design is adopted from an existing farm here but with more modern touches. An architect from the MASS group volunteered to draw the blue prints which I shared with two of the local carpenters whom will be working on this project.

The project was started back in August with grant from World Connect, a US NGO that supports Peace Corps volunteers’ projects. The project is still in the construction phase which is taking a little longer than expected. I try to visit there frequently to check on progress and follow up with the construction. I must admit, it’s a bit of a challenge, especially that I now live in the Eastern province with a full work load. I’m due to visit there sometime soon I hope. Here’re some images from the construction.

My New Job with PIH

This week I moved to my new home in Butaro where I'll be working with Partners in Health or PIH. PIH was started in Haiti by Dr Paul Farmer. PIH came to Rwanda in 2005 by invitation from the Rwandan government and supported by the Clinton Foundation. In Rwanda, PIH runs two hospitals and is building a third state of the art new hospital. Butaor, where I'll be, is more isolated that my last location. They still don’t have electricity and is far from any major paved roads. But these are the exact conditions PIH prefers to work and serve the underprivileged of all populations. However, PIH facilities run on massive generators and are well equipped with wireless fast internet, full kitchen, and an amazing and professional staff.

I’ll be working with the Procurement and Logistics team focusing on ‘clinical capacitation’ within the new hospital. I’m really excited to be part of this amazing organization and will keep you posted as to my work plans. Here are some images of the new hospital under construction. The scheduled opening of the hospital is Oct 2010 when the president and other dignitaries will be here for the inauguration.

Butaro despite its remote location is a beautiful place like. The town is up hill from Lake Burera, a crater lake and the second largest in Rwanda after lake Kivu. I plan on going hiking and exploring the area around here. Plus, the country director has an inflatable kayak that I’ll see if he’ll let me borrow :o)
Other attractions include an amazing water fall and a hydroelectric dam that they’re currently constructing. I’m also a 15 minute walk from the Ugandan border and near the southern end of Lake Bunyonyi, which I visited in Uganda. Lake Bunyonyi if you remember is the deepest and cleanest lake in Africa. The southern end which I couldn’t explore last time has grand hot springs that perhaps, with other PIHers, I’ll be able to cross the border safely to go see.

What's the word?

I realize haven’t updated my blog in a while, things been kind of crazy and up in the air with a break in the middle. So here’s a quick overview of what’s been happening in my life the past couple of months.

July – in July things started with a long bike ride that I took from my site up north all the way to another volunteer’s site in the eastern province of Rwanda. The trip took three days covering 300 kilometers in 5 hrs and 14mins. Day one I took off from my site rode along paved roads for about 5 kilometers before turning onto the dirt road to Byumba in the Northern Province. This was the most difficult section of the ride which started off along a paved road, then flat roads across tea plantations but then quickly turned into ascending one mountain after another with intermittent flat sections for the remaining 30 km.
I had to walk my bike a couple of times and there was a time when I thought I wasn’t going to make it before dark. However, after going around a couple of hills, I could see my destination in the distance three or four hills over. My ride the first day was slow as I was going through remote villages and made several stops to speak with locals who were surprised to see a muzungu riding a bicycle along their village. I also spent some time walking across the tea plantations.

The next day was a smooth ride as I went from Byumba atop one of the mountains all the way down hill to the capital Kigali. This was a straight forward and a joy ride for most of the time. On the third day m plan was to end my ride in Rwamagana in the Eastern province , about 1hr drive by car, but by the time I got there, the volunteer I was supposed to stay with was on her way to Kibungu farther east and convinced me to continue on to my final destination in Kibungo. Several other volunteers were on their way to Kibungo for our 4th of July goat roast party!! I pushed on that same day and ended up cutting 150 Km in one day. By the time I got to Kibungo I was covered in dirt and sweat and ready for a nice cold shower and a meal. On the way to Kibungo I actually rested briefly at some roadside bar where I got to watch the Germany-Argentina world cup match.

July – also in July was the 4th of July goat roast party hosted by Tom and Malea at their house in Kibungo. This ended up being an amazing weekend with amazing food and a delicious fresh kill goat on one big skewer!! That week end we cooked, ate great food, drank, sang songs to Brandon’s guitar playing, and played card games.

July – the other highlights in July included my resignation from the Access Project, the NGO I’ve been working with since I started my PC service in Rwanda. They hosted a kind thank you party for me and 3 other volunteers and interns who were leaving around the same time. The following week I flew home to Chicago for a two week recharging trip!!

July-August – I want home to Chicago to visit my family and be part of my nephew Youssef’s fifth birthday party. In all honesty, I was very nervous and anxious of going home. I wasn’t sure how I would react seeing my family after being away in central Africa for the past year and a half!! But the minute I hit the ground and came outside of the airport it was like I’ve never left!! I felt so much in ease! Perhaps my 7 hour layover and stroll down the streets of Brussels eased me into the developed world!!

Being home was great. I was received at the airport by my two sisters, my growing nephew and now walking niece!! I got to drive for the first time in a year down the high highways of the US. At home, my mom was waiting. It was great seeing her and my dad. This is the longest it’s been for me to be away from home!! My mom was excited and took two weeks off work so that we can spend the most time together. I got to eat lots of good food and have cold drinks and hot showers on demand!!
I got to eat delicious Egyptian food such as molokheya with rice, sea food, fresh salads, cheese sandwiches and more. I went out a couple of times with my buddies and other friends. I got treated to amazing Chicago style thin and stuffed pizza, Vietnamese food, subway, burgers. Spending two weeks there was about the right amount, any longer would’ve made it a hard decision coming back!!

August – August was overall quiet as I prepared to transition to my new job with Partners in Health (PIH), http://www.pih.org . See next blog entry.
Other than the presidential elections which went smoothly and with no problems, I spent my time managing the two projects I’m starting in my old community. I also got to spend a long weekend in a town at the southernmost tip of Lake Kivu bordering the gold-rich province of Bukavo in the DR Congo. The views of the lake and Bukavo on the other side of the lake were amazing. We also took a boat ride down the Congo River in a dug-out canoe where we could touch the DR Congo one side and Rwanda on the other.

Lake Bunyonyi; Western Uganda

Two weddings on the same day, one in the western region of Uganda the other in the eastern province of Rwanda! I had to make a choice between going to one or the other. Since I’ve been to a few weddings in Rwanda at this point, I decided to go to Uganda for a new cultural experience. My friend Gloria’s sister was to get married in their family farm outside of the southern Ugandan city of Ntungamo!!

My plan was to go to Uganda a few days before the wedding and hang out in the capital Kampala before heading to the wedding, but after a close look at a map of Uganda, I noticed that Ntungamo is a short distance from the border with Rwanda. That means I don’t have to make the excruciating 10 hour bus ride from Kigali to Kampala. Instead, and after consulting my travel book, I decided I was going to take a different route into Uganda and spend a couple of days along the shores of Lake Bunyonyi. According to my travel book, Lake Bunyonyi is a crater lake and is described as the Switzerland of Africa. I left my house early that morning and took the bus along the outskirts of Volcano National park which extends across the border into Uganda. I got off the bus at the end of the road to the border crossing, went through customs and crossed a border post which consisted of two barrels and a short fence. The paved road stopped on the Rwandan side with no signs of a clear road on the Ugandan side. There was a Swedish couple crossing the other way into Rwanda so I asked them of what means I have to get to the next nearest town. My options were take a buda buda, a motorcycle taxi or a car hire to Kisoro about 20 minutes away. I car hire was heading back to town and the guy agreed to cramp me into his little sedan for about the same price as a buda buda. Once at Kisoro, I jumped into another taxi sedan on a 4 hour trip To Kibale, the next town near Lake Bunyonyi. This was my first experience with private hires in Uganda. I got in the car and settled for the back seat with three other people. I envied the guy in the front seat but soon we made two more stops and two more people jumped in. At this point we were 8 in a compact sedan, a Toyota Corolla. 4 in the back seat and another 4 in the front seat, including the driver, plus my backpack!! The trip from Kisoro to Kabale lasted 4.5hrs and took us up a dirt road crossing the western mountains of Uganda, through a national park with bamboo forest and Pigmy or Batwa population, indigenous people that inhabit this part of Africa. 2hrs into the trip, we finally we reached part of the road that was being widened and paved by an Israeli company. The remaining period was on a paved road that was more inhabited and ran through small farm towns and villages.

Once in Kabale, a bustling town, I walked around and negotiated a buda buda driver that agreed to take me from town up the mountain and down the other side to Lake Bunyonyi. As we reached the top of the mountain, the driver turned off the engine and we descended into a free fall down the dirt road to the shores of the lake. I was treated to amazing views of the Crater Lake surrounded by green hills and fields of papyrus plants. I checked into Overland Camp as recommended in my travel book. The place was amazing sitting on m=one corner of the lake with accommodations ranging from simple tents to tree house tents and cabins. I checked into a furnished tent that was built on a tree overlooking the lake below. At this point and after long haul from my house across the border, through the forest, and finally in town then up and down a mountain, I was glad to finally put my backpack down. I changed into my swimming trunks and jumped in the lake. Lake Bunyonyi is said to be the purest lake in all Africa, my Schisto blood test is still pending!! The lake however, is beautiful and vast weaving through hills and dotted with many islands (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_bunyonyi). There was a sign on the shore claiming Bunyonyi is the deepest lake in Uganda with 6,500 ft deep!! With that in mind I decided to take advantage of the make shift jump board protruding from a tree by the lake knowing that I would never hit the bottom regardless of height :o)

The next day I rented a dug-out canoe, a dug out tree bark!! And took off in the vast lake trying to keep land marks that will allow me to find my lodge on the way back!! Maneuvering a dug-out canoe is tricky business and rowing forward is a challenge no muzungu is ready for!! The travel guide warned of the muzungu circle rowing which I came to experience first hand!! Everything I learned about canoeing and rowing did not apply here due to the way the canoe is shaped!! There tends to be a delay in response and you suddenly find yourself going in continuous circles in the canoe!! It took me almost all day to finally figure it out and the way back was much straighter forward and with direction. I made a stop on Bushara Island. Bushara Island houses a camp site and is a bird watching area. The project on the island was started by a Christian charitable organization supported by the Canadian Aid Agency. The proceeds support local communities through school programs, agriculture, and other cultural heritage projects.

At night we would hang out by the bonfire and people would share their travel stories. I met 2 PCVs from Tanzania, other NGO workers from Eastern Uganda, a group of Brits traveling in an overland throughout Uganda, and two Germans who were traveling overland starting in Germany and ending in Cape Town, SA. The German guys had flipped their converted semi off the dirt road and were sticking around as they needed to figure out how to get the truck upright!! I’ve been coming across many people doing overland trips through Africa. I just recently met a British couple who took off from London and were on their way out to Cape Town as well.

After two days at Overland Camp by Lake Bunyonyi swimming in the lake, diving from diving pad hung from a tree, canoeing, and Island hopping, it was time to come back to Rwanda. On Monday morning, I took a moto back to the town of Kabale, from there I got into a cab with 6 other people plus the driver for the 45 minute ride to the border, across the no-man’s land and the border I walked to the nearest village where I got on a motato to Kigali. After reaching Kigali it was time for the last stretch of the trip taking the bus back to my village in the north!!

Top of Mount Kabuye

The last two weeks have been a chance for me to venture out in to the great outdoors in parts of Eastern Africa!! On the last weekend of April, I and a few other Peace Corps volunteers came to visit me at my site and on the next day in the morning we took on Mount Kabuye, the second highest mountain range in Rwanda.

The rainy season in this part of the world starts usually in early April and lasts through June. However, the seasons seem to be shifted and the weather’s been great all of April with lots of sun and short spurts of heavy rain that would last no more than an hour!! However, the Friday when my friends were expected to arrive, it had started raining very early in the day and didn’t stop raining until the evening!! Saturday morning, the day we were to go hiking I could hear the soothing sound of muffled rain drops falling on my tin roof throughout the night. We were up by 7:30 in the morning and it was still raining on and off! We fixed a small breakfast, bread and butter, peanut butter sandwiches and herbal tea!! We decided to wait out the rain. Tom, one of the PCVs suggested we wait until 9:30 and if it hadn’t stopped raining by then we would just go. By 9:20 the rain had stopped but the skies were still full of clouds!! We strapped our boots, put on our rain coats and headed out!!

The path to Kabuye is literally right outside my house. We walked down the dirt road of my town for 5 minutes, cut a right, crossed the river and were on the path up the mountain. By then it had started drizzling again!! A short distance up the hills we started breaking a sweat under the rain coats. But then the rain had stopped so we took off the coats. This continued for a while, put-on/put-off coat!! Rwandans are allergic to rain it seams so they tend to stay indoor and off the streets when it rains!! Strange behavior for a country that gets rain almost 9 months out of the year!! However, this worked in our favor as the kids and adults were out of sight and we were not followed by a wave of little kids or stared at by adults sipping on local banana bear!!

On my many hikes to mount Kabuye I would always get slowed down and never make it to the top by kids yelling muzungu and running behind while mothers inviting you to their homes!! I also get caught up taking pictures of the amazing landscape and little kids, showing them their pictures on the small screen, and getting laughs and looks of amazement from them!!

But this time thanks to the rain and a determined group we were able to push on to the top with little interruption, especially after passing the small village towns and reaching altitude were little people live. The hike was amazing and the rain kept moving in and out but it never really poured on us! Instead it was getting misty which made for an awesome and spooky atmosphere. We ran into a kid that new my name but of course I didn’t recognize him and he asked to accompany us!! He led us through and offered to take us to Inzo y’ Imana or the House of God. House of God is a cave with a spiral side wall which makes for a spiral ramp and 12 small chambers. The cave is in a rocky part of the mountain with some steep cliffs that would make for great mountain climbing. From there we continued along a steep hill going sideways and then straight climb to the top. The fauna was amazing and changed from farms of climbing beans and sorghum, to potatoes, which require colder weather. We then got so high where no one lives and the natural terrain of pine trees predominated. There was a beautiful water fall on the way. By the time we got to the very top, it was all pine trees with a small pond in the middle. We tried to find a clear spot away from the giant ants and set up there. At this point we had about 6 kids and two adults that insisted they were following us just to hang out!! I tried to make clear that they’re welcome to be around as long as they don’t ask for amafaranga at the end!! We then sat at the opposite end of the mountain and pulled out our lunch. I brought a bag of turtle bread for each of us, Tom brought his own bread and a jar of peanut butter, Anna had a trail mix and some teriyaki beef jerkeys. Of course we had to share our lunch and water with the kids sitting all around us. We gave them two loafs of bread to share and some trail mix, which I’m not sure they liked!!

The site at the top was amazing, the clouds were moving fast and rising against the mountain side and then through a small break in the clouds we could see through down to the valley and I was able to make sense of where we were with the building from village very small!! Soon after, it got really foggy and cold!! Very cold we had to put our jackets on and were still shivering. At this point we decided we better start heading down!!

The entire time we were climbing up, the clouds above were so thick we couldn’t see where were heading and at some height we couldn’t see below to the valley either. But on the way down, and after the fog has lifted up, the clouds broke and we were treated to amazing views. As we crossed around the mountain top again and with the land below clear, I could tell that we were facing north. As we continued heading down, I thought I saw what would pass for a lake in between the other mountain tops. That was lake Ruhondo, which is a little over an hour drive from where we were. It was amazing to be able to see that far and had we climbed back up to the top and a little around we would’ve been treated to a panoramic view of the Virunga Volcanoes in Musanze. The hike down with the clouds gone was amazing and as we reached close to the bottom, looking behind us and up, we could see the enormity of the mountain and how high we hiked. We all though it was a blessing the view was obstructed going up which lessened any possible discouragements of the task ahead!!

The hike took a little over 8 hours with the time we spent in the cage and a lunch break as well as stops for pictures and chats with the villagers!! I totally would do it again and will be going up there again!!