Kayonza, Kigali, Kibuye and Kiziba

Sorry, this was written two days ago, but I just got internet now!!

Hey all, so first I have to apologise to anyone who actually checks this blog out regularly... it’s been a few days since I’ve had time to write anything... sorry! Also, this post is very very long, so if you finish it all, you win a prize!*

We’ve had a really busy, but awesome last few days. Last time I updated we had just come back from our week in Kayonza building the mud house. We came back to Kigali for the weekend and had a pretty awesome time. On Saturday we had the morning to ourselves to hang out downtown Kigali, check out some shops, a lot of the girls bought gitange (African print material) and then we all hung out at Bourbon Coffee Shop for lunch. That afternoon we were invited to join our hosts for a wedding reception. Weddings in Rwanda are ridiculous! There are 5 different ceremonies that go with a wedding and they happen within about 3 weeks of each other. The reception that we went to was pretty fancy to say the least. I won’t to in to too much detail about it except that it went on for ever and there was AMAZING traditional Rwandan dance and drumming. We were told that the dance troupe that was there was Rwanda’s best traditional dance troupe, and it showed!

Sunday morning we went to the English service at Vivante church and then went to visit two different memorial sites outside of Kigali. The first site that we went to was a church in the village of Ntarama where more than 5000 people were killed. The second one was at a church in the village of Nyamata. At Nyamata there were over 10,000 people who were killed in genocide. At both sites the people from the area fled to the churches for refuge as they had been doing ever since the first killings started in 1959. The militias and genocidal government caught on to this and used the churches to gather everyone together. At both sites as soon as the churches were full of people seeking refuge they were locked in and the militias were brought in to slaughter everyone trapped inside. The sites have been kept almost the same as the day that the killings happened, and at both sites there are remains of the victims out on display or in mass graves on site. Both sites are very graphic and are very heavy and emotionally difficult to see.

On Monday we headed back to Kayonza for the day to help finish up with some of the building. We spent the day throwing mud on the walls, preparing them to be covered with concrete. We didn’t really do too much that day... we ran out of water pretty early on in the afternoon, so for the last few hours that we were there we pretty much just sat around and played with the village kids, which was just fine for us too! Tomorrow we will be going back to check out the, hopefully, final product. Yesterday the floors and outside walls were being done and today the doors and windows should have been put in, so we’re all hoping that the house is done tomorrow when we get there!

Tuesday was a really good day too! We spent the morning at Kigali’s city market buying and bartering for food for 83 households. The market was crazy, bartering for prices that are fair and not doubled because we’re white, porters fighting over who got to carry our 65 Kg bags across the market to the van, everyone trying to sell us things and yelling to us as we walked by... good times!! All of this food was then divided up and we took it with us when we visited Ubuzima. Ubuzima is a support group run by Vivante for people with HIV/AIDS. We spent an afternoon with the group, getting to know them, helping with a craft project they’re working on to gain income and just being with them helping to break down the huge stigmas around HIV in this area. After spending time with the Ubuzima group we went and met the family of a friend who has been in Canada on and off for the last couple of years. Fabrice has an amazing story with a lot of amazing people in it, and it was awesome to be able to met his mom and brothers here in Kigali after getting to know him over the last few years in Canada.

Wednesday was actually really laid back and relaxed. We took the morning to go shopping at an artisan’s market. As I’m sure a lot of you know, I’ve been collecting masks for the last 8-ish years... I was in heaven! I did really good and got some really good deals, and one not so good deal, and left the market with 5 masks!! Two of them came together in a set, so it’s not really as crazy as it sounds... but still... 5! Awesome. In the afternoon we loaded up some Jeeps and headed to Kibuye. Kibuye is a town on the edge of Lake Kivu in Western Provence. Just over the lake from Kibuye is DR Congo. It was a 3 hour long drive to get out there, so the rest of the evening was just spent enjoying each other’s company around the dinner table while waiting a couple of hours for our food. A few of us hung out and talked for a while after we did finally get our food before heading to bed. OH! That’s something crazy that’s been happening this trip... I’ve actually been going to bed at a “normal” time!! There have been many nights that I can’t sleep well, but I think I’ve been in bed by midnight every night but one!

Today we got up to a VERY strange sight... RAIN! In the middle of the dry season! It poured almost the whole time we were eating breakfast and for about an hour after that. The staff at the guest house we were staying at, which was beautiful!! And not the hotel that we usually stay at in Kibuye... but they said that it’s the first rain they’ve had for a couple of months now, and no one was expecting any rain in any part of the country until the end of August. But yeah, the rain actually was really nice. The country usually stays really green the whole dry season anyways, but on top of all the green there is a layer of red dust. Because of the rain today, the dust was washed away and kept down. Instead of things being very dusty with wind blowing it everywhere, it was actually really nice.

So anyways, beside the rain it was a really cool day. We went up to Kiziba Refugee Camp just outside of Kibuye. This was my third time going up to Kiziba. As soon as our Jeeps stopped I was greeted by about 5 of the members of the youth team that we work with who recognized me as the Jeeps were pulling in. It was awesome to see all of them again and hear about all the projects and things that the group has been doing over the last 2 years. We met shortly with the leaders of the youth team and then split up and walked through the camp. We were fist shown the two new projects that the group has started. 2 years ago, with money from the Ride for Refugees, my team brought the youth team a generator. Since then they have set up a barber shop and a cell phone charging station. Before this the people from the camp had to walk for hours down the mountain in to Kibuye, pay to charge their phone, and then walk for hours back up to the camp. Now the youth team charge less than what people paid in town and charge phones right in the camp. With the money that they make with the barber shop and cell phone charging they have started a community garden where they grown food to share with people in the camp who don’t have money to eat the days that the UN food rations run out. They are also using the money to fund many different programs with the youth in the camp around sports, recreation and education. During our tour we saw the camp’s market, the home of our tour guide, the primary school where she works, the football (soccer) field and climbed to the highest peak in the camp for an overview of the camp where 20,000 Congolese refugees have been living for the last 13 years.

One thing that I have noticed in myself this trip is that things aren’t really hitting me like that have in the past. Being in a refugee camp my first year in Rwanda was a very significant thing. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for not, but this time being in the camp was more familiar and routine. In a way I think that this is because I have a very good understand now of life in the camp, I’ve seen the positive things that have happened within the youth group, I know people there who have been becoming friends over the last years. On the other hand, I know that with all the reading and research I’ve been doing the last few years I’ve become very desensitized. There is not a lot that I’ve seen this trip that has hit me like it has in the past. I’ve seen almost all of it already, there’s not that shock factor that there has been in the past. I’m not sure yet if this is something that I should be worried about or not. It’s not like I’m becoming less sensitive or caring about things, actually I kind of feel like I’m able to get past the shock of things now and build a better understanding and better relationships. There are upsides and downsides to it I guess.

Anyways, my time in Rwanda this time around is very quickly coming to an end. Tomorrow is our last full day here and it feels like we just arrived a couple of days ago. Tomorrow will be a very full day. We will be helping out with a meal for the street kids in the morning and during that time I’ll be going off to find Manu’s parents to finally meet them and work out getting him in to school when the new school year starts in January. In the afternoon we are driving back out to Kayonza to see the finished house and then coming back to Kigali for our team debrief. Once we get all of that done (which I have the feeling we won’t get all of that done in one day) we will be celebrating our host Serge’s birthday! It should be an awesome evening, out for a good meal and hanging out with everyone before we pack up and leave for the airport on Saturday morning. BAH! I can’t believe we are leaving already!! But I am excited for what’s coming up too!! Paris should be a lot of fun with the team for two days after we leave Kigali. We already checked out some of the city on our layover two weeks ago, so I think we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do with our two days there. At the end of those two days I’ll be sending the team back home and then jumping on a different plane heading the opposite way to Sarajevo, Bosnia! I’ve got a week of puttering around Bosnia with nothing really planned yet but I have a few ideas of things I want to do... but that’ll be their own blog posts next week... who knows, maybe one of them will be from Kosovo? And then finally after Sarajevo I get to go visit one of my best friends in Manila, Philippines! I can’t wait to finally see John again, and this time in one of his favourite places where he has been working with ITeams since November. Can’t wait!!... So much awesome stuff coming up, but on the other hand it sucks hard core that I’m almost done here in Rwanda again. I love it here so much... two weeks just isn’t enough!

Well, that was a monster post, but I hope that it was interesting enough to keep you reading! We’ll see if I get another chance before we leave Rwanda to post again, but if not... I’ll catch up with you in Europe!!

~Mike

...favourite quotes from the kids at Kiziba:
-“Good morning, Teacher.” (at 3pm)
-“What is my name?” ...how should I know that?!?
-“Where do you from?”
-“Give me money!”
-“Give me pen!”
-“What year are you?”
-“Give me my water!”
-“What this?” ...while constantly pulling my shirt sleeves up to look at my tattoos and trying to rub them off...


*All prizes must be purchased with your own money, on your own time. Mike Goerz is not responsible for the lack of tangible prizes. No purchase necessary, prizes costing money may be swapped for a self given high five or pat on the back.