After breakfast this morning the Headquarters personnel left Isaac and I too it. So here I am in the middle of Africa, in a little town in Northern Rwanda, the only mzungu (white guy) for a long way apparently and I knew it when I went for a walk through the village with Isaac.
The people are very friendly and welcoming. With my limited French and non-existent, (but learning), Kinyarwandan I am a real novelty, but a welcome one. From the District Government officials down the people have been great.
So far I have eaten three meals in Nyagatare and each time I have had my choice of rice, an ‘aromatic’ concoction of beans, savoury banana, cassava and sweet potato. I don’t think I’ll put on weight during this deployment.
Once we got rid of the HQ staff, we took an opportunity to orientate ourselves to the village; we had some shopping to do, so went for a walk down the main street. By the time we got to the end of the street we had decided that we will have to go for a trip into Kigali on Monday to obtain some supplies and materials. Lovely little village but nothing that we needed here.
Tomorrow it’s back out to Rwempasha to begin discussions with the community leaders with the goal of forming a community water committee that will decide on rules for use and maintenance of the well and lavatories that will be built. The great thing is that anything we do will be an improvement, but the challenge is to make what we do culturally relevant and sustainable. I think the plans and intentions of the project will deliver this goal.
The people are very friendly and welcoming. With my limited French and non-existent, (but learning), Kinyarwandan I am a real novelty, but a welcome one. From the District Government officials down the people have been great.So far I have eaten three meals in Nyagatare and each time I have had my choice of rice, an ‘aromatic’ concoction of beans, savoury banana, cassava and sweet potato. I don’t think I’ll put on weight during this deployment.
Once we got rid of the HQ staff, we took an opportunity to orientate ourselves to the village; we had some shopping to do, so went for a walk down the main street. By the time we got to the end of the street we had decided that we will have to go for a trip into Kigali on Monday to obtain some supplies and materials. Lovely little village but nothing that we needed here.
Tomorrow it’s back out to Rwempasha to begin discussions with the community leaders with the goal of forming a community water committee that will decide on rules for use and maintenance of the well and lavatories that will be built. The great thing is that anything we do will be an improvement, but the challenge is to make what we do culturally relevant and sustainable. I think the plans and intentions of the project will deliver this goal.
