The Glass is Half Full

Change is occurring in the village of Gituro. Three weeks ago when we arrived in Gituro there were seventy small mud and stick shelters. People were wandering aimlessly; a few were tending haphazard gardens of sweet potato; most were desperate to go home. The Rwandan returnees knew that their Tanzanian homes were gone, for good, and that there was no going back, but they were not prepared to settle and make Gituro their home. No one wanted to accept that this depressing camp on the top of a desolate hill in North Eastern Rwanda was home.

That was then, but this afternoon as I walked around the village in the heat of the day there is activity: and it’s not all activity initiated by us. I counted five new traditional round mud walled, grass thatch huts. One was even decorated in patterns of ochre paint. One family has entered a trade agreement with a local ‘builder’ to construct two houses (mud and thatch) and a kitchen.

The threadbare orange and silver tarpaulins received on arrival are disappearing as families search out cane and grass to thatch their shelters. Soil is being prepared and sown with new crops of maize, cassava and sweet potato (sweet potato is ‘best’ because they bear fruit in three months). Grounds are being cleared and swept clean. Traditional mud ‘stoves’ are being constructed replacing the circle of rocks and as a result less wood is needed delivering a much better wood to heat ratio.

Children are making toys out of our building off cuts and the sounds of laughing (and crying) pervade the camp. When they’re not following me around trying to get the courage to shake hands with mzungu, and laugh at him asking them how they are, or what their name or age is in Kinyarwanda, they are helping pit diggers empty buckets of dirt, or taking turns to pump water.

So, why the optimism? As I sat in the shade of the community shelter, (an 8x5m wood and tin structure) built by us in partnership with the people, I shared my observations and asked why?

“We have realised that this is home… that there is no going back… we must settle and establish ourselves. We have realised this, and accepted It, because you have installed a permanent pump and we have water here… you are digging and building permanent latrines… you have made this shelter for us. We have heard many promises, but you have given.”

Until now the women and children walked 7km to collect stagnant, brown, contaminated water, today they walk 600m to a water source that is delivering clear, clean safe water.

It was exciting to hear them report that there are no families in the village collecting water from the livestock dam now, “why would we go two hours to share with the cows when we have water so close?”

In a region that has lost at least nineteen people to water borne diseases in the past six months these projects are literally life saving and community transforming. Through these simple and relatively inexpensive projects the people of Gituro have increased potential to rise above their circumstances and rather than just existing they can begin to redesign a living for themselves.

If transformation of lives and alleviation of poverty are two of our mission intentions, then, Salvation Army, we have done a good thing so far in Gituro.