Donated Goats Given Away

1pm was the set time for the donated goat giveaway. Then the time changed (as it often does) to 2pm. We called the Cell Leader to check to see if people had arrived at 2:20pm. She said she would call us when it was time to come...a very nice gesture because things often start late here. The phone finally rang at 3:30pm and we drove the 10 minutes to the cell office. When we arrived we were greeted by 100 children and adults! This was much more than just a goat presentation. It was a party! Dancing, singing, speeches, more singing and dancing! It was a true celebration of saying thank you to those who donated goats. The impact was so huge that it left me with a feeling of purpose. Something so simple yet so powerful...

Three groups had been picked from for the goats: Cell/Village Leaders, Orphans who were head of households, and the Twa (Pygmy) Tribe. All three groups all in great need. Many more than 30 families showed up....some hoping that we had more goats to give. I promised the Cell Leader that we would continue to donate goats.

Everyone was given specific instructions on what to do with their goat. First, you can not eat or sell the goat. Second, the goat's first born must be shared with someone in need in the community. The Sector will be doing follow-ups to make sure that this gift continues to give. A record of the first born will be made and so the gift will keep on giving!

The Goats Have Been Delivered

We drove into a sea of humanity at the livestock market in Ruhango. Cows and goats are everywhere! Andria and I were the only "white" folks to be seen so we drew a crowd as we walked around looking for 30 goats to buy. John knew exactly what he was looking to buy and pay for the goats. At first we asked a couple of the Rwanda men to go and get the goats for us. With hundreds of goats to choose from we thought we could count on a few guys to do our "dirty" work. But it was soon apparent that we would have to do our own screening. We first ran into a problem because we didn't have enough 1,000 Rwf bills to make the 13,000 Rwf that we were buying the goats. So Andria and I made a quick dash to the local Fina Bank where our friend Innocent is the branch manager. Thinking by the time we get back that we would be well on our way to the 3o goats. Well, like all things in Rwanda, it takes a little longer than planned. Everyone thought that their goat was the best and deserved a sale. Finally after five goats bought we began to write down the names of the people selling using their national ID card. With so many goats being bought we wanted to make sure we were buying from legitimate sellers. Children and adults all crowded around as the muzungus (that's what they call anybody with money and means) began to buy goats. Finally we had our 3o goats. Then we had to pay the Revenue Authority for tax on each goat which came out to a little over $1 per goat. We decided that we could haul the goats in our Land Cruiser. The idea of poop and pee all over the inside of our vehicle wasn't the greatest but it would be very expensive to hire someone to haul the goats the 30 minutes to Gatagara. We had lots of help loading up the goats. The goats behaved quite well other than a lot of noise. We arrived at the Cell Office and unloaded the goats into a classroom because it still was 2 hours before the give-away.

What do we eat in Rwanda?

What in the world do we eat in Rwanda? Good question. Here are some photos of what is in our house. We have found that you have to be creative to make meals. Andria is doing such an incredible job developing her cooking skills. She rarely cooked/baked in the U.S., now she is in the kitchen experimenting all the time. We have a lot of canned goods on our shelves. We have found that beans bought at the market (fresh) are not so easily prepared. It takes hours for those fresh beans to cook. So we buy our beans in cans. The fruit is delicious here. Above is a papaya. It is very tasty when mixed with other more sugar filled fruit. Bananas are so sweet! The little ones are our favorite. We have made many loaves of banana bread from these little gems.

Last night Andria made fresh tortillas and we had bean burritos. She has also made scones, banana pancakes, bread sticks and even a cake! It is the daily challenge to make things that we enjoy eating. Rice is always a good staple in Rwanda so we too have rice quite often. We usually will get string beans, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and garlic at the market and use them in a stir fry.

District Meeting Friday, December 17th

We met with the Secretary of the Joint Action Development Forum on Friday. Andria, John and I walked into her office and spent some time presenting our business plan. She was very encouraging. I spoke for the first few minutes and asked if she would like me to go over our powerpoint presentation. That is when she asked a question that I didn't quite understand. That was about the last word I spoke as John took over and carried on a conversation with her for the next 20 minutes. From the voice inflection it sounded like things were going well.

Sure enough at the end of the conversation John translated everything and basically said that she would present our project to the Joint Action Development Team next week and we would hear back from her on Friday, December 24th. Wow! It went better than I imagined. The woman then spoke to Andria and I directly and said that she was very excited that we were building a school in their district.

We left the District office encouraged. We then went to the next "lower" government agency the Sector and gave them a copy of the business plan so that they knew what was going on. What a day! We thank God for creating this opportunity!

Volcano National Park

On Wednesday we climbed Bisoke, a volcano at over 12,000 feet high. There are nine volcanos in the park bordering the Congo and Uganda. The mountain gorilla brings tourists from all over the world. Dian Fossey's work lives on with 56 tracking permits given each day to go see the gorillas. But there is other hikes available like Bisoke...and that is what we did.

Two Belgium, a Norwegian and two Americans

We went camping and hiking with part of the Belgium and Norwegian group. They were the five twenty-somethings that traveled around Rwanda showing films to rural Rwandans. They invited us to go along with them to Lake Burera and to climb Bisoke volcano. We left on Sunday and drove to Ruhengeri to camp at the Fatima Hotel. Monday we drove up to Lake Butera and parked in the yard of a friend of our guide, Innocent. We then hired bicycles to take us 6 kilometers to the road that encircles Lake Butera.

Lake Burera sits in the foothills of Volcano National Park. There are three active volcanos and six extinct ones. The view was so beautiful I felt like we were part of a postcard.
As we hiked along the gravel road we met some very interesting people. Children especially enjoyed following us. Two young girls walked with us for 4 hours. They were on their weekly trip to their grandparent's house carrying supplies for them. When we stopped to rest they stopped. We even bought them sodas! Tone and Andria felt so bad for them that they carried their supplies for part of the trip.
At one point it started to rain. We considered setting up a tent but decided to see if we could find a house to wait out the rain. Without knowing us a family opened up their home. It was probably a good 30 minutes before it stopped raining. During that time we witnessed:a chicken being carried out from the back room, the 1 year old waking up and being breast fed, the children all singing Sunday school songs and other songs....This families hospitality was so incredible. Our guide, Innocent, translated for us even thought the father new English.

As we neared the waterfall our crowd grew!

Rusumo Falls was breathtaking. We received permission to camp at the base of the falls. The tremendous sound of water rushing brought a good night sleep!
The next morning Innocent was able to contact a restaurant that had a motor boat. After a 40 minute nail-bitting, steep hike down the river we came to Lake Burera. Within an hour we had our boat and headed back toward our vehicle.

I took a motorcycle taxi back to our vehicle.

Gabgayi Garage

So this morning I wake up and our front driver's side tire is 1/2 flat. What do you do in rural Rwanda when you have a flat tire? You call your Rwandan friends, Emmy and John, to find out where to go. Emmy recommended Kabgayi Garage in Gitarama. It is 45 minutes away but they are a reputable garage that we have used in the past. So I drive to Kabgayi and find out that to have tire service down you have to go to the garage down the road. So Juvenile, the head mechanic, takes my vehicle to the garage and we find out that only the valve was leaking...not the tire. But he did find that the brake pads needed changing as well as the oil. So here I sit in my vehicle writing this post as mechanics and about (12 interns) work on my vehicle. As I am writing I look behind my vehicle and see a woman selling pineapple to the employees. She has a knife and is cutting the delicious fruit for them after they buy them. I wonder how much she is charging the "locals" for them. We typically will pay 350 rwf for the biggest pineapples (about 60 cents).