CJ's Adventures

Motherly Patients

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:28:00 GMT

Elephants are very emotional creatures. I watched one documentary where a researcher had raised this elephant and then helped it to integrate into the wild. Ten years after leaving the elephant in the wild the researcher came back to the area where the elephant was living. Upon seeing the researcher the elephant quickly walked up to her, remembering who she was, and happily greeted her. To say the least, no elephants came running up to greet me but we did come across this very interesting elephant family. There were many baby elephants ranging from newly born to a few months old. This one young elephant, for whatever reason, had some type of deformity on one of its legs that made the leg crooked and longer than it was supposed to be. This made it very difficult for him to walk and he was particularly slow. We watched as the whole family walked down to this watering hole for a nice swim but this one baby could not keep up. It was amazing to see how his mother would walk a little ways, stop turn around and wait for the little guy to catch up. It took the two of them about 10 minutes longer to reach the watering hole but the mother was so patient and waited for her little guy to come before cooling off in the water with the rest of the elephants. It makes a person wonder how different humans and animals really are?

Just Like the Lion King

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:25:00 GMT

The scenery just to the west of the Serengeti is very reminiscent of the Disney Lion King movie. Gigantic boulders are piled into mountains but surrounded by perfectly flat plains. Even after taking geology 209 I can’t figure out how these rock formations were made. As you drive through the Serengeti these odd rock piles become less common. However, in true lion king fashion, we came across a male and female lion resting on top of one of these huge boulders just off of the road. With his very regal stance the male stood up for us, made a couple of nice poses for the camera, and looked over the herd of wildebeests at his disposal. Interestingly the mood shifted as the male lion took a sudden ‘interest’ in his lioness, something I am sure not many safari goes get to see. I don’t know how long the lion gestation period is but Simba is on his way. (check out the pictures coming soon)

Going on Safari

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:24:00 GMT

Going on Safari

I believe it was in grade eight that my class had the assignment of writing up a list of things we wanted to do in our life. Now there is a blockbuster film called the Bucket List which comedically presents this process. On my ‘bucket list’ I am sure that I wrote ‘go on a safari.’ I can now saw that I have accomplished this goal and did I ever have good luck in doing it. Of course, the trip was not exactly as I envisioned it but things rarely are. For one thing, I never thought I would go on safari with three grandfathers I had just met. The benefit turned out to be that one of them is an avid hunter in Wyoming and Utah and as a result has an amazing eye for spotting animals in the bush.

Art, the hunter, is one of the reasons that we had such great luck and this was particularly the case with our near cheetah experience. We were driving down this one offshoot in the Serengeti specifically looking for cheetah. Cheetahs need really open spaces to be effective hunters and this area was a wide open plain with a variety of herd animals, including gazelles, impala, wildebeests and zebra, prime hunting grounds for a cheetah. We drove and drove and drove without any luck. As we came close to the end of the road we were all a little disappointed and started to turn back down the way we came. We are driving along when suddenly Art bangs on the top of the car to get our drivers attention. He points out a bush where he thinks there is something laying down just out of sight. Our driver doesn’t really believe him but as he backs up to take a look you could just barely see a tail flicker on the ground. We took a small detour and were able to be about two meters from the most beautiful, sleek cheetah. The cheetah was so accommodating and let me take a few of what I think are my best photos so far. But then after a few minutes of waiting patiently the cheetah got up to move behind a different bush to catch some shut eye. You can check out some of these photos in the gallery.

TIA as they say. April 31

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:23:00 GMT

The saying ‘This Is Africa’ came to mind today as we saw and experienced the trials of transportation. It all started with a trip to the border to drop off Vera and Maria for their trip to Kigali. On the way there we came across several large tree branches on the road, and when I say LARGE tree branches I am referring to what looked like a third of a tree top. This was naturally (haha) followed by a semi turned sideways and flipped. Luckily the men inside were not badly hurt but they had the unfortunate experience of having to wait there since Saturday (five days prior). Although I have seen several oil trucks burned out in the ditch this was my first live experience of a crashed semi truck. Many people may say “wow, they were waiting since Saturday, how absurd.” In reply to this I would like to note that AMA, or anything similar, does not exist in Tanzania. This is an important point to remember for later in our story.

The drive proceeded smoothly to the border where we drove the girls through the no man’s land zone. On the other side we saw another white girl. This is a rare sight to behold here in western Tanzania and especially Ngara. Even rarer is a white person that I don’t know. This is a result of the expatriate community becoming so small after the withdrawal of the UNHCR that I can count all of the white people in the Ngara area on my two hands. Seeing this white girl at the border prompted a memory that Nigel and Aino, a couple from Australia, were going to pick up Richelle, a new arrival for the Anglican Diocese volunteer staff. She was a little taken aback when I asked if she was Richelle and then arranged for us to take her back across no man’s land to meet Nigel and Aino on the other side when they came. This resulted in a conversation about how we could have taken her back to Murgwanza and saved Nigel and Aino a trip. They are my neighbors after all. Despite the fact that there are so few expats, we have concentrated ourselves in a four block radius, which has proven useful for things like movie night. Everything seemed to be going well as we took Richelle across the border and ran into Nigel and Aino on the other side; that was until Aino told me that they were having car troubles.

It seemed as though their clutch and transmission would not work. After blocking the border for several minutes while we tried to turn the car around via the push method, our mechanic concluded that there was no other way to get the car back to Ngara except to pull it with our car. One land rover pulling another land rover is a relatively humorous sight but even more humorous was our make shift towing devise. It consisted of what was essentially three pieces of oily seatbelt donated by one of the truckers, tied together with double knots and fastened to the cars bumpers with similar double notes. This is Africa, there are no such thing as tow trucks or emergency road side assistance, and if you happen to breakdown you are dependent on the generosity of those around you, the ability to find a truck bigger than your own to pull you, and your own resourcefulness to find the necessary tools and materials.

As I had thought originally, the oily seatbelt did not last for even a full kilometer of going up and down the rolling hills of Ngara and proceeded to break as we exited the border town. We were back to being resourceful. The only likely place to have chain was the man motored ferry that crossed the river so we went down to see what we could find. There is no going to the hardware store to get the right length of chain or the proper towing attachments so we had to hunt around town for something that could break one of the chain links for us to take the tail of one of the chains on the ferry. After about a good hour of trying various methods we were unsuccessful and resorted to using a steel rope. The steel rope was about four times too long so when we were attaching it to the two cars we had to bundle it into a messy knot to keep it from dragging. You can see this in some of the pictures. We were able to go about 17 of the 60 km back to Ngara when the car in tow lost its ability to brake. When towing a car up and down hills, it is imperative that it be able to brake so it doesn’t run up the back of the towing car. Now this car has no transmission, no clutch, no hand brake and no foot brakes. The only thing that really does work is the engine. When Edson, WomenCrafts Mechanic took off the tire to look at the brakes there was no brake pad left and the brake fluid was over heated. At this point there is not much we can do but call the churches mechanic to come out with some brake pads and tow the car back once it has brakes. So we loaded up Aino and Richelle, left Aino’s English students with Nigel and returned to Ngara.

What is ironic is that this same car had recently been into Mwanza, the closest city in Tanzania to Ngara, to see a mechanic. What is even more ironic is that the nine hour drive back from Mwanza to Ngara took this car three days because its starter went and it kept breaking down. To say the least, good mechanics are hard to come by in Tanzania, the roads west of Arusha are largely unpaved, and money for new parts and cars is largely non-existent so many cars are not much different than this car, in that only one component may work but it is unpredictable how long even that part will continue to work. But, this is AfricaJ To say the least the importance of taking time for people and being patient have been well engrained in my mind.

Just a note that you may find interesting Mwanza is the closest Tanzanian city at nine hours away which make the closest city to Ngara four hours away in a different country. That is how isolated I currently am. However, it is a great story for the grandkids, as they say.

Capacity Building

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:21:00 GMT

I have found that it is hard to notice the level of latent knowledge available in western, developed countries. It was not until I started working in Tanzania that I started to think about how you propagate public announcements without T.V., radio or the internet. (You can check out the billboard advertisement that I saw next to the Burundi/ Tanzania boarder for one answer to this question.) It is amazing what can be learned through these mediums of communication. For instance, although we may not need mosquito nets in Canada, I would imagine that nine out of ten Canadians would be able to tell me that a mosquito net is supposed to be hung above a bed and tucked in around the mattress. In Tanzania they have been handing out mosquito nets and trying to explain how to use them but when they go to the homes of these villagers, the mosquito net is hung up but it might be in a corner, draping against a wall rather than over the bed, or hanging over the bed but six inches off of the ground.

The same has been seen with AIDS campaigns where men are told about how to use a condom. Often times they receive demonstrations on some sort of object as a figurative illustration. However when you go to see the man and you see the condom on top of a spear in his front yard it becomes obvious that he did not understand that the illustration was figurative. The basic understanding that is derived from mass communication and media is not present in small rural villages. I have also heard of some locals who took the time out to write detailed descriptions in the local language about how to use a condom but had to attach these instructions to the individual condoms and so they stapled a set of instructions to each condom. This really illustrates that what one person thinks is common sense is really not common when in a different cultural, social and communication realm.

This is the case for me when it comes to local food. I have no idea about how to kill, skin and butcher a goat or pluck and clean a chicken. My Tanzanian companions have grown up doing this and laugh at me when I don’t want to join them in meeting the food before I eat it. But my experience in the grocery stores of North America has placed this information outside of my realm.

I really realized the depth of the capacity building problem when I was at the office yesterday. Edson had to print out copies of our architecture plans for the production sites we are building. He could not figure out how to use the photocopier so he took a picture of the plans and wanted my help in printing them out. I looked at the picture and said that it was illegible so we should use the photo copier. As I was working away to figure out this new copier, Edron our office assistant came up and said “excuse me I do not know how to use this.” She is eager to learn everything she can but the lack of exposure to any form of electronics, let alone computers, makes what I would consider general common knowledge to be an expertise in Ngara. We proceeded with an hour lesson of copying, resizing, double sided printouts and all the other necessary stuff. Each new thing was greeted with excitement and amazement. I imagine the response is similar to what mine might have been the first time I searched the Internet. It was to the point where I had to explain that you hit the green button to start a copy and illustrate the on/off switch. However, it was a great success and Edron is now writing up a Kiswahili step by step guide on the basic functions for her own memory and to help the rest of the staff. She is now considered the office expert on the copier. It is amazing how much can be taken for granted when there is so much information floating around a person. In a place where it cost me three dollars to send an email this information is just not available, but is likely more needed than anywhere else I have ever been.

So next time you use your copy machine I hope that you can appreciate it with the same intensity as Edron did yesterday, realizing that not only do you have a machine that can copy, resize, fax, email, scan and everything else under the sun, but you know how to use it, right down to the big green button.

Gallery: WomanCraft

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:07:00 GMT

April 18-19 - some new expereinces

cj_lemky — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:58:00 GMT

April 18-19

This weekend was definitely one of experience. On Saturday I went to have a drink with two of the guys I work with. The conversation was interesting and tended to focus around the cultural differences between Tanzanians and Canadians. This was also my first experience with really local food, including a mixture of goat, banana and tomato salad. It was not bad although I now know that I do not care for goat. Of course one of the more comical moments was when I ordered a glass of wine only to be brought a bottle of white liqueur (some Italian drink). I was assured that this was wine by my Tanzanian co-worker who does not really drink, however, there was no way I was going to be able to drink a full glass of this stuff. Despite my lack of full participation, my two new friends seemed to be able to finish the bottle, although I could tell that the one was likely more tipsy than he had probably ever been before. So note to those traveling to Ngara; their idea of wine is not the same as pretty much anywhere else I know of.

This lovely cultural experience was followed by a game of scrabble at my neighbors’ house. I have never played scrabble before coming to Tanzania and spelling is not exactly my strong suit but I seem to be managing. It is an educational experience as there are all kinds of words that I am learning but never knew existed.

Sunday was a completely different experience. I started the morning with a short little Pilates workout but the incessant downpour confined me to the house for the rest of the day. After a few movies and a little bit of my book I decided to have some lunch and this is where things started to go downhill. When a person travels they have to expect that they are going to get a sick at least once and I too could not avoid this fait. It all started with a funny feeling in my stomach. It of course built up to the point where I couldn’t move from sheer pain. I was in so much pain on the inside of my lower ribs that I couldn’t figure out if I had a stomach issue or had pulled one of my top abdominal muscles. It would have been rather embarrassing if I had pulled an ab muscle from the beginners level Pilates, haha. However, after a phone call to my muscle expert Kevin, we decided that it was not a muscle issue. With some self doctoring and after a late night I am know fine but it really made me homesick for a nice hot bath and the comfort of knowing there was a Canadian hospital around the corner. (Just a note for my mom, the hospital here is supposed to be the best in the district and I am only about a two minute drive from its front doors so don’t worry, or hakuna matata as they say in Swahili.)

It is now Monday and the week has started out well so I think my luck is changing for the better. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoys their nice hot showers for me!!

Cheers

April 18 - Refugees in Ngara

cj_lemky — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 16:51:00 GMT

April 18

As many of you may already know, Ngara had some of the largest refugee camps in the world. Today we drove the Benako route and although there are really no refugees left in this area, their presence can still be seen. One of the most notable features is the visible deforestation. One camp alone had over a million refugees from Rwanda. These refugees needed to cook and build housing to survive and as a result, what was once a forest now looks like a savanna with a few left over trees. Most of the trees you can see from the road are strangely interspersed in straight rows, indicating the reforestation efforts of the unnatural landscape. On the Rusumo route we drive down into the valley towards the Kagera river. From the church where one of our artisan groups meets you can see the area where refugees were registered as they came across the river to safety in Tanzania. As I am from a country where there are no real visible signs of war, no burned out tanks in the forest, no bomb holes in the ground, no deforestation or refugee registration stations, it is a very eerie feeling for me to stand in a place where people ran for their lives. It is so difficult for me to connect with the idea of leaving my house, belongings, friends, family and everything I have ever know to run for my life from a war that has killed at least 1/8^th of the people I know. The idea of Canada losing 4 million of its people to genocide is, frankly, unimaginable.

I would not have wanted to be here when the Rwanda or Burundi conflicts were taking place but I am grateful for the opportunity to see the destruction that Man is capable of. Not only does it give me a healthy appreciation for my fellow global citizen and the human condition but it also makes me think that, if the world is to balance, then Man must also be capable of great creation.

Hakuna matata and other interesting facts

cj_lemky — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:59:00 GMT

Did you know that Hakuna Matata, the phrase from the lion king that has a whole song dedicated to it, actually means no worries or no problem in Swahili. I was shocked to learn that this actually meant something and was not just a phrase made up by Disney. An interesting fact for the day.

Unfortunately the interesting facts that emerged from the rest of my day were not so cute. The first and third week of every month the production team at WomenCraft drives to the villages to pick up products and make payments for previously picked up baskets. Wednesdays are the days that we drive along the Tanzanian – Burundian border, looping in and out of the two countries as we take the necessary turnoffs to the villages. The main road pretty much zigzags across the border with only a small stone sign to mark entry into the countries. I can now say that despite the fact I have no stamp to prove it, I have been in Burundi. As some of you may or may not know, Burundi is the country to the south of Rwanda and like Rwanda it has been plagued with its own genocidal turmoil. However, unlike Rwanda, the Burundian conflict is far less publicized and has been going on for years. This resulted in a stream of refugees into Ngara and Tanzania in general throughout the last fifty years. Another interesting fact, Tanzania hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa.

The WomenCraft project was originally started as a means of providing the families living in refugee camps with an income as Tanzanian Law prohibits refugees from working (considering the unemployment problem that Tanzania has, I think this is understandable.) Womencraft was also a means of bringing the Refugee communities and Tanzanian locals together, forging friendships rather than animosity. In 2008 UNHCR made a huge push to repatriate Burundian refugees into the now peaceful (although who knows for how long) Burundi. Last June they closed the Ngara camp and with it revoked the funding for WomenCraft. Although the Burundian women have returned to their home country after sometimes as long as twenty years in Tanzania, they do not have a means of earning an income or even farming their own land as they lost title to any property that they owned prior to fleeing the country. WomenCraft is trying to help these women by providing them with the opportunity to earn an income through weaving. Another fact, WomenCraft has over 40 Burundian refugee artisans mixed into 8 artisan groups with Tanzanian women.

Another interesting fact for you, weaving baskets (or tablemats, trivets and Christmas ornaments as is the case with WomenCraft artisans) is not an easy task. In fact, I have no idea why they call easy classes basket weaving classes. At our first stop today we met two artisan groups, both with Tanzanian and Burundian women. We had to reject about 7 baskets (out of about 40) that were not the right size, shape or quality. It was really sad because you see these women that have invested time into these baskets and now there is no way to sell them. On the other hand, quality control is important for the longevity of the business and ultimately the longevity of their income, so low quality needs to be rejected to create incentive for higher quality. This one woman had the cutest little boy and she was one of the women who had a lower quality basket. I really liked the Kitenge (the cloth that is woven into the baskets) that was used in it so I bought hers and another lady’s basket for a discount. It was a win-win because I got a discount and they got money for a basket that would otherwise have been unsellable. Unfortunately this cannot be the case every time.

The whole experience was both shocking and inspiring. Again in the first group there was a young girl, 15 years old, who had recently lost her mother during childbirth. She wanted to start weaving baskets to maintain the income for the family. I am so shocked at how common it is for women to die during childbirth here. I hear at least one story each day about another woman who died during childbirth. I know one staff member who lost their mother this way. We are also right beside a hospital where women have access to C-sections if necessary (and many times it is here) and yet there are so many stories about deaths coming from the people on the compound who work there. Today the social worker who is here from England told me about this really young father who came in yesterday and had this really tiny baby. He was in shock. He had just lost his wife and was brought to the social work organization by one of his relatives to get assistance. The social worker said he was so young that this was likely his first child and if this is the case then he had likely just been married in the last year. I cannot imagine being so excited to have my first child, being a newlywed, starting my life and then have my whole world turned upside down by my wife’s death. The really sad thing is that he can’t look after the baby by himself so he will either have to have family support, and if he is from a family of orphans then this will be almost impossible, or give his baby to the orphanage. These are the types of stories I am hearing all of the time. Another fact, I don’t know anyone in Canada who lost their mother during childbirth, but I have personally met three people here who have (not to mention the people I may not yet know that well.)

Despite the sad stories that plague the reality of peoples’ lives I have found the experience to be very inspirational and motivating. In the villages I was introduced to the women and I told them about the projects that I will be working on. I told them that I was going to be helping them find a market for their products and in several of the villages the women responded with cheers and clapping. Many of the leaders thanked me for helping them to simply have a means of earning an income for their families. As I looked around at the women involved and their young children I realized that these women are depending on WomenCraft to pull through what is a relatively tough time for the organization. On a more personal basis, they are depending on me to figure out how to market their products. It is very motivating to have all of these women looking to me for help, not for charity or handouts but the ability to connect with the larger market. Meanwhile I am screaming inside “how am I going to pull this off?” So I am a little nervous to say the least but if you have any suggestions please let me know as all creative input is welcome!!! (you can send me an email at cclemky@gmail.com)

Another inspirational story is this one group that is located in a really poor area but has a group of 22 women who are all working together on the complicated flower design baskets. They have drastically improved their standard of living. They have opened a bank account as a group and have starting to save their money for future investment in microcredit for the group’s members. They now have a source of income, they have a savings account, and they are a very good candidate for the micro loans that WomenCraft is going to start. (We recently had someone donate $500 USD for a revolving loan fund) Another interesting fact, the majority of the world’s poor have no access to financial services, which start with savings account but are more commonly linked with microcredit. It was found by ICICI bank in India that real financial success had to start with understanding the concept of saving and money management before microcredit was really effective. (This info is from the book ‘Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, I read it last weekend) These women are well on their way to pulling themselves out of poverty, as long as I can find a market for their basketsJ (I feel no pressure at all, lol) Here is my last fact for the day (or at least I think it is fact), the billions of people living in poverty around our world generally do not want a handout but simply an opportunity to work hard for a fair wage.

Have a fantastic week!!

A little toasty

cj_lemky — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:15:00 GMT

After my first day on the job I am already burnt to a crisp. I did not realize just how sun sensitive the Malaria medication can make a person. As a result the one thing that I likely did not bring enough of is sun block. However, there is a lovely lady living next to me that will be leaving in about ten days and she has offered to leave her sun block with me. In addition to being really burnt I also think that I picked up strep throat from someone on the plane (there were a number of sick people) so I am now also on Antibiotics. Of course, things here need to be self diagnosed so I really can’t confirm the strep throat but I am going to catch it before it gets too bad, in case I am right.

Otherwise, things are going really well. I have the weekend to recuperate from travelling and I am trying to get my hands on a SIM card and some internet minutes so that I can post all of my new stories. Hopefully we will make the walk into town today to get some of these things and sit down for a coke or something (I will have to wait until after the antibiotics to try a local beer, not really a problem considering I am not much of a drinker, but I hear that going to town for a beer is what happens on weekends.) The food has been really good so far. I haven’t tried too much that is traditional Tanzanian food but I am sure I will have a chance. Our housekeeper is a really good cook. She bakes us white bread for breakfast and makes a large midday meal that we eat for both lunch and supper. So far we have had spaghetti with a vegetable stew and rice with a meat and potatoes stew. She doesn’t come in on weekends , although she used to, because she has not been very well lately. Alexandra likes to have the house to as empty as possible on weekends anyways.

The house is much more luxury than I thought it would be. We have warm water and electricity. So far we have not had a thunderstorm so the power has not gone out. I have a really nice room. It is a corner room with two windows. It is not the largest room in the house but it is the most cheerful with yellow and orange colors. I will try to post a picture. The house has a brown stucco exterior with black window frames and a rock base. It is really pretty with its flower garden surrounding it. They have planted calla lilies, regular lilies and an assortment of other flowers which I don’t know the names of. I think that we have the nicest garden on the compound. The house is owned by the Anglican Dieses along with the other three houses which accommodate the WomenCraft office, Maria the director of WomenCraft, and a house for other volunteers related to the bible school. The compound has a beautiful view which looks into the hills of Rwanda. We are up on a hill that overlooks numerous little farming plots and the alluvial plain of this winding river, of which I don’t yet know the name. The other morning the valley was covered in the most beautiful mist and the sunsets are really pretty, unfortunately I have not yet taken a picture of it.

Word seems to be getting around that I am a photographer, which I find relatively hilarious because I am just a beginner. I guess we will all see what I can come up with.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!

Pictures are coming once I become a little more techy and figure out how to convert them into the right formate

My first visit to the Artisans

cj_lemky — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:12:00 GMT

My first visit to the Artisan groups

WomenCraft has 22 artisan groups, of which I visited 4 today. I am a little jetlagged but eager to get started on my work. The great thing about my work is that they say I can really focus in on what I want to do. It would seem that I have become the resident photo journalist, which means essentially that I get to take photos all day, write up some stories, meet as many artisans as I can and help to build a phenomenal development enterprise. So this is pretty much my dream job, for now at least.

My Swahili is going to need to improve ASAP as not very many people around here speak English. So far I can say hello, my name is…, it is my pleasure to meet you, I am from Canada, and may I take your photo. Not a bad start to work from but I will definitely need an interpreter. Right now we are planning for me to work on a project called the ‘Kanga exchange’ where women in the community can exchange their old kanga or kitenge (the dress commonly worn in the area) for a new one. Womencraft uses the Kitenge and kangas as a decorative element in the baskets that they make. This enables them to incorporate an important element of east African culture into the handcrafts. Women here usually only have about three items of clothing, therefore, one Kitenge has seen considerable amounts of a women’s life and it if could talk it would likely have some pretty interesting stories to tell us. The women will tell us a story about themselves and the Kitenge and the story will be attached to the handcraft product that the gently used and washed Kitenge is a part of. I will be taking their pictures and writing their stories for the label or bookmark that will have the information on it. I also want to put together a section on the website that contains pictures of all of the artisans with a little story about them. People will hopefully be able to look up the identification number on the tag of the product and find out who made their basket. I really like both of these projects because I think that it is a really fun element of buying a fair trade product. Alexandra, one of the volunteers, has been working on new product designs for the last four months so I will be taking photos of the products and writing up descriptions for the website.

There is a lot to do and barely any time to do it in so I will be busy. Have some fun checking out the photos I took in the villages. I had a lot of fun with some of the babies who are little models and loved the camera.

The Rwandan Country side

cj_lemky — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:55:00 GMT

The Rwandan country side from all viewpoints is very Eden like. Like the foothills of Alberta the landscape slowly changes from the flat savanna to gradually larger rolling mounds until you enter Rwanda and are fully surrounded by the lush green velvet of the rift valley. You can see the difference that climatic conditions make going from the dryer grasslands of the semiarid savanna into the semi tropical area of Rwanda which borders on the tropical rainforests of the DRC. The earth in Rwanda is very red and it is easy to see why colorful clothing is so popular in Africa as color permeates the area on every frontier. The red soil is contrasted with the lush green and the blue sky while the flowers accent with splashes of yellow.

Rwanda is everything and nothing like I expected, although my experience was only three hours long and a more significant amount of time would be needed for my impressions to be solidified. At first glance you might not be able to tell that the country has survived one of the greatest atrocities of our generation. If you know the history then you may look for the stadium in the skyline, as I did. The stadium stands out with its tall pillars on each corner of the large oval, one of the largest buildings in the city. This was one of the only refuges in the city during the genocide and was precariously protected at that. Hundreds of people lived in this stadium for weeks without adequate access to food, water or sanitation. In many ways it sounds not unlike the stadium story in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, only the duration was significantly longer and the reason much more manageable and possibly preventable.

The airport, one of the brutal battleground of the genocide after the crash of the president’s plan, has a smooth airstrip (‘a’ as in one) with a small paved square off to one side in the middle of the strip… had to get rid of the spider that was inside my mosquito net... It is at this point when small signs of war start to emerge. The airport is lined with military helicopters mostly hid behind the small levy like hills that bank the airstrip. All planes must use the stairs to disembark, as there are no terminal gates, and then walk to the airport. In many ways it felt like I had just landed on a semi tropical island with the cute little airport and the customs officers who kept saying how I needed to stay in Rwanda and see the gorillas rather than go to Tanzania.

I hired Mr. Johnson to take me to the border and upon commencing our journey one thing really struck me. There was no garbage anywhere to be seen, not even a single piece in the ditch. In all of the developing countries I have been to there has been a garbage problem. India felt kind of like a garbage dump everywhere you went and often times smelled like one too. Ghana had huge piles of garbage that would speckle the streets and highways in addition to the general litter that was present in most areas. Mexico City had a serious graffiti issue. Garbage seemed to be a secondary element and although very much present, seemed subdued by the rundown walls and buildings covered in the in-artistic graffiti. In Nicaragua I remember driving down a highway that should have been labeled ‘dump lane’ and the ditches were colorfully adorn with the countries unwanted items. But in Rwanda there is not a speck to be seen.

Another intriguing observation that might make someone question the fact that the country lost 1/8 of its population to genocide is the level of development (or appearance of development). All of the roads are smoothly paved and have a section for walking on both sides. The people take full advantage of this and the roads are bordered with the colorful kitenge cloth women wear. Most houses are quite nice. They are either made of pressed mud with windows and a door in the front or they are made with bricks. Many have nice wooden window frames with glass and a wood door. Along the route to the border, many have beautiful flower and shrub gardens in front. One shrub garden that we past spelled “Welcome” in shrubs.

Johnson, a man in his thirties (32 to be exact) was telling me about the country he had only been able to return to after the genocide. Growing up as a refugee in Uganda he has a great appreciation for living in Rwanda. As he said, of all of the African countries, Rwanda is the best to live in. The government looks after the people. All of the roads are paved and maintained and there is a strictly enforced policy of no corruption. The government has hired many female police as it is believed that they are less willing to take bribes. The male police (from what I saw) wear a badge on the left of their chest which reads ‘No Corruption’ in the three languages. I suppose that this would be of little use if you couldn’t read. Billboards at the border talk about creating a nation as a family rather than fostering corruption. As Johnson told me, if a police officer is caught in corruption he is sentenced to three years imprisonment and will never again be able to find a job in Rwanda. A number of government officials and some police have been reported, found guilt and served time. There are also billboards advocating for the public to report corruption. Such advances with an issue that cripples the development process in so many countries seems almost futuristic.

It is the little things that start to give away Rwanda’s history. We passed a paved platform with a white wall on the one side topped with a cross, marking a mass grave on the side of the road. Closer to the border we see a number of refugees who have just recently returned and are still living in tents, waiting for the government to finish building them new houses.

There is a saying that “the road to heaven is paved with good intentions.” I recently found out that ‘the roads of Rwanda are paved with guilt money,” or at least this is the opinion on the pastor working with WomenCraft. Western countries seem determined to clear their conscious by providing huge amounts of support to Rwanda. It is very important to note that Rwandans are a resilient people who have essentially solved their internal political problems without help from the west. They have also completed considerable amounts of reconciliation work and rebuilt a more peaceful social structure. However, it is evident that the money put into Rwanda has provided the means to build the physical infrastructure and social programs that have enable Rwandans to focus on creating a stable democracy that boasts the most female representation in the world. Women have high profile position in Tanzania and it is the mothers of this country that control the important ministries like the ministry of police. If only this same dedication to aid and development funding could be seen from the west in other developing countries.

Crossing the Tanzanian boarder clearly demarcates the differences between the countries. Once in Tanzaina we are driving on dirt roads only wide enough for one car. We are crossing the river on a little ferry that is attached to a rope. The men move the ferry by running on the rope that circles onto the ferry floor. The houses no longer are clean and fresh red mud but are rather dark mud that looks worn with weather and age. The people appear in older and more ragged clothing and there is a general sense of greater poverty than in Rwanda. Yet Tanzania boosts a history of peace and democracy. It is a leader among African countries as it demonstrates how the post colonial African state can achieve social cohesion and political representation. It would seem that there is no reward for this. As a pastor told me today, it would appear that Tanzania needs to have some form of terrible civil strife to receive any development attention from the west. The irony is that Tanzania would be less likely to have a war destroy any infrastructure funded by the west and it is a very politically stable area to invest.

The beauty of flying (in sarcastic and real terms)

cj_lemky — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 17:36:00 GMT

Karibu! Welcome to my blog!

I am nearing the last leg of my journey to Ngara! As I am waiting to board my flight to Rwanda I realized a pattern emerging from this trip. It seems that the closer I get to arriving at my final destination the better things seem to get.

I started out in Calgary with a heart wrenching good-bye that almost had me stuffing Kevin into my backpack. This emotional moment was followed by a US customs officer who was very intimidating and a little over concerned considering I was just transiting through the US. I started to question what I had got myself into when the first plane to Minneapolis felt like an erratic amusement ride. This was coupled with mechanical problems just before we landed. It is always comforting to be coming in for landing when suddenly the plane takes off in a steep and fast climb followed by an announcement that a warning light has come on and the pilots needed to figure out what the problem is before landing. If there is a warning light, shouldn’t they know what the problem is? It is likely a lot less like a car than I would like to think it is but all the same, this makes me question our aviation standards in light of the recent plane crashes. An hour later they had the problem figured out and took us down for a turbulent filled landing that had me reaching for the motion sickness bag, which luckily remained unused. I found it interesting that all of this took place on the same plane that had its boarding delayed by mechanical issues with the lavatories. A note to Northwest Airlines – maintenance might be something you should consider.

The next flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam was an improvement in mechanical issues (or at least the ones we knew about) being limited to my t.v. not working for the 8 hour leg of my journey. However, I was prepared for this with a wide selection of movies on my laptop. (Thank you KevinJ)

The closer I got to Africa the more travel improved. The KLM flight to Dar Es Salaam was actually enjoyable. I have to say, the service and food on KLM was really good. (It also didn’t hurt that the t.v. workedJ) The meal was based around African cuisine and if it is an example of what is to come then I am glad that I brought some stretchy clothing.

One of the most beautiful sights so far was flying over the Sahara desert. As the dark Mediterranean turned to red desert the plane seemed to fly so low that I could see gas plants and small villages. The smooth flow of sand dunes and slow rising rippling hills were juxtaposition with singular jagged mountains rising like a pile of razors out of the sand. Further diversity was added by the beautiful escarpments and plateaus that complimented the circular dunes and triangular mountains with right angle drops. Among these mountains and plateaus was one enchanting village that looked like it had been carved into the rock in a manner reminiscent of a traditional Bedouin architecture. The aerial viewpoint was central to this picturesque scene as I don’t believe it could be enjoyed in quite the same way from the ground. As we left the desert for the grasslands of the savanna the plane rose to a point where the same detail could not be appreciated.