20 April 2013
I had a hard time on the flights fighting the remainder of my cold.
It’s a good thing that I brought along a cloth hankie, because it was used to
capacity! Arriving in Kigali was a breeze. Even though my backpack was heavy
with two laptops, I was able to bring it onboard; and my checked bags arrived
on the same flight as I did! I quickly divested one bag of over 20 pounds of
equipment which I brought over for Paul, a new employee of ALARM. Since ALARM’s
car was at the mechanic’s when I arrived 17 April, Benjamin hired a taxi to
pick me up and I spent the night at the guest house in Kigali. There I met Jeff
and Brooke Hartman, a young couple who work for World Next Door, an agency
founded by Barry Rodriquez of
Indianapolis, which addresses global social injustice issues. They have
spent 3 months here documenting the work done by ALARM in Rwanda. You can see
their report on their internet magazine at www.WorldNextDoor.org.
I also met Barbara and Charles, a retired couple from S Carolina who
are volunteering for ALARM to revitalize a coffee plantation in Cyimbili
(pronounced chim-BEE-lee), on the shores of Lake Kivu in western Rwanda, a
four-hour drive from Kigali. It is called Hope for 1000 Hills! They are restoring
the guest house for tourist business and have replanted and pruned 40,000
trees. The unprocessed coffee beans are encased in a fleshy berry, and the
plantation now harvests a ton of berries per day! They still need to find a
local means of roasting the beans in order to be profitable. The sale of this
coffee will help support ALARM programs in Rwanda.
Sarah (my future teaching partner) had come to Kigali for the weekend
and came to the guest house to meet me. We took a bus downtown to exchange my
dollars for Rwandan francs. I turned in four $100 bills; two new and two used.
I had to conduct two transactions since the new bills were worth 665 RF per
dollar and the used bills were worth 650 RF per dollar! That has changed quite
a bit from last year when the best exchange rate was 613 RF per dollar.
By the time I returned to the ALARM guest house it was too late to drag
my two heavy suitcases downtown and buy 3 bus tickets for myself and my bags to
Rwamagana, so I spent another night in Kigali. When I pictured maneuvering
those bags in the rain across the Bedlam bus lot, trying to dodge vans
jockeying for position, I decided that it was worth the cost of taking a taxi
to Rwamagana ($60) instead of risking my life at the bus depot. My friend and
housekeeper from last year, Regina, met the taxi at the main highway, and we
greeted each other with hugs and tears of joy. She guided us through town
toward the school and Sarah’s house. Sarah’s unit is one of two duplexes which
face each other across a stone-paved driveway behind a large locked gate. One
of our neighbors is a Rwandan policeman who parks his truck at the end of the
drive.
I believe I will stay with Sarah, even though her house is half the
size of the one I lived in last year. It has electricity. It also has a rain
catchment system, although it has no running water. It does have an indoor
toilet and a shower area. We just use a bucket of water to flush with. I can
handle that! Regina heated some water for me in an electric kettle and I mixed
it with cold water to bathe and wash my hair Friday evening. We also have a
two-burner electric hot plate but no refrigerator. The cooking area is in one
corner of the living room and the bedrooms are located off either side of the
LR. Regina’s sons, Maniple (pronounced Ma-NIP-poo-lay) aged 14 years, and
Manzi, aged 10 years, walked over to spend the day with me. What a great visit
we had! Maniple will leave for the new term at boarding school in Kigali on
Saturday, so Regina will bring over his bed, which means I don’t have to buy a
new one. She brought over the set of towels and the pillow I left with her when
I departed last year. I have no closet or furniture in my bedroom, so I folded
my clothes and stacked them in categories along one wall. I may invest in a
pegboard, so I can hang up some of my clothes.
Amani (with whom I taught last year) lives in another town now in the
Southern province and will come to visit me when he can. Sarah and I will be
the official English teachers at IWE. She has downloaded the official Rwandan
Secondary Curriculum outline and we will design lesson plans based on that
progression. She also downloaded the Primary Curriculum so we can use that to
bring the girls who are below grade level up to date. I'm really looking
forward to what we can accomplish together!
School starts tomorrow ...
