Getting to know Gashora

Day 2

Our dormitory is a cement building toward the back of the grounds.  In the morning, after taking cold showers, we get to see our surroundings in the light for the first time.

The lake which the hotel sits on, Lake Rumira, hides behind the leaves of banana trees in the gray morning. A cage with a baby monkey and his momma rests just outside of our dormitory, and we assume that the baby monkey was the animal scattering across our tin roofs during the night. We walk past the fields of pineapples, where pineapples pop up, one or two to a plant. We’re astounded; we thought pineapples got pulled out of the ground like carrots! We trot down the cobbled walkways, passing thatched-roof huts, and waving hello to hotel employees, “Muraho!”

For breakfast it's eggs, cooked plantains, beans, pineapple,potatoes, bananas, tree tomatoes, passion fruit, African tea, coffee:

 (the usual)

After breakfast, we head into Gashora to learn about current projects at the women’s cooperative, which Washington State University, and our buddies Taya and Cedric have worked on.

The dirt road looks much different in the daylight, and Jon realizes that his nighttime fear, the one about animals jumping out of holes in the road, is irrational. Big Dog meets us, wraps his arms around us, and says “Camera?” as he takes our cameras. We soon learn that he is quite the photographer.

We hear singing from a local Pentecostal church, a large building with an unfinished roof and unfinished walls. Children rest in windows and peer out at us. Big Dog rushes up to the church and snaps a photo before a woman shoos him away. “Nice.”

When we reach Covaga, the building is locked but we see colorful baskets through dusty windows. Cedric is one of the employees of Building Bridges with Rwanda (BBR: See side link) and has worked closely with Washington State University Students like Taya, on agricultural projects.

Currently in Rwanda, 80% of the population survives on subsistence farming of a few crops. Most meals in Gashora consist of only bananas, cassava (a local plant), and beans, and therefore, the community has many issues with malnutrition.

One project, a “kitchen garden,” is a circular, tiered garden that introduces more nutritious crops to Gashora. The top tier is carrots, the second tier is beets, the third tier is cabbage, and the bottom tier is amaranths (a plant from the spinach family). The kitchen garden is an attempt to teach the community how to cultivate a greater variety of plants to achieve better nutrition.

Taya gives the group a tour of the Eco-latrine. The interior of the latrine remains consistent with Rwandan culture, and this is merely a hole in the ground. However, the latrine is elevated above ground and has a compartment below it where waste is collected to later be used as fertilizer.

The next stop is the mushroom house, a shed shaded with banana leaves to keep the house cool for mushrooms. A container of worms also exists to create worm compost to aid in fertilization.

Next, Taya shows us her baby, a solar dehydrator. The sun enters and gets trapped between plexi-glass and a black board, rises into an enclosed wooden box where the hot, dry air flows through, ripping moisture from foods. She tells us that, inside, are pineapples, bananas, and tomatoes, and that the pineapples and bananas worked really well inside the dehydrator. The hope for the future is that the dehydrated foods can benefit the Covaga economically.

We return to the hotel for lunch and meet near the lake for a discussion with Lama, our partner in Rwanda, and founder of “Building Bridges with Rwanda.”

“We don’t choose where we are born. You’re born in America, your life takes off. You’re born in Rwanda it goes somewhere else,” Lama says. He explains his history, how his family fled Rwanda in 1959 to Burundi when Hutus began to overthrow Tutsis.   

For a view of the hotel, and more information about Covaga and Building Bridges with Rwanda, please see the links to the right.

Day 3

As the first group from Western Washington University, part of our responsibility includes learning the present infrastructure and needs of Gashora as well as the community’s resources and future plans. A final cohesive document, an asset map, will provide the information needed for other groups to start projects in Rwanda.

On our way into town, we finally experience what Taya was talking about in reference to the children. They wave from their houses yelling, “Muzungu!” (Westerner/white person). Some rush out to grab our hands, and I wind up with three children on one of my arms. Their clothes and bodies are covered in the red Rwandan dust, but as their lips part for a smile, there’s nothing but white innocence.

We meet in the Gashora’s sector building with the sector’s executive secretary, and the Education Officer, Priscilla. When asked if she has any problems with her position of authority because of her gender, Priscilla shakes her head. Rwanda is on the forefront of gender equality, partially because many men died during the genocide, and partially because the constitution calls for a minimum of 30% of government positions to be held by women. Today, 60% of the government positions are held by women.

“There is a saying in Rwanda that ‘All women of Rwanda have Paul Kagame’s number,” jokes our Rwandan friend and Covaga helper, Rogers.

We then visit Covaga and have a meeting with the women who attempt to teach us Kinyarwanda and love to hear one of the faculty members, Steve Vanderstaay, speak to them in Kinyarwandan. They sound excited to have out help, and we plan to start teaching them English immediately.

After lunch in town at Yvone’s, where we ate our first night in Gashora. It’s the usual: plantains, rice, amaranths, pineapple, but somehow, we still love it. Also, Fantas for all! Rogers, unlike most Rwandans, is open to discussing the genocide. I think we feel as though our readings have prepared us, since we understand most of what Rogers talks about.

We trek the dusty roads to the Primary School where our magnetic Mazungu forces really take hold. Hundreds of children start running towards us. Suddenly, we’re surrounded by smiling, shy faces. Then, Rogers gets all of the children to start singing and clapping, joining in on a Rwandan song about children leading the future. Big Dog takes pictures on our cameras. Eventually, the party has to end, the children need to learn, and so do we.

We meet with the Vice President of the Primary School and five other teachers who tell us about their needs. Currently at the primary school, there are 18 teachers, and 1,200 students (the students attend classes in two different periods, AM and PM). One of their largest problems is learning and teaching English.

After the genocide, the Rwandan government ordered a switch from teaching French to teaching English. The denouncement of French is partially due to France’s involvement in arms deals which supported genocidaires during the genocide as well as after the genocidaires fled the country into the Congo.

Another reason for the switch to English is simple: English is the international language for business. With Rwanda’s dense population, there is not enough land for so many Rwandans to be subsistence farmers;  Rwanda needs entrepreneurial developments and will benefit from learning the English language.

Since the switch was relatively recent, some of the teachers do not know enough English to adequately help their students. Unfortunately, with a schedule that starts at 7am and goes until 5pm, there’s little time in the day for teachers to receive help with English.

Finally, we tour the Gashora medical center. It’s the nicest building in town, with towering ceilings and tiled floors. Despite the assumption that a medical center would be full of suffering patients, there are only a few, and they don’t seem to be suffering. The first room we enter, the room where blood is tested for diseases, smells of alcohol swabs. There are signs on the walls encouraging the use of condoms, and a separate room for family planning.

The medical center also contains a library for medical employees to continue their education. Unfortunately, many of the employees do not understand English, and cannot read all of the books. This is the only library in Gashora and is not open to the public.

Then, we tour the old medical center. It’s a shaded, grimy building containing hospital beds as remnants of the old center. The man giving us the tour is almost too tall for the building. Though the new center only has a few rooms, it’s clearly a vast improvement.

At the end of the day, the reality of poverty in Gashora has us exhausted. As we leave the town, children hold our hands and follow us as far as they can.

They say, “What is your name?” and “How old are you?” some of the only phrases they know so far. Our Kinyarwandan is about as good as their English, so we’re feeling good about our time here.

By 8:30pm, we’re ready for sleep.