Before going home, here is a update on the project
Mike Tallon has gotten some gardening try outs going on. The purpose of these try outs is to be able to work with local gardeners. The government encourages the population in Rwanda to grow their own kitchen gardens for nutritional reasons. Not many people have this yet so that's where this project could help in that process. Also he want to be able to have training programs for local farmers. We have through him also been able to continue the process of growing some medical plants which we can use in relation to the health centre.
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| Aloe Vera? |
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| Artemisia Annua Anamed |
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| The nursery |
The health centre building has not yet been started. The process of getting the building accepted by the officials has taken longer than expected. And when we finally got it accepted we learned that they had changed the law which meant the yearly taxes had gotten up a lot for projects like this. This brought us on another journey of redefining and dividing the land for the prices to go down. So now we are again waiting for acceptance for dividing the land before we again will go another round. Hopefully the next round will go faster though. But hey, what I say we are learning much in the process;)
Its seems like we finally have gotten the water going as well:) The dry season has already started and the villages around has many days without water ahead of them. So these days people can come and buy water from us. This is a big blessing for the community.
As another part of helping the villages with the water situation we are planning on help build water tanks with the locals that are interested. With a average sized roof a decent sized tank which collects all the rain water would give a family more than enough water for the the dry season. The idea is that we as a project would raise money to give 2/3 of the costs of the tank and the people the rest. This would make it possible for many people to do this and at the same time avoiding pure aid. The idea is that if people have to pay something for it, it is easier to take responsibility and ownership. The people committing themselves to this will also have to take part in building the tank and also helping the next person. This will give them understanding of the construction and then knowing how to maintain and repair and also they would have a group of people in the village that can continue teaching others. We want to be able to start this in the next dry season which will be in January/February. We hope by then to have raised the funds needed for this and found the people interested.
Last 'umganda' (monthly cleaning day/ volunteer day) we asked if we could spend it making a football field. Many men joined us to help. Then they suggested if we could all meet again next Saturday to continue working on the field. Cause they said "this is for us and our children and when they (our project) is donating land for this then we should take responsibility to see it finished:) Yey!
All our projects requires daily running costs. And as we have wanted to make or all our projects self-sustainable we have for example started a pig business. We bought some pigs which will be able to pay the running for our guards. The great thing with pigs is that we are keeping them in a mobile fence. So when the pigs have dug up and fertilized one area we move them to the next plot. Then we can use this area for agriculture. The people here were to begin with pretty sceptical to having the pigs outside like that. But they soon noticed how happy the pigs are to be out like that. We are also going to invest in some milking cows soon (cause we have a have a big plot of land), that can help us cover extended costs.
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| The pigs in their mobile fence |
I am also adding some pics from the baby and mum of whom I attended the birth few months ago. I have been a part of many births here lately since I have been volunteering at the maternity ward at the local hospital. But this one was a bit special for me. I have been thinking a lot lately about how i could be able to follow up pregnant women more here (hm... wonder why;) but seriously, also long before my own pregnancy). I am not a midwife, so I really feel limited in my knowledge here, but have read a lot and been seeking places to get practise. So this was the first women I was able to visit for this very purpose. They contacted me because she had contractions a few days and then it stopped, now she was afraid. We got to talk, I did some tests and I could tell her everything seemed to be fine and that she should not be afraid, just make sure she already now would pack here bag and plan for who would go with he to hospital and who would take care of the children (last time she didn't get to hospital in time and gave birth on the motorbike). So when her husband called just a few hours later asking if I could go with her I was happy to go (would not wonder if the birth could start because she finally relaxed). And because I knew the system I could be of some help. The baby came fast and with no complications :)
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| A strong mum and her strong baby few days after the birth |
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| A little big sister observing carefully |
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| Marieth, my good friend and colleague also holding the baby |
Me and Christian have also bought an unfinished house in the village. As the cost of renting a suitable house for four years would amount to approximately the same sum as buying/building one. (just imagine) It was supposed to be finished some time ago, but now we don't know if it will be done even by the time we leave. It has been quit a process but I leave the story for those of you we get to meet. I can only say again: we are learning a lot! Anyhow we are very happy about the location, the land, the house and the price. Looking forward moving in there when we are back as a family of 3:) And did I say it has guest room with beautiful view?
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| The blue roof in the back is our house |
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| The blue house in the forrest |
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| Yes the windows glasses are brown, and that was potentially a mistake;) |
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| View from the back |
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