These Past Few Days

Thursday, John Domoscene, a newly-wed who works for the Rwandan government, shared with me a joke told to him by his Egyptian friend:
"What product is Rwanda's number one export?" asked the Egyptian.
"I dunno," replied John, "Coffee or tea?"
"Which one?" the Egyptian insisted.
"Tea," John guessed.
"Liar," remarked the man, "Rwanda's number one product for export is its soil."

Though I have yet to collect the exact statistics, it is clear that Rwanda, with its 30 to 80 degree cultivated hillsides, has major issues with soil erosion. Natural nutrients in the topsoil, along with crops and fertilizers are often picked up and lost to the rivers and marshes after a good rain. As Africa's most densely populated country, such erosion has detrimental effects on food security. On Thursday, I learned and witnessed how Food for the Hungry (FH) Rwanda is addressing this problem through terracing contracts with the Rwandan government.

Though I had seen terracing before, an FH supervisor and agronomist Kabera Alexis took me a terracing construction site, where hundreds of day-laborers worked six hours at digging into the hillside. FH pays them about $1/day (a decent wage) and then saves $.20 per worker everyday to give to them at the end. Not only is this to ensure that the workers stay with the project, but also to allow FH to teach them about credit and savings. Alexis taught me the proper conditions for terracing, how one was built and the multiple benefits of terracing for the farmer and the economy. I will spare you, but I thought it to be fascinating. After he was done showing me the site, he started supervising, leaving me to stand around and observe like a snooty muzungu (Kinyarwanda for "rich, white person"). I could not stand the feeling for long, and soon I found myself participating in the action. Many of the day-labors got a real kick seeing a young white man getting his hands dirty, for which I was happy.


Friday, Aaron and I both had the day off, mainly because I had to go to the US Embassy for my security clearance. After walking around Kigali and eating a red burger (which, in hindsight, was clearly a poor choice), we waited at the US Embassy for two hours until, finally, the regional security officer, Gregory Anderson, helped me out. To make a long story short, I am gratefully finished, but poor Aaron had to wait. Abby, the house supervisor, and I, tried to cheer him up by going to market, but our motos (transportation on motorcycle) took us to the wrong place, twice. Discouraged, we gave up. However, during dinner I accidentally put hot sauce on my pizza, which everyone except me seem to enjoy. It was the hottest my mouth has ever been. 'Hot' is an understatement; that sauce was sweat scraped off the spine of Satan.

Today was much improved. We finally to a different market, after we discovered that the market we were seeking was actually a storage facility for wood. After searching for hours, we bought fabric for shirts that will be sewn women who are training to be seamstresses. These are the same women that Karen, a fellow intern, teaches English to. My cloth is a zig-zag African design in true Alma College colors. In the afternoon, we were joined by four Rwandan university students, Felix, Felix, Christian and Emmanuel, who were all studying English and French in order to teach at the secondary level. They hung out with us through dinner, and when they left, Abby, Karen, Aaron and I went up on the roof. It has a spectacular view of Kigali and was a great place to reflect on trip so far. I wish you could have been there.

Thank you for reading. God bless!