Traditions of the past, and trees of the future...

The past three weeks I’ve actually been back at site, which seems a little weird, especially since the time has been so busy thus far. My life has very much been like a choose your own adventure novel the last two weeks (not that it isn’t almost always that way)! But the last two weeks have very much been guided by my own decision making and less on my expected expectations of those around me, or the dreaded idea of Peace Corps guilt – which generally refers to a guilt we place on ourselves when deciding to do things away from site, or other such tasks. So it’s been a liberating and incredibly positive last two weeks, and probably my best mentally thus far.

So, the first decision made was to go to the Mayor of Nyamagabe district’s wedding. He is the son of one of my co-workers, which was one of the major determinants. So I went, and ended up spending the whole time with a group of women that work at my health center. Being that I live with men, and the men tend to be a little more outgoing (whether there are ulterior wedding wishes or not, I choose to not notice). Anyways, so I got to spend a day with the women, which was awesome! They rented a bus to take everyone to the wedding. After the wedding we did the reception, which is where we saw the traditional dancers in this first picture. They were awesome! There were girls too, but the guys were fantastic! Anyways, after the reception we went to a ceremony which is apparently to “set the bride free” or signify that she is able to make her own choices and such. I thought that it was strange that this came after the wedding, but there are always pieces I don’t understand.

The “Umunsi Mukuru[s]” or directly translated as “important days” or loosely translated as “the celebration” continued for two days after the wedding, and I’m not even sure how many before. So I made another appearance at my co-workers house for fanta on Monday evening. I was too tired Sunday to do anything past my normal two hour appearance at church followed by some laundering! One of the most phenomenal aspects of these two weeks back, are the immense amount of connections I feel I’ve made. It started before the wedding with a trip to the Sector office where I ran into a man named Jean Baptiste, who is the director of an organization called Friends of Nyungwe, who also turns out to be one of my co-workers’ husbands. He also attended the wedding with us. I met the previous Peace Corps Rwanda health program assistant after he came to the health center and recruited some of us to go do HIV testing at the tea factory. And even the group of women I went with to the wedding, were prominent members of my community. I knew them by sight, but it was truly awesome to establish relationships with them.

This past week, the choose your own adventure got really fun though! Monday I laid low and worked on preparation for the coming kids summer camp which starts next week. Tuesday, I decided to go visit two cooperatives that I knew of in Nyungwe National Park. So I set off, only to run into Jean Baptiste by the entrance to the park who informed me of a traditional Rwandan village that is being built on a hill overlooking the park which will also have bungalows that tourists can stay in when they come and visit. After this I swung by the RDB (Rwanda Development Board) office to ask a couple questions about the park and discovered that the receptionist was in fact my neighbor. So I ventured into the park to the first cooperative, which turned out to be a women’s basket weaving cooperative and they were having a meeting. So, they let me sit down and talk to them during their meeting for about 20 minutes and it was so wonderful to make this contact. (This picture is from doing HIV testing at the Tea Factory.)

I guess to preface, my plan of attack for doing this whole “mobilization” thing that I’ve been assigned to do is to start by working with cooperatives established in the community and especially in regards to preventing gender based violence, working with women’s cooperatives. The other aspect of my plan is clubs at the local secondary school, beginning with a GLOW club, and GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World. This is also what our camp next week is all about! OK, back to the adventures…

After my wonderful visit with the women’s cooperative, I continued deeper into the forest to the bee-keepers cooperative. Although not as fruitful as far as conversing and introducing myself to the world as the first visit was, this one provided me with the knowledge that this group of 24 or so individuals do in fact make their own honey and beautiful beeswax candles that can be bought right there at their office, and their honey is AWESOME! As I trekked back out of the park, a pick-up pulled over on the side of the road in front of me. It was some friends from RDB, who then invited me to adventure into the park with them. So we did a quick driving tour and then back to the entrance, where I continued on my journey in time to head home for lunch.

The next day I traveled to the local secondary school (which is kind of like junior high and high school) and had a meeting with the head teacher/principal about starting a GLOW club as well as inventorying the existing clubs within the school. It went really well and he was very excited about the club idea working with me in January when school re-convenes. This brings me to Thursday, which not only included running into all the people I know in my community (pretty much) but also meeting seemingly all of the police force of Nyamagabe district as well as doing something I’m immensely proud of and feel so privileged to have been a part of, planting trees. (The below tree is one of the ones I planted.)

So, my co-workers informed me Wednesday afternoon that Thursday would be a random Umuganda (day of service – which are usually held on the last Saturday of the month) to “Gutera igiti” or directly translated “plant tree.” So we ventured out by the Nyungwe entrance and headed off the road on a trail through the tea. Probably between a quarter and half a mile in, we opened onto a hillside that had been our version of clear cut. I commandeered myself a hoe and began working my way down the hillside digging up the earth for the future trees. There were between 100 and 200 people approximately that showed up to plant trees and we worked side by side digging holes for two hours before there were no more holes left to be dug. Much to my dismay, this was then followed by a trip back out to the main road to grab saplings to carry back. There are times when my frustration with inefficiency tends to present itself, but that is definitely not particular to Rwanda.So we carried our armfuls of trees back to the hillside and began planting them like crazy. All working together, we edged back down the hillside.

Hundreds of trees were planted on a beautiful day in November, and not too brag, but I’m so incredibly proud to say that at least ten of those were actually planted by me. Afterwards they held a meeting, about what - I’m not sure, as by this point, four hours in or so, I was pretty tired. I can see the crest of the hillside from my front door and I glance at it regularly now with pride, and not of myself, but of the Rwandan people and of my community. I am in love with this place (but no, I still don’t want a Rwandan husband, just in case any of my daily requests to be a wife make it all the way back to my readers! Haha!)
(This picture is of Venuste, a co-worker, planting trees.)

So this weekend I laid pretty low, although I began Friday morning at six with a trip into Butare where I found two huge packages waiting for me from my amazing mother! In it were not only seeds for my garden (which I built and planted this past weekend) but also all the fixings of a Christmas. She sent me this awesome “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.” Don’t worry, it’s fake and it came complete with the one red ornament ball for decoration, but she included others. I also received a strand of Christmas lights which I promptly hung, and which promptly shorted out due to the voltage differences in the states and Africa. But I have my voltage converter plugged into them now and they’re still just as awesome, even though half of the lights don’t work! And yes, the Christmas tree is already set up and I know it’s even before Thanksgiving, but you all know me and how much I love Christmas, especially it’s over-commercialization!

So as I’ve said, I’m in a great place right now, more positive than I even normally am. I got to talk to Ry, Kaleigh, Gracie and my mom the other day, which was awesome, but always makes me a little sad that I don’t get to be home with family and friends and with my beautiful, amazing niece, but soon enough I know! We have summer camps the next two weeks and I have 20 months left of incredible Peace Corps Rwandan adventures. So Happy Thanksgiving to all of you whom I love so much. This time last year I was driving cross-country, spending time with family on the east coast, and I will hold you all very close to me as Thursday passes. Also, of course Happy Birthday to the ridiculous number of people in my life who I love so much that have birthdays right now. Kaleigh, Mom, Aunt Linda, Dad, Meggie B, Katie and Grandma! Much love as always! I hope your adventures are continuing as mine are!

This last picture is looking back at my community from the place of planting trees, and my house which is close to the blue roof in the distance.