You have been lost.

The title: a common expression used to greet someone who has not been seen in several days – or in our case, many weeks. Sorry it has been so long!

Where to begin. Well...

Rubingo

Business trip! Entirely on Patrick’s (LBDC General Manager) suggestion, we managed to make it to Rubingo, another ACTS project area on business. And, we were on time for a party!

LBDC has leased land to start up gardens for widows from communities around the lake who do not have enough land to support themselves and their children. Staff at Rubingo have been running a similar project there for several years now. So, we got in our truck with Ben, the Agroforestry Manager, and headed to Rubingo. An eventful drive due to many pot holes, speed bumps that left you airborn above 10 km/h and a slippery slope that defeated our truck until we finally managed to get the stubborn thing to go into 4 wheel drive. It was very informative, a great chance for both the Ugandan staff and Canadian interns to talk and share ideas. We also unexpectedly got to visit a local fish farm. We had originally planned to return to Kabale early the next morning, but Perez, one of the Rubingo staff had other ideas about where our truck should go, “we need two trucks tomorrow? God has provided a truck!”.

To the left: A visit to the fish ponds (visible in the centre of the photo)

That night, the interns at Rubingo threw a birthday party to celebrate all of the Rubingo staff birthdays for October, November and December. A favourite among the Ugandans that night was “pin the tail on the goat”; not so successful was charades – until the Ugandans started playing their own version, which had the Canadians completely confused. The night was a lot of fun, ending in true Ugandan style with speeches and a dance party.

Mugyera

Somehow on Saturday, we found ourselves seated facing the congregation in a massive church for a 6 hour long confirmation service…all in Rukiga, except for the speeches that we all had to give a the beginning of the service – which were then translated into Rukiga. The entire day was 10 hours start to finish, as we were invited to eat meals with the Bishop both before and after the service. Both meals included a large spread of food: matooke (mashed plantains), rice, posho (maize, flour, porridge type thing), hard boiled eggs, chicken, goat stew, ground nut (peanut) sauce, bread, avocado, roasted goat liver and kidney and tea.

After the service, we were surrounded by a large crowd of children, whose English consisted primarily of “how are you muzungu?” “I am fine”, mostly they just wanted to stare at us. We felt as though we were exotic animals at the zoo.

Rukiga Lessons

We thought it was about time that we got serious about Rukiga (pronounced ruchiga), the local language here. So, we hired a tutor named Grace. Our lessons, 3 hours each twice a week, have been quite amusing. We are pretty hopeless when it comes to learning this language…we’re having difficulty because there doesn’t seem to be too many rules.. nothing is the same twice – which has us thoroughly confused most of the time. We thought we’d share a few of our favourite sentences we learned:

Nkaza kuhinga kandi namubugeine omunyongorgwa (“I was digging and I met a worm”)

Nkiita enshohera ne engaro yangye (“I killed a housefly using my hand”)

Among the many crazy sentences, we learned some useful vocabulary…but our memory thus far hasn’t lent itself to Rukiga very well.

Our lessons are on the mainland, so we’ve enjoyed the paddle in a dugout canoe. We use the Bushara Island Camp dugouts, some that have proved quite stubborn….good times, we always have a good laugh as we adjust to the new shape of each canoe. The paddle to the mainland is gorgeous. Today, after our lesson, we got caught in the middle of a thunder storm out in the middle of the lake…. after seeing a fork of lightning, we hightailed it for shore…scary. It’s official, learning Rukiga almost killed us!

Pigs
The agroforestry program gave away 3 piglets this month (photo below - Ben, the Agroforestry Manager, is on the left), and there were 3 more born.















We love business trips!
Inspired by the success of our Rubingo trip, some of the other interns have been organizing business trips of their own to Bushara. Our first visitor was Ryan, who came from Nyakigyera to gather information for a water project proposal for Lake Bunyonyi. Water project...around a lake... genius... The lake is a good water source; however, several communities are located high in the hills, with a 2-3 hour walk, uphill, with a 20L jerrycan, to get water. Ryan surveyed these communities for the possibility of rainwater catchment tanks.

One of the best times and places to meet with a community is at a Sunday church service...so, that is where we found ourselves on Sunday. Fortunately, the service did not last 6 hours...and was followed by a rather amusing afternoon.


Highlights: see the Bufuka Orphan Care Dance Group perform again, this time with Patrick joining in and some goats watching the show; having our hair done by some kids; watching a goat give away; enjoying a Ugandan meal followed by our Rukiga dancing debut, much to the delight of the villagers. Ryan braved 2 giant mugs of obushera, a local drink made from fermented sorghum. We have not developed a taste for it yet.


Swimming Lessons
We presented a proposal for swim camps to be run during the school holidays in December and January to the LBDC managers, which was well received. So, we are into the planning stages, working to arrange meetings with the communities where we will be running the camps, trying to organize registration, planning the camp curriculum, and of course, practicing teaching.

Bryony has been teaching with Norman since the end of October; after many lessons cancelled due to rain, Emily finally made it out last week. It is quite the experience. A lesson consists of canoeing to the community, then stripping down to our swimming outfits - which consist of board shorts and a rash guard - apparently very amusing. The lake drops off very quickly in most areas, so shallow areas big enough to teach are few and far between. So, the kids are taught in small groups. The kids wear their underwear, or nothing at all for the lessons.. good thing Bryony didn't go through with her idea to just "wear what the locals wear".. Lessons are quite chaotic, and usually attract quite the audience. Bazungu swimming = great entertainment. Lessons are complicated by the fact that we know very little Rukiga, so Norman has to translate instructions and feedback. Muzungu demonstrations of skills are typically met with gales of laughter. Typical duration of a lesson? Until we're so cold we can't feel our hands.

Widows Gardens
The widows have been mobilized! Tuesday, about 75 widows from various communities around the lake came to Bushara for a first meeting about the widows gardens being started by LBDC. LBDC has leased 55 plots of land on Bwama Island, where the agroforestry nursery is. The widows will each be assigned a piece of land, which they will be able to plant and harvest to supplement their incomes and diets. The widows will each be part of a community group which will collect fees to make group purchases and finance microloans, and eventually, take over the lease of the land after 5 years. The meeting was a success - the widows responded well to the ideas and will be meeting at Bwama next week. Although the meeting was entirely in Rukiga, it was interesting for us to see how community meetings function.

give a goat.

everybody needs a goat...yep even you can purchase a goat. not to keep mind you. but what a fabulous christmas idea for those 'hard to buy for' on your list! buy a goat for a ugandan for christmas for someone else. get it?? probably not. okay...we'll explain better. you send ACTS 35 dollars canadian...ACTS gives us 50 000 ugandan shillings - we buy a goat for someone here who needs one. why a goat you may ask?? well...like we said, everyone needs a goat. seriously though - goats are easy to keep, cheap to feed, good to procreate and can really help a family by providing milk and eventually meat (once the original goat kicks the dust...and it's offspring continue providing milk for the family). This is a win win situation. We buy the goats from locals - and give them away to locals who are in need....thereby supporting this community on two fronts.

how can you participate in this project?? send us an email, letting us know how many goats you would like to purchase - after the goats are delivered we will email you a picture of the community who received your goat. send a cheque to acts for $35/goat...marking the cheque as 'goat- bushara'. they will send you a tax receipt. if you would like to pay by credit card, get in contact with ACTS at info@acts.ca - and they can tell you how to do that. good times.

ACTS
P.O. Box 1515
Comox, BC V9M 8A2

Rwanda

...and the travelling begins. This past weekend, we and the other interns took a trip to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. The other interns came to pick us up, having hired a minibus - with leopard print seats! - and greeted us with cries of "Eh muzungu!" (hey white person!) out the window. It was a fun ride - lots of stories shared.

Everything was relatively smooth at the border, except for a random plain clothes, self-proclaimed "customs officer" who wanted to see all of our passports.. luckily, he didn't walk off with any!

Rwanda was beautiful. Very lush and green with flat valleys surrounded by cultivated hills - it is the land of the thousand hills.

Kigali as a city is very developed compared to Kampala, and very clean. When we arrived, we checked into the Castel Hotel. Nice and clean, but a little steep once we discovered some of it's hidden eccentricities... the water was turned off each night, em got stuck in the shower, our toilet didn't flush, and if you didn't show up for the complimentary breakfast promptly at 7, there wasn't any left. All this aside, it was a secure and safe hotel with a fantastic view. We just maybe could have done without the street party outside our window the first night..

A few shots of Kigali

Saturday, we woke up early to get a good start on the day, only to discover we were in fact up brutally early, as there was a time change. Who knew there was a time change between Uganda and Rwanda?!? To add insult to injury, it was a national holiday, so there was no one on the streets, and absolutely nothing open. It was quite a contrast to the bustling Kigali we had ventured into the night before.

We checked around to see if we could find a better deal on a hotel. We didn't. But we came across some interesting deals... the most amusing being a place that said they would charge us 50% more if we didn't take the rooms in "couples"....

We then headed off to find the Gisozi Genocide Memorial. It too was closed. It's alright. The 2 hour walk to find the place was good for us. Luckily, Joel was able to negotiate a special hire back to the hotel for us - speaking french to a translator, who then spoke to the driver. It was uphill on the way back, so who knows how long it would have taken by foot..

We decided it would be a good day to take it easy, so we visited the Hotel des Mille Collines (if anyone has seen Hotel Rwanda, this is where it happened) to relax beside the pool.

Mel, Ty, John, Graeme and Joel taking it easy at the Mille Collines.

On Sunday, we headed back to the Gisozi Memorial. It was impossible to wrap your head around what happened. There were mass graves c0ntaining the remains of 250 000 people, 50 to each coffin. There were wall plaques listing the names of people that died - entire families gone. There was also a very good display describing the genocide itself, events leading up to it and repercussions, as well as some powerful tributes to the people that died (particularly one to some of the children that were killed). It was sickening to hear what a huge role the colonists played in dividing Rwanda, and shocking to read about neighbours and friends turning on each other. There was also a display about other genocides from other parts of the world, created in the hope that we can learn from history and stop repeating it. The centre is hoping to eventually be the site of educational programs for school children about the tragedy of genocide.

Mass grave at Gisozi Memorial

From Gisozi, we headed out to a rural area to visit another memorial at a church where many people had been killed. During the genocide, many Tutsi took refuge in churches. In some cases, like this one, the church was attacked, and eventually the Interahamwe got in with grenades and killed everyone. In other cases, church leaders betrayed their own congregations. Inside the sanctuary were shelves containing the skulls and bones of the victims. It was unreal really. Most of the skulls were broken, suggesting the horrible ways in which these people had died. The hardest to see were the children's skulls. A separate building still contained the victims' clothes and belongings, it was in this building where the bodies were also burned. It was a quiet bus ride back into Kigali, as we all took time to reflect on what we had seen that day.

church memorial

Our last night in Kigali we all ate at the restaurant at the Mille Collines. It was tasty, but the general concensus was that "Ice and Spice", the little Indian food restaurant we'd eaten at the night before was better value for your franc (except for the 'chocolate ice cream' we had for dessert).

Our last morning...somehow we managed to miss the early bus back to Kabale. Having previously arranged to meet the restaurant staff from Bushara in Kabale early afternoon...we found ourselves in a bit of a bind..tight spot..time crunch...dilemma..pickle. So, we headed off to the mini-bus taxi park - on our first (don't read this mum and dad) motorcycle boda bodas (which were awesome ps.) We were pretty unsuccessful at bartering a decent rate to the border...had some guys try to rip us off (ie. pay for 15 people to get to the border), but eventually we ended up renting a Special Hire for a reasonable rate. And what a Special Hire it was! White hatch back...large JESUS letters across the windshield...horn that sounded like a siren...and a somewhat distracted driver.

John sitting in our very special Special Hire to the border....note how the rear view mirror is holding up the sun visor, and the writing on the windshield..

While John slept in the front seat...we were both in the back...somewhat fearing for our lives. (just kidding mum and dad) With only a few close encounters...we arrived safely.

John agreed to come back to Bushara with us for the night to look at our water filter...which seemed to have been malfunctioning. Sure enough, after his inspection - we were encouraged to get new filters.

And so ends our first "off".... more travels in a month!

Finally, some photos.

Woodpecker Cottage - our new house.











Braving the cold in our house...yes, those are toques and fleeces! I thought we were in the tropics....










Em in the eucalyptus forest, on the aptly named Eucalyptus Trail









Bryony practicing for swimming lessons off one of Bushara's swim docks







The view from Pelican Dock, Bushara Island












Market day at Rutindo. This is where we land on the mainland to pick up the truck, load it up with bottles, chickens, people... and go into Kabale.