Working with the Musanze Community

Now that we're back in the US with a fast internet connection, I can catch everyone up on the details of our time in Africa. This post I'm going to focus on our time in the Musanze community in Rwanda.

We were extremely fortunate in Musanze, because we were invited to stay with Cathy, a Canadian woman, and Teste, her Rwandan husband. We had been in contact with Cathy, because we wanted to do some work with the preschool that she founded. When we arrived, we found that the preschool was actually in excellent shape, and that Cathy, Teste and their entire staff had done a magnificent job with the school. They fed the children during the afternoon, were teaching them English - as you can see in the post below, and gave them balls and toys to play with during the day.

We found that the preschool was in much better shape than the local primary school, where supplies were short and the learning environment was bad. Thanks to Cathy, we were able to organize an exchange of school supplies for report cards. Children from the primary school showed up with their report cards, and in exchange they received two notebooks and a pen or pencil for the coming semester. All in all, about 100 kids showed up.

Cathy and Teste also run a program for the street boys in Musanze that have no place to stay. Every Saturday, they get together, play some soccer and eat together. We played a little soccer with them and Kathy impressed so much with her goalkeeping that when we walked around town, the boys would shout, "Hey goalkeeper!" We bought a box of soap to distribute to the group, so that after they ate, each boy was given a bar of soap for the coming week.

One of the coolest things we were able to do was distribute goats to families in need. A goat is an invaluable possession for a family because it provides a consistent source of food, and when the goat gives birth, money for the family. Teste took us to the local goat market to buy ten female goats. Of course, being the only mzungus (white person - think gringo) at the market, we were swarmed by everyone in sight. Apparently, they thought that we were rich. Little do they know that we're poor students. Teste then worked his magic and bargained with the goat owners, periodically walking back to me and handing me another goat. By the end, I had ten goats in hand and Teste had saved us 60 dollars with his bargaining. In total, each goat cost around 25 dollars, including transportation of the goats back to Musanze. We went to market with 6 Italians who then bought 15 chickens. So by the time we went home, we had 10 goats, 15 chickens, 6 Italians and 2 Americans packed into the back of a pickup truck.

                                        


While the language barrier was wide when we distributed the goats to families, the hugs, smiles and kisses more than crossed that barrier. We were fortunate to work with Rwandan government that knows which families need help and which families just look like they need help, so we were able to know that our money was spent well.

Finally, we made a donation to buy 4 sacks of cement for an older woman who was getting a new house. She was waiting on a few more sacks of cement to finish the floor of her house, so she no longer has to sleep on dirt.

We have to thank Cathy and Teste for putting us up in their house, feeding us, and helping us find the best way to spend our money. It's very difficult for an outsider to know what a community really needs, and as a result, a lot of money is very poorly spent. Thanks to Cathy and Teste (pictured below, along with the family and part of the teaching staff), we can know that our money was spent where it needs to be.

And most of all thanks to the donors! You were the ones that made this all possible and we can't thank you enough. More importantly though, there are now many in Africa who can't thank you enough.

We will still be working to raise money in Rwanda. Our next goal is to raise enough money to build a sturdy house for a family without a home - about a $1500 project.

There's still much more to tell about our time in Africa, and I'll be sure to update you further!