We're about a week into our trip, minus the two solid travel days, so about 5 days into our Rwanda visit. There have been some predictable ups and downs... we arrived Saturday night, spent the day Sunday meeting with our neighbors who are a part of The Program, as it's being called (our direct payments scheme... more on that later), and went to Heaven for dinner, during which I came down with a rough stomach bug that wiped me out all day on Monday. We had planned to go up to the volcanoes area Monday afternoon and then go trekking to see golden monkeys on Tuesday AM, but I wasn't feeling up to getting out of bed (let alone sitting in a car for several hours) until Monday night, so we had to reshuffle (we'll add the monkey trekking to the end of our safari trip, which starts tomorrow). Tuesday was New Year's Eve. Caleb went golfing in the morning and Zae and I walked to Question Coffee and then all the way over to the golf course to meet him for lunch.
In the afternoon, Kevine came over and we talked to Theo for a while to hear how he's doing and plan for our party with the neighbors that we have planned for next Tuesday. We had dinner with Kevine, Anaclet, and Lambert at Khana Khazana...
and got home around 10:30, in time for a rousing New Year's Eve celebration consisting of Caleb staring at his laptop and trying to keep himself awake to complete his end-of-year banking transactions. We did step outside at midnight to count down and take in the sounds of Kigali - fireworks, cheering, music.
Today has been quiet - I wrote some and worked a little, and Caleb got a new tattoo!
There is a LOT more to write about The Program and the neighbors and all of that... in trying to remind myself what we shared before when we were setting this all up, I went back to this post and yeah, all of this still resonates. The longer story will come, but the short one is that the mamas we are supporting are tremendously grateful and appreciative. By their (often very emotional) accounts, the funds our network, through the Dickinson Family Foundation, has been giving them on a monthly basis since we left have been lifechanging, allowing them to pay school fees and buy food and pay rent and start businesses and save up for larger purchases like a motorcycle and even land. Several of them said that we've done what their parents or families couldn't do for them by supporting them and giving them reliable resources to meet their needs. So we certainly have done some good. And. There are many more families that are not being supported, and that may be causing some tension and conflict. It's still complicated and the need is still massively bigger than anything we can address even with our big generous network.
Looking forward to our safari and more time with Anaclet and Kevine, who is coming along for her first safari. The adventure continues.
A few pictures of Zae and the abana (kids).
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