It is early on Wednesday again, our last full day here before we head home tomorrow night. (It also happens to be the 2 year anniversary of our initial arrival in Rwanda - hard to believe!) We've been packing a lot in and haven't had a lot of time for blogging. I'm going to attempt an efficient recap of our fantastic safari and our big event with the neighbors last night. [Spoiler: my recap did not end up being very efficient. So much so that I ran out of time to add pictures and post... now it's Thursday morning, our last day here!]
Safari!
As I shared last week, our first attempt to head out and see the golden monkeys was derailed when I came down with a bad stomach bug. Last Wed night as we were preparing for our Thurs AM departure, Zae threw up on the way home from dinner and was sick throughout the night. Miraculously, they finally fell asleep around 4am and were able to rally for a 10am departure, and we were off!
We spent 3 nights in Akagera, one at the Ruzizi Tented Lodge on the edge of Lake Ihema and two at the Karenge Bush Camp up north. There are so many highlights it's hard to know where to start... here's a list, with some of Caleb's pictures thrown in. (He quickly relearned his trick of taking pictures through the binoculars, which is how we wound up with these very impressive extreme close-ups, although some of the animals were nearly close enough to touch already!)
- Sunset boat ride on Lake Ihema Thursday night - hippos, crocodiles, SO MANY BIRDS, and two elephants that we were able to pull up right next to as they ate papyrus on the shore
- Hippos keeping us up with their grunting, which sounded like it was coming from inside our "tent" (no, it wasn't Caleb snoring)
- The whole Karenge experience - a couple of great nights of sleep (on a trip where sleep had been in short supply) in the newly renovated "tents," luxurious and still close to nature
Karenge Bush Camp
- LIONS - benefit of staying a full day at Karenge was that we got to do an early morning drive and found a pride of 7 lions lounging around on the edge of the Kilala Plain. A little before sunset, Anaclet brought us back to the same area. As we approached, we watched a lionness cross the road and head into the plain, where she joined two others who had made a kill (it was too far away to see what it was) and were eating. We then got to watch as the two male lions and the 4th lioness in the pride all made their way down to share the meal, stopping to drink from a puddle in the road on the way. Amazing!
From Akagera, which is on the eastern edge of Rwanda, we drove on Sunday all the way over to the volcanoes region in the northwest corner of the country, where we visited the gorillas at the end of our last trip. This time around we did the golden monkey trek on Monday morning, which was also great! Certainly not the same level as gorillas, but fun to watch the monkeys eating and playing and dramatically jumping from tree to tree!
Unfortunately Zae wasn't old enough to join the trek so they stayed with Anaclet and visited the Ellen Degeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, where they have great displays and a fun VR gorilla encounter.
We got home Monday night, had a nice dinner (just the 3 of us) at Choma'd,
and then Caleb got up at 3 am for a council meeting, followed by a round of golf.
Just like the old days. And that brings us to yesterday afternoon, and...
The Party!
In planning for this visit, we knew a big part of our visit would be reconnecting with our neighbors here and we talked a lot about how to do that. Before we left, we threw a big party with lots of fruit and goat brochettes and Fanta and dancing. It was great overall, but also chaotic and a little tough - we ran out of food, and had to say "no" to other neighbors who wanted to come in and join us but weren't on our list of families that we had chosen to support with our program. For this trip, Caleb wanted to throw another party and I had some reservations. It was also important to me to be able to meet with the mamas in smaller groups to be able to hear more about their experiences and connect in a less chaotic environment. In the end, we ended up doing both. I got my small group visits (we did all but 3 of the mamas on the first day we were here, and the last 3 yesterday), and Caleb got his big party. In many ways, it was very similar to our last party, down to the visit to the fruit market on our way back from Volcanoes where we bought an enormous amount of fruit and the pre-party videos Theo sent me of the goats we bought about to be turned into brochettes. But we were also better prepared for some of the chaos. Kevine helped us hire two additional helpers (her sister and her cousin), which made things run a lot more smoothly. We had someone stationed at the gate with a guest list checking people in, and also started a "waitlist" for other families in the area who wanted to come in but aren't currently in our Program. We handed out plates of food with helped avoid the full feeding frenzy. And all of this is burying the lede, which is that everyone had a great time and was extremely appreciative. It was a great party, with food and dancing and lots of pictures and videos. With Kevine's help, I gave a speech, paraphrased below. Caleb got to announce that we increased most of the families' payments and added "blocked accounts," which are larger chunks of money that can't be accessed for a full year, but earn interest and can be borrowed against. Those announcements were met with much cheering. And the kids... it was just wonderful to spend time with them. While we did not set up our Program as a well controlled experiment and can't measure the counterfactual, the kids look healthy and happy, and the many, many expressions of deep gratitude from the mamas make it clear that what we've done has made a big difference in their lives. It's still not enough and there are still many more deserving people "outside the gate," but I'm glad we've done what we've done.
My speech to the families:
It's been great to be back "home" in Rwanda - thank you for welcoming us back. When we lived here two years ago, meeting all of your kids, and all of you, was one of the best parts about our experience, and seeing you again has been wonderful. I'm especially grateful that we were able to sit with each of you mamas and hear your stories about how you're doing and how the funds have been helping you. We appreciate all of the blessings and gratitude you've expressed.
I wanted to share a little more about what this project means to us and why we decided to start this program in the first place. Community is incredibly important to us - we believe that all of us, all people, are connected, and that we are all the same. When we lived here and got to know your children, they made us feel very welcome here and brought us a lot of joy. It was also hard for us to see that while our kids had the things they needed - food, school, other things - your kids often did not. Because we are all connected, their struggles, your struggles, hurt us too. So Caleb and I talked a lot together, and also with our families back home, about what we might be able to do. Some of our family members got to come and visit and meet your in person - others heard our stories and became connected to you that way. And because we have enough to share, we decided to try and help.
One thing that has been important to us in this program is allowing you to be the ones to decide how the money is spent. When we were thinking about how we could help, we initially thought that we could find a way to buy food for you, or to pay your school fees. But in talking with you during this visit, it's clear that you have a lot of different needs, and that giving you control over how to use the funds was definitely the right decision. We heard that sometimes you need to buy food, and other times you need the money for rent. Maybe someone gets sick and you need to buy medicine. Some of you are saving up for larger purchases, like a motorcycle or a plot of land, or investing in your small businesses. You know what you need.
While we're still very committed to letting you decide how to spend your money, I do want to share a small idea or suggestion. This goes back to the idea that we are all connected, and those connections don't end at this gate. When we lived here, we understood that while we were inside of the gate and you were outside, we were still connected. Tonight, all of us are inside the gate together, but there are still many, many families outside who are just like us, and we're connected to them too. The hardest part about this project has been knowing that we can't help everyone. On this trip, we were able to add 4 more families to the program, and we hope to keep growing. But there will always be families outside the gate.
So this is where our request or suggestion or hope for all of you comes in. For us, it has been a gift and a blessing to be able to share what we have. Now that you have a little more, my hope is that you will also have opportunities to share and be generous. From your stories, I know that some of that is already happening. This might look like you buying food from your local businesses, which helps them, or paying your school fees, which helps make sure that your teachers can get paid and the school can provide for all the children. Maybe you will have a friend who is sick or hungry, and you will be able to help them get medicine and food. Whatever it looks like, my hope is that if you are strong, you can help your whole community to be stronger too.
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