More on the March trip

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Greetings!
I spend several hours trying to get photos on the blog and so far have failed. Keep checking for you will find them, even if it is after I get home. Meanwhile I will try to make word pictures.
Those of you who have traveled here know that the AMAHORO Association has great gatherings. Well, the one this Saturday was very special! Most of the older children are away at school, so the dancing and singing was done by 10 to 12 year olds. They are really terrific, and I saw new dances I hadn’t before – even a Zulu dance.
What cracked us all up, though, and David got it on video and somehow we’ll get it up for you to see and enjoy, was a skit about school. A group of youngsters are sitting as their teacher says they will study about HIV/(AIDS (!). She leaves and this boy, Peter, gets up and dances to a little songlike rhythm. He gets all the other children doing it. The teacher returns and chastises them. Peter teases her with the song and dance, and soon she is dancing along with the children. Then comes the Headmaster. Then the Inspector. The high point was when Karim Abdul comes in a suit with fat stomach as the Minister and soon they are all dancing! The children were howling with laughter – we were, too.
On Monday we took a bus to Ruhengeri, met a wonderful team headed by Heidi Reukauf, Director of Field Operations for XXX, and her three colleagues. There were five of us, so we nine rode up the bumpiest road ever to the clinic where this team works closely with staff of the Ministry of Health in bringing needed changes to the infrastructure, communications, and health services of the clinic that serves a huge cachement area – some 30,000 people. This project is headed by Ro and Bill Wyman of Hanover, NH, and their efforts are making a difference to the health in this challenging area. Heidi and her team are amazing.
The clinic is up against the enormous Virunga Mountains where the mountain gorillas live. The landscape is breathtaking, and the climate cool and moist. All around are volcanic rocks, but when people pile them up, the black soil seems to be very productive.
Yesterday, we had fruitful meetings: US Embassy and SCMS, a procurement and supply chain outfit that works with PEPFAR in bringing ARV drugs to Rwanda. We got lots of leads for our work. In both cases, our contacts were really generous.
We had meetings in the afternoon with projects, talked about budgets for next year – the reality of the economic “downturn”. Some good ideas are emerging for activities that might turn into money making. More of that later.
Off tomorrow to the Nyungwe Forest for a one-day retreat and on to Burundi to visit our project there. Check us out early next week!

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