Food fund

In the past couple of weeks I have realized that some of the kids here seriously lack food.Two cases stand out:
Alphonse is currently living on his own with his disabled brother because his mother has HIV and TB and has therefore been at the hospital for three weeks.Kids here don't complain much so he hadn't told us he wasn't really getting any food.When we asked him where he got dinner he said him and his brother ask neighbours or beg for food but they quite often skip breakfast and lunch.
Then there is Oriva.When I first met her at the beginning of my volunteer project, she was a really happy kid but lately she has been feeling sad and sick.When I asked her why she said that when she comes home for lunch she often finds the door locked because her mother has gone off to work.Or if she can get in, there is nothing to eat (she is ten, so even if there's rice or pasta, she can't cook it).She is a bit of a neglected child, plus her mother has to work hard.
So basically I spent the past ten days buying groceries: pasta, rice, peanut butter, bread, a few fruits and vegetables.And three of the kids now stay for lunch instead of going home.
While this is easy while I'm here, I don't know what's going to happen once I'm gone.So another volunteer and myself decided to establish a food fund.What we would do is pay the supermarket in advance then if it turns out that the kids haven't had food, they can go to the shop with a coupon and get bread or other basic food in exchange.I hope it works out.While education is crucial, food is the most important thing for the moment.

I also found lots of pearls so the women I make baskets with could make jewelry for themselves and sell them at the market.They were really happy and were having a bit of a fashion show.They can be really creative.

So I'm still pretty busy (and using lunchbreak to write these blogs).I'm going to visit some of the kids families and homes tonight and next week.It should be fun even though they live in really poor neighborhoods.

Butare

Another volunteer and I finally decided to go to the genocide memorial in Butare, in the South of the country, towards Burundi.A new technical college was built there just before the genocide and during the massacres, Hutu militia men and local representatives and church men told Tutsis to seek refuge at the college.At the time, Butare was largely populated by Tutsis and many refugees from other regions sought refuge there as well because the mayor was Tutsi before the killings began (he was later killed and replaced. Hutu militia men, interahamwe were then sent to the region).Tutsis hid there for two weeks, 50,000 of them before the interahamwe and local Hutus came to kill them.6 people survived. Those who tried to escape failed to so because the Technical college is surrounded by hills. Hutus would make sure the place was surrounded.Mass graves were then dug and people thrown in, some still alive (excuse the details). The French, Operation Turquoise, arrived a little later and stayed in the college barracks.The role of the French is widely debated and criticized: it has been proven that they helped the Hutus by providing weapons and by failing to help Tutsis.As they stayed at the college, they built a volley ball field...on the mass graves.

After the genocide, many of the victims were buried but survivors decided to establish a memorial there: they decided to preserve 800 bodies in lime and exhibit them.It's a very grtim memorial, very much in contrast with the surrounding peaceful landscape.Some rooms containm children, other women and men.Facial expressions, clothing or a wedding ring is what strucks you more and truly renders the bodies human (they look a little bit alike mummies). Coming out of the room containing children, it is both a relief and disturbing to see children playing outside in the surrounding fields.

I won't post any pictures of the memorial although I had to take a couple for an interview I will give when I get back to Canada.If you are interested, just email me.

Rwandan life stories

Almost daily you hear someone's account of the genocide.For example, the head of the organization I work for is a female doctor. She was already a doctor during the genocide. One days as she was working at the hospital, two wounded men arrived: an interahamwe and an RPF soldier (Tutsi).The interahamwe was badly wounded at the chest, the RPF soldier had been hit at the leg, but was in better shape. So she treated the interahamwe first.The RPF soldier got angry and wanted to have her arrested, if not killed.Thankfully the doctor knew high placed RPF people who managed to calm everyone down.But, still, she was almost killed.Even today, I believe some of her acquaintances have mixed emotions about her...But as a doctor, she still felt she had to do her job and treat the badly wounded patient first...no matter who he was and what he had done. I guess some doctors anywhere else in world find themselves in slightly similar situations when they have to treat rapists, killers etc first before other patients.
Both the RPF soldier and the interahamwe survived.


On a completely different subject, I'm craving salad, cheese and fresh vegetables.Rwandans eat: fries, red beans, plantain, rice, pasta, some veggies (cauliflower, carrots and tomatoes...and good avocados) and a little meat (goat, beef, chicken).Everything is cooked or fried.I know I need energy for the day but still...that's a lot of proteins and starch. I would love a good steak as well...not much meat on there chickens.