Big Changes

Hello Everyone! I’m sorry it has been so long since I’ve written. I’ve been very busy here trying to finish up my work and spend time with my friends because…

I’m coming home at the end of April!!!

There are a number of reasons for this decision, but the main one is that Travis and I are starting an aquaponics urban farm. We’re not sure where it will be located yet, but we are thinking probably Oakland or somewhere in inner city LA. Aquaponics is an emerging form of agriculture that combines hydroponics and aquaculture. Meaning that you have fish living in a tank and the water gets cycled through grow-beds of plants growing in an artificial medium, like small rocks or clay balls.  The fish waste fertilizes the plants, giving them all the nutrients they need, and the plants clean the water so that the fish can survive. Its a symbiotic relationships that once in balance, functions essentially on its own. Plus, it is super sustainable and the yield you get for the amount of inputs necessary is awesome.

It will likely start as a business to make sure its profitable, but the end goal is to turn it into a non-profit that aims to improve food security and nutrition in the inner-city. We will be tackling the “food-deserts” phenomenon by growing and providing fresh high-quality affordable organic produce in poor urban communities where, right now, people literally don’t have a grocery store within a mile radius or more of their house (plenty of fast-food places though). Without a car, its not hard to imagine how this scenario affects obesity and other illnesses in these areas. Eventually, we would like to partner with schools in various ways and do a lot of community outreach and participatory activities. The other wonderful thing about aquaponics is that it can be designed to be pretty compact and it is relatively cheap. Travis and I built a small system before I left using three old plastic barrels that we got for like $5 a piece, a little pvc piping and some 2x4s. The only real expense is the pump, something we will be working on making more affordable. This simplicity means that we can hold workshops and teach people to build and run their own family-sized systems in their yard, on their roof, or even, on a very small scale, in a well lit kitchen or living room. The ultimate dream is that if we can create a working model in the states, we can design a system suitable for certain African countries and bring it over here. How great is it that I’ve been meeting tons of people involved in agriculture in this small but rapidly developing country whose GDP is dominated by agriculture and has serious land scarcity issues? That would be a pretty long way off of course, but we like big ideas.

As you can see, I’m very excited about this new step. I will be sure to keep you all updated on our progress when I get home. In the meantime back to Rwanda.

I have timed my departure so that I will be able to finish the report I have been working on about Akilah’s agricultural diploma program. I finished up my site visits last week and am now just organizing and analyzing the data. The last two universities that I visited were NUR (National University of Rwanda) in the southern province and I.S.A.E. (Higher Institute for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry) in Musanze to the northwest of Kigali. See map from last post.

NUR in Butare

The visit to NUR was pleasant. I met with Dr. Rukazambuga, the Dean of Agriculture, and he was really helpful in answering my questions and giving me advice on the curriculum design. NUR is the largest and most prestigious university in Rwanda and therefore does not face as many of the resource issues as the others I have visited. It is also located in Butare, which is kind of like Rwanda’s version of a college town. It is inhabited largely by students and because of NUR is known as the education capital of Rwanda.

After our interview I got to speak more personally with Dr. Rukazambuga and he raised a number of interesting topics. For one, he spoke about Rwanda’s development strategies and how they feature many aspects of traditional Rwandese culture and institutions. The gacaca system and lower courts that I described in an earlier post are a good example of this. Another is umuganda, the day once a month when everyone must do community service projects, which are organized by the local umudugudus – small administrative units that serve as the community center for every few blocks and are run by chiefs or managers. Before colonialism, Rwanda was a very advanced society with an established monarchy and developed institutions and social hierarchy. Mr. Rukazambuga pointed out how Rwanda is a great example of a country that has adapted many of its preexisting and functional social and cultural institutions to the modern day rather than overhauling the entire system to fit a western model.

The other subject we discussed pretty extensively was Rwanda’s perspectives on women. I find it very curious how warped people’s impressions of gender equality are here. Mr. Rukazambuga emphasized how women are not oppressed here in Rwanda the way they are in other African countries. Granted, this is probably true, but it definitely doesn’t mean that there aren’t some serious issues here with regard to gender. To start, beating your wife is considered to be, well, perfectly acceptable to a disturbing number of people. The other day Laura described to us a conversation that took place in the staff room at Maranyundo last year about corporal punishment in schools. The teachers were sharing stories about if/how they were hit as children. When Laura revealed that she was never hit by her parents, one of the male teachers asked jokingly (but not really) what she was going to do when her husband hit her. She replied, trying to make light of the matter, that she would hit him back. Her colleague’s response? “Oh. Then he will kill you.” This anecdote reveals a slightly exaggerated but not entirely far-fetched reflection of Rwandese society.

On a similar note, in traditional Rwandan culture women are not supposed to be educated, which probably explains the rather displeased reaction we get from a surprising number of Rwandese men when they realize that Akilah is only for women. My friend Iain even had a business man that we was working with say, “Women’s empowerment? Oh no,” as he shook his head and wagged his finger in the air. This goes hand in hand with the notion that women belong in the home and their main role in life is to get married and have and raise many children. This is changing in law and in the more educated circles, especially in Kigali, but there is no denying that this mindset still dominates in the more rural areas, which is the majority of the country.

What confuses me though is the way people seem not to see it, or at least don’t see it as a problem. Both Dr. Rukazambuga and the director of GAKO Organic Training Center, who I met with recently, quoted the following Rwandan saying as evidence of how women are valued in Rwanda: “The man with a better wife has a better home.” They both compared this to the western expression, “Behind every great man is a great woman,” but what seems to get overlooked is that the Rwandese version of this sentiment conveys the message that the only space for a women to excel in life is as a wife by taking care of a her husband’s home. Then again, as Mr. Munyerango from GAKO pointed out, the more appropriate version of our saying would probably be “Beside every great man is a great woman.” Rwanda also has the highest percentage of women in their parliament of any country in the world and far above that of the United States. This is a recent phenomenon and perhaps it will take a little while for the shift at the top to filter through to the general population, but these changes certainly bode well for the direction Rwanda is headed.

I.S.A.E. in Musanze

My final university visit was to the Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (I.S.A.E.). This school is the most similar to what we have in mind for Akilah’s agricultural program in that they offer 3-year advanced diplomas in a variety of fields, whereas the other institutions offer primarily 4 to 5-year degrees. The campus is nestled in the beautiful jutting hills of Musanze, which in on the drive to Gisenyi that I described in my last post. They also have ample land and buildings including six laboratories and extensive practice fields and livestock facilities. I met with the Dean of Agriculture, Dr. Obedi, who was very helpful and friendly. He was also very impressed with the concept of aquaponics, which we got into when I told him that I would be leaving Rwanda next month. He kept saying, “I think this is a very good idea,” which felt good to hear.

One of the best parts of the trip to I.S.A.E. was my visit to the fabric market in Musanze. I have been wanting to purchase some Katenge, the brightly colored fabrics that all of the women here wear. I heard that Musanze has a great fabric market and coincidentally this trip was on a Wednesday, market day. I got there early when all of the women were still setting up, which was really cool to watch. I picked out a couple of patterns, and one woman offered to make me a dress. I had been wanting to get a traditional dress made before I leave, but I explained to her that I live in Kigali and would not be able to pick it up form her. To my surprise, she insisted that it would only take her two hours. She did it in one! while I sat there watching. It was incredible. She was so fast and made it look like the easiest thing in the world. Plus, I really enjoyed watching the market come to life around me and the women go about their day. I was nice to have a place to sit for that hour and not be the center of attention so that I could really get a sort of intimate look at my surroundings. In a country that often feels so male-dominated, this was a women’s domain. They were all perfectly in their element, adeptly sewing away and gossiping together. The dress also turned out wonderfully!

ROAM and Richard from GAKO

The last couple interviews I conducted were with people from the organic farming sector. I visited the office of Rwanda Organic Agriculture Movement (ROAM) where I met with the director, Sylvere Mudendeli. He was very welcoming and excited to tell me about the organic movement in Rwanda. I enjoyed hearing his passion on the subject and found myself also becoming invested in the topic. This curiosity was further fueled by my meeting with Richard Munyerango, the Director of GAKO, who was kind enough to come out to our farm in Bugesera for a visit. He brought a number of members from his team with him who were are very interested in our progress so far and future plans. On the ride back into Kigali with them, I got the chance to have a great discussion with Richard about organics in Rwanda and the government’s agricultural development strategies.

The current government plans for agriculture promote modernizing the industry through the increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Ironically however, these statements are made alongside calls to preserve the environment and Rwanda’s limited land and develop sustainably.

These tactics that emphasize chemical and capital heavy farming work on a large scale, like the kind of production seen in countries like the US with large expanses of land and an economy ruled by massive corporations. Rwanda though, is a tiny country without enough land for its population. The Rwandan labor-force consists mainly of smallhold farmers relying on subsistence agriculture who can’t afford to purchase these chemicals to begin with and who taste and live the difference that comes from handling poison all day and then eating food that has been covered in it. Does it really make sense to over-hall the entire system, consolidating these small plots of land into large ones, owned by individual corporations that will generate massive amounts of wealth to a small minority? Then what happens to these farmers? The poor and poorly educated, whose tiny piece of land was the only thing keeping them afloat. Sure, Rwanda’s GDP will likely climb with this kind of approach, but then it will be stuck with the same problems Western style capitalism has generated in the United States. Imagine the implications of a system that is proven to increase inequality being imposed on a society that is already vastly unequal and along tensely ethnic lines.

In the meantime, Rwanda has a fascinating network of agricultural cooperatives, where small-hold farmers collaborate to work their land and bring their produce to market. Why not use this system already in place to pool produce from individual Rwandan farmers? In this way you still create a space for industries to develop, creating forward linkages through the processing and export of large quantities of Rwandan goods. Yet you preserve the livelihoods of the smallhold farmers that make up the majority population of Rwanda. Plus, with improved education in organic and sustainable practices, like those promoted by GAKO, you can get these farmers vastly increasing their yields without costly and dangerous chemicals. These are the kind of frustrating political circumstances that I have been wrestling with lately and that Akilah’s new program will have to navigate.

St. Patty’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day was a lot of fun in Kigali, as are most western holidays, which expats make a point of celebrating with fervor. A couple of my friends, Luke and Ray (who is Irish), threw a sleepover the night before where they cooked a delicious stew and we all drank Guinness and Baileys, danced a lot, slept on a bunch of mattresses on the living room floor, woke up and made a delicious breakfast, and played Settlers of Catan for hours. Plus, I won for the first time ever!!!

Breakfast at the St. Patty’s Day Sleepover

The Settlers Board When I Won – I was green, duh

That evening, Denise and Kim, two of the teachers at Akilah, had a little potluck, which was equally delicious and adorable. A bunch of my Akilah colleagues were there and it was great to spend some time with them outside of the office, especially because I really only see the local members of our staff once a week when I come in on Fridays. Kim made this St. Patrick’s Day Jeopardy game, which was definitely fun but a little hard, especially for those of us from the African continent and therefore not particularly familiar with the holiday (a.k.a. my whole team). Afterward, there was a big St. Patrick’s Day Party at the Manor, a fancy hotel and restaurant in town. Ray and some of the other Irishmen in Kigali gave the hotel managers the low-down on the holiday, so it was done quite well, complete with Irish dancing lessons and lots of green party-favors.

The Hike from Hell

It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but this is what my friends and I have not-so-affectionately taken to calling the hike we did last weekend. We chose to climb Gahinga, the smallest in the chain of five dormant volcanoes on the Rwandan side of the Rwanda-DRC border. It was beautiful, as everywhere in Rwanda tends to be, but whether or not the aesthetics compensated for the level of difficulty is up for debate. It took us a total of 8 and a half hours to get up and back. The first half was fine, but the last hour was just about straight up, on a pretty much non-existent muddy path, through THICK jungle – like thorns and stinging nettles smacking you in the face and grabbing your soaking wet and muddy legs, feet and ankles. The view from the top was nice, and you could see Uganda, but the knowledge that we had to go back down through that put a bit of a damper on the experience. Laura and I also found some bullets and casings at the top left from when the RPF hid out there in the early 1990s. That was pretty cool.

The Intrepid Explorers, from left to right: Emmy (our guide), Kim, me, Amy, Rebecca, and Laura

Some views from the start of the hike

 

Foggy Jungle and Bamboo Forest

The Top – Uganda in the distance and me feeling exhausted

A baby chameleon we found on the way down 

The Farm

Everything is going well at the farm. We were a little worried for a moment there however, because right when we transplanted our seedlings, the rain stopped for about a week and a half. Anytime the rain stops it gets super hot and dry in Bugesera. Fortunately, we had the funds to pay laborers to lug buckets of water from the lake to the field. Nevertheless, this inconvenience diverted some of our time and limited funds from other priorities we are trying to take care of at the farm. What’s more, most small farmers don’t have the luxury of hiring people to move water for them when the rain stops unexpectedly. Agriculture in Rwanda relies heavily on the generally consistent wet and dry seasons.  The drastic changing weather patterns we are seeing this year due to climate change have a particularly acute affect here and in other areas of the world where people rely on predictable rainy seasons for their food, livelihoods, and survival. I knew this in theory, but we are so buffeted against the negative affects of unreliable weather at home that I had never seen or experienced first-hand the massive life or death problems that climate change is going to bring on.

I have just under two weeks left in Rwanda at this point, and some big experiences and adventures ahead, so I’ll keep you all informed. Thanks for reading.