We have been very busy wrapping things up here in Kigeme, Rwanda!  We met with the APAP executive in the morning, the Food Security Team in the afternoon, then the Bishop!! We have many ideas for the future of both APAP and the Food Security Program. The details will follow in our newsletter.  Then we were off to the Bishop's home for a farewell dinner where we sat and talked and laughed!!  It was a wonderful day.  Really hard to say goodbye!

Today - August 1st, we will spend the morning packing and organizing and saying goodbye!  We will try to update you from the airports along the way!

This morning we were blessed to go to Pastor Dr. Felicien's parish, Gasarenda, for the morning service.  What a treat, a loving community, lots of song and smiling faces. To remind you, Felician has been our good friend since we started coming to Rwanda in 2006 and he was one of the people that the Udder Project funded to go to school to study veterinary medicine.  He is doing double duty as a local veterinarian and veterinarian for Food Security Program as well as a Pastor of a Church! The man has endless energy and joy. He is a pleasure to be around.
Afterwards we had lunch with Felicien and family as well as leadership within the church.  We had some great conversation and found quite a few spoke very good English.  Rwandan hospitality is fantastic.

We got back to the guesthouse late afternoon, and relaxed for a bit.  Roger and Alayne came back from Bugarama, so the group is back together again.  We have had a few friends drop by the guesthouse to visit this evening.

This morning we had a chance to catch up on some of our record keeping and other tasks we had brought to do!  
Then, the six students we are still supporting in secondary school came to meet with us and update us on their studies - they were an enthusiastic group who asked a lot of questions about us, Canada and more!  We have four studying Sciences; Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and two who are studying in construction; masonry and carpentry!

This afternoon we went off to Butare, about a 45 minute drive, with Moses our driver and Viateur.  We picked up a few souvenirs, some treats (chocolate and Pringles) and went for a cold pop!!
We had a relaxing and fun time! 
On the way back - just like 7 years ago - we had to pull over and let the President's motorcade pass by.  Rachael counted 26 cars!!!

Today we went to the Murico Food Security site. It has been a few years since we had visited this site and we looked forward to seeing the progress there. 
The Parish has a new pastor, Pastor Jean Bosco, who joined the parish in September of last year. We had the opportunity to meet his wife and 4 year old girl. He is just finishing his studies in Theology at the University in Butare. 

We then headed to their chapel (Karma chapel) and had a great chat with one of the cooperatives in the area plus meeting with new paravets.  
​The history of the Parish is as follows.It started in 2009 and has had many problems due to poverty, the aftermath of the genocide and HIV/AIDs. Presently it has 3 chapels and 12 grassroot churches. There are a total of 575 Christians. It is surrounded by 4 other parishes in the Kigeme Diocese.
We heard from Peter (Jean Pierre), the paravet we trained in Murico. He is also is in charge of Savings and Credit for the co-operative we met today.  The  cooperative has 10 members. They grow maize, have savings and credit and their animals.  They were each given a pig to help support their family. 
There are at least 6 new parvets in the area because the sector is large so needed more to cover the district.
They have trained up many paravets in the district (49 of them).They have had their theory only and no practical experience yet as the money for the training has run out at present. The funding came from World Vision. The paravets we met by name today are – Sam, Joseph, Jean Bosco, Fidel, Emmanuel and Joseline.
Peter commented that the challenges they faced included- no artificial insemination and unsafe bulls in the area.
They estimate that they will be harvesting 1 tonne of maize- the original seeds supplied by Food Security (by the Udder Project). But, they do not have their own land and so it is a challenge as then they cannot benefit from improved soil after the maize harvest. They also grow beans, irish potatoes.
From money they have earned in the past, they put some of it in general savings and credit and the rest distributed amongst the members. One woman was able to buy a cow and health  insurance, another member was able to get water and electricity on his property and buy a cow.
Presently they have 100,000 Rwf in savings.
Health insurance and school fees are primarily what they spend their money on individually.
So, the main challenge of the paravets is the lack of practical training.
Rachael discussed with the paravets that they should not wait for the formal technical training to start, rather, to take advantage of the experience of the fully trained paravets like Peter. Also to take every opportunity to shadow a veterinarian for experience.

The main challenge of the cooperative is the fact they do not own their own land.
Rachael mentioned to the cooperative that they are doing well but, to consider a bit of self sacrifice and put more money into joint savings and credit to get enough money to purchase a parcel of land (1.5 ha of land is 1 million Rwf). Also, she encouraged them that anything worthwhile will take time but to remember that long term investments will pay off better than short term rewards.
 
We then visited three of the cooperative member’s farms. We had the paravets look for positive things they were seeing on each of the farms as well as the things that need improvement. Also, about encouraging them to talk to the farmer to work out what may be best for that particular situation. 

Lastly - can anyone identify this bird?

After a good (?) run and some breakfast, we got ready to head to Bugarama.  This was the furthest site we are visiting this trip - 1.5 hour drive on bumpy road, so lots of 'Rwandan Dancing'!  This is also the sister parish to Roger and Alayne's church, Immanuel, in Vancouver, so we were leaving Roger and Alayne there for a few days to visit.

When there, we met with a number of representatives from various associations.  We heard numerous testimonies of how families have been helped.  In this area a number of pigs were provided by Immanuel Church a number of years ago, then the area was brought in under the Food Security program to lend support.  One testimony was from a lady called Anastasia, she is the president of one of the many associations.  The pig she was given had three litters through it's lifetime which produced 19 piglets.  She distributed most of these to different members of the association, she kept one and raised it up to adulthood.  Then she sold it at the market and used part of that money to buy land as well as pay for school fees for her children.  She feels that they are seeing significant improvement throughout the association.  Through the manure produced from the pigs they have better soil quality and their animal husbandry has improved thanks to the addition of the para-veterinarian, Gratien.

Many of the associations are using profit from the pigs to help pay for health insurance for their members.  They did outline their biggest challenge and that was access to medication for their animals.  They have to go far to markets to access them, and even then they are unsure of the quality.  The other challenge they mentioned was the need for more information and training on animal husbandry and agriculture.

We had a great lunch, and then we said good bye to Roger and Alayne till Sunday and started the long, bumpy ride home!

Late this afternoon we had some visits from a couple of our young friends. We sat and talked with them for awhile - their curiosity is wonderful, and their English is really improving!  Then we had another drop in from our friend and student in our secondary program, Eric! He is pictured below with Rachael - much taller than he was when we first met!!
 ​

We had some time this morning, and planned to go into Nyamagabe, a little bit bigger of a town. Alayne was on the hunt for material.  We picked the wrong day, as it was market day there so all the buses were full!!!  So we walked 1 & 1/3 hours to get there!  The market was crazy and crowded but we did manage to find some pretty cool material.  We are anxious to see what Alayne will create with it.

When we returned we had a meeting with quite a few of the students who have been supported through secondary school and now being supported in university.  A few are finished, a few will graduate next month, and the rest have a year or two left.  It was nice to hear their stories and how they are doing. 

​After we finished with the students we had a quick lunch then headed off to visit one of the associations that are part of the Kigeme Food Security site.  The association is called KORANUMURAVA.  They are made up of 22 members, and they keep both small and large animals as well as growing some crops together.  They have managed to save money in their 'Savings and Credit' program and were  able to purchase goats for each member and give some money towards health insurance.
There was  noticeable change in the area from when we first started going to Rwanda. It is good to see the improvements in the animal husbandry. They say they are learning many things from the paraveterinarian, Felicien, that is enabling them to make the improvement. The crop yields are increasing as well. They had a good yield on a maize crop and are saving the seeds that was given to them by the Udder Project for future crops. 
​It is wonderful to see how people can work together! Rachael encouraged them to keep working hard, that it takes time to generate lasting change, but, it would all pay off in the end!

Today we drove to Cyivugiza, one of the Food Security Sites. The leader of this site is Pastor Vincent. We have regularly visited this site every time we come to Rwanda as we are consistently amazed at the wonderful changes that occur at this site. This is proof that forward thinking, planning and lots of hard work can bring about some amazing changes in people's lives. Pastor Vincent's main goal is to eliminate poverty in the area and he is well on the way to achieving this goal while motivating many people of his Parish in the process!!

Pictured above is Pastor Vincent with one of the projects in the Parish. They are harvesting Irish potatoes and storing some of them to obtain superior seeds to sell. It is difficult to find good Irish potato seeds and so it is in high demand.
We traveled down a very long hill to a valley where he showed us all the land that they have cleared, by hand no less, and the crops that they have planted. When we first visited Cyivugiza, this land was primarily treed and not usable. In 6 years, they have almost cleared all the land and have planted different crops. See the photos below.

They are also introducing wheat into the area which is a new crop type for them.
They are also planning on building a guesthouse in the future and are going to raise revenue for this through the sale of trees that they have planted on 2.5 hectares of land.

They are also planting several new chapels in the area, nursery schools, and a new building that will house an internet style cafe, a tailoring business and a church hall for social functions.

Cyivugiza has come so far ahead from the area we visited seven years ago. It went from a very poor, AID's ridden population to one of the most impressive parishes we have seen in our travels in the Kigeme Diocese. 

Tomorrow- we will visit some of the Kigeme co-operatives as well as see some of the post secondary students that are sponsored through Kids for Kids. Stay tuned. 

'After a run to start  in this 'land of a thousand hills' we were off to our first of our Food Security site visits!  This morning we went to the Gahira Parish site, this was one of the original sites and is considered a 'maintenance' site.  We met with a number of the beneficiaries as well as the Veterinary assistant for the area.  They were able to tell us about all their activities, their successes as well as their challenges.  We were greatly encouraged by all they have done and where they are at as far as their animal husbandry practices are concerned.  They are very pleased and also feel they have come a long way.  Some of the highlights we heard:  all beneficiaries have at least one animal.  A number have benefited from the governments 'one cow per family' program - where they receive a cow and pass the first calf on to another family.  A number of people also reported being able to pay their children's school fees, which was stated with a great deal of pride.  The association was able to save a fair bit of money and has purchased land for crops - instead of renting!
Some of their challenges had to do with poor weather causing problems with crops, as well as struggling to find food for their animals during the dry season
We visited a few of the farms, as well as being shown the land they were so proud of.

We returned to our guesthouse for lunch, then headed out to visit a friend's chapel where he is a Catechist (lay leader).  He was very pleased and proud to show us how far they've come!  We were treated to a youth choir, and met several of the members who came out!

Today was another lovely day! We started by doing a bit of exercising to limber up muscles after all that walking yesterday.
Then, we attended Sunday service at the Cathedral. We were able to see many old friends at the church. It was a lovely time.
We then came back to the guesthouse for a lovely lunch and a short rest before meeting with the agriculture group, APAP, who we have been working with since we started coming in 2006.
They gave us updates on how APAP is doing, their struggles and their plans for the future. We had a good conversation and we were hopefully able to impart some advice to them. 
They are going to come up with a business model for the purchase of a bull for the area in order to improve the genetics of the milking cattle and increase milk production. 
​Below are some pictures from around the Kigeme area.  The area has changed a bit due to the Congolese refugee camp, which is now at 19,500 people.  Stay tuned for more!

Well its our first full day here in Kigeme and we went for a walk around the area visiting APAP members.  They were able to tell about how their livestock were doing, their successes and their challenges.  Most importantly they were able to tell how much the Food Security program has enabled them to improve their lives.  One special moment came near the end of our visits where the owner gave a moving speech  (pictured below) sharing his appreciation of all the help he had been given in livestock management.  He expressed being thankful for the training he has received both from Rachael as well as the training has been followed up by Viateur and the Food Security Team. He ended his little speech giving thanks especially Rachael's commitment to travel all the way to Rwanda.  

We also discovered how many bulls are now in the area.  The two bulls that the AVI's had purchased two years are both not being used currently. "Roger" served them well over a two year period but, alas, he became tired and needed to retire from his job.  Ferdinand is being treated for a parasitic infection but will hopefully be back up and running soon. Other than that, they are in need of more bulls as well as training more local veterinary workers in artificial insemination. 
Overall, we did see some good improvements and a willingness to continue to improve that is heartwarming. 

After walking several hours up and down a lot of Rwanda's thousand hills, we returned to the guest house for a fantastic lunch!  Then we did some laundry - African style.  Chantal, who works at the guesthouse, had a good laugh at our ineptitude and rescued Alayne, washing about 15 pairs of Roger's socks - they look brand new!!