Today was a very full but exciting day! We started the day early and went to the Milk Collection Centre to see the milk being received from the farmers. They deliver the day’s milk between 6am and 9am as that is the best time to collect before the sun and heat affect the raw milk. We watched the whole process from collection, to testing the milk for freshness, pasteurizing the milk, placing it in a vat for cool down to final packaging. The process is much more complex than that but, needless to say, we all learned quite a bit about milk processing. Video was taken of the whole process to document the workings of the center. 

We discussed many things with the veterinarians and staff at the center especially how, once the center is at full capacity (receiving >1000 L of milk per day) the hope is that it will generate enough money to pay all the staff as well as have a profit where the proceeds will go towards the continued activities of the Food Security Program. We were very encouraged by what we saw and how well the Centre is working having only been open for 2 months. There are some challenges that will be faced in the next year but we do not doubt that this will be a successful endeavour. 

While we were at the MCC, we were able to give them supplies that Rachael had brought from Canada.  Felicien and Viateur were very excited to add them to their pharmacy.

​After the visit to the Milk Collection Centre we visited Murico Parish. This parish is led by a very enthusiastic and forward-thinking Pastor named Jean Bosco. We saw some significant changes with the Parish including new Chapels being built and the planting of 5000 trees. The parishioners are seeing improvements in their animals’ health and production. 
We had a lovely lunch and conversation with Pastor Jean Bosco, Peter the paravet and the Food Security Team. 

​Our last stop for the day was to visit an association called KORANUMURABA which means “working with courage” in Kinyarwanda and that they are. Again, we felt an overall sense of hope and anticipation for a brighter future. They are well motivated and have made some positive changes since last year. Rachael encouraged them to continue that motivation and to share the knowledge that they have gained from Dr. Felicien and Felicien the paravet with others in the area.

​After that we came home and had a few good conversations with friends that came to visit. Rachael tried doing laundry but Josephine (our Guardian Angel and preparer of food) laughed at Rachael’s attempts and kicked her out, finishing our laundry.
We are treated so well here by our Rwandan family. Maybe we will stay…………..

This morning we were privileged to attend a Jubilee celebration for GS Kigeme A (Kigeme Secondary School).  This school began in 1965 with 20 students and 3 staff.  At the time it was an all girls school.  It has grown to 872 students and 36 staff.  For the first three years of secondary school students take general courses, very similar to ours at home (English, Math, Science, Socials etc)  Then at Kigeme 'A' students can concentrate on topics of Math, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and IT for the final three years of secondary school.  

This was a wonderful celebration and there had to have been at least 500 people there, between present and past students and staff, government officials, and members of Kigeme Diocese.  After the formal celebration we had an intimate lunch with all 500 guests.  An amazing hot lunch,  so well organized it was served up in no time!  Rwandans certainly have the gift of hospitality!

Pictured below:  A student reciting a poem - in quite the dramatic fashion, ladies from the earliest classes of the school, Carolyn getting some drumming lessons, and a picture trying to give you an idea of the size of the crowd for lunch!

In the afternoon we set out and visited some APAP farms. We were fortunate to have Dr. Felicien and JC (our friend and translator) with us and we met up with a good friend Chretien who is going to make our travels and work here into a documentary. Assinapol (our most accomplished paravet) met us at one of the farms and we ended up having tea at Pastor Anastase's home (he is coordinator of the Food Security Program). We had a very nice afternoon and it made us realize how fortunate we are to have such wonderful friends and family in Kigeme. Below is a picture at Pastor Anastase's house. We were discussing some ways to improve his animal husbandry. Felicien was telling us today that the milk production in the Kigeme Diocese has increased considerably from the 1.5-2 L milk/day we were seeing in 2006 to, on average 8-10 L milk / day. This has been the result of better genetics in the cows, better animal husbandry and better veterinary care. It was wonderful to hear. 

We spent the first part of the day getting our running legs used to the 5000 feet elevation gain in Kigeme. As usual, we felt like the "pied piper" with all the Rwandan children running with us. They sure have grit! They always ask us the same question- "where are you going?" and sadly, we cannot answer them as we are too out of breath. 
After recovering from our morning "sports", we met with the Food Security Team to discuss our itinerary for the week. As usual, many changes were made in order to accommodate our tight schedule in Rwanda this year. But, ever the gracious hosts, our Rwandan friends were patient with our requests. 

After lunch (a deliciously fresh meal made by our friend Josephine), we travelled to Tare, an area about 10 minutes from Kigeme where we got to see the Milk Collection Centre first hand. The centre was given to the Food Security Program by World Vision and the government due to the positive changes being implemented by the program. The goal is to be able to supply all the neighbouring towns with safer milk to drink. The Centre has been open for two months now and they are seeming to get the hang of the milk business. Currently they are bringing in 400-500 litres of milk per day to be processed. Their capacity is 1000 L/day and so there is room to grow. ​

Here are three pictures of the centre. The cow and calf pictured above are from one of the farmers who bring their milk to the centre. 
The centre is facing some challenges, however. There is a lack of water to the area during the dry season (July and August) making water a challenge to access. They are also finding it challenging to reach further areas to collect milk from due to lack of vehicles to access these areas and the local cows are still only producing, on average 4-5 L milk/day. They are attempting to overcome these challenges as they can. They have trained 43 paravet assistants to go into the area and teach the farmers about disease prevention in their cows as well as general animal husbandry. These paravets will also be able to get more farmers to bring their milk to the collection centre. This will allow for safer milk to be distributed throughout the area as well as a good source of revenue for the Milk Collection Centre who can then use the profits to help sustain the Food Security Program. 
We are going to visit the Centre again on Monday so more pictures are to come!!

We have arrived in Rwanda!  We arrived last night (Thursday) in Kigali and were met at the airport by Pastor Anastase (Coordinator of the Food Security Program) and Ezekius (our good friend and Diocesan driver).  We spent the night in a guest house in Kigali then started the trek down to Kigeme this morning. The road from Kigali to Kigeme has changed considerably. They are widening the road from Butare to Kigeme- normally a 30 minute drive - today was an hour. But it will be great when it is done. We were met at Kigeme by many of our Rwandan family. It was lovely to see them. They presented us with beautiful bouquets of flowers. We have our own home to stay in this visit. Talk about being well cared for! We spent the evening tonight at the Bishop's home. This is the new Bishop and it was wonderful to see him and his wife in their home. A very lovely evening. Now it is to bed as we are still playing catch up on the jet lag. Tomorrow we will see the Milk collection centre so stay tuned in!!

Above you see pictures of one of our bedrooms, our living room area and the bouquet of flowers we were greeted with when we arrived.

We are heading off again to Africa.  This year it will just be Rachael and Carolyn - and it was a late decision to travel as we had originally decided not to go this year due to some things going on here for us, but the path was clear and the desire to go visit our Kenyan and Rwandan friends was strong!!

It will be a quick trip this year, and we are changing the order of our travels and heading to Rwanda first, then heading to Kenya for a few days before coming home.

We will do our best to keep you updated regularly on our travels.  We sure appreciate the comments and encouragement we get when we are away.  We have a very strong support network for our educational and agricultural projects, we appreciate you all very much and wish we could take you all with us!  This blog is as close as we can get trying to give you a sense of what goes on when we are away, and why we get so excited about what is going on in our projects.