PICTURES ARE BETTER THAN WORDS!

Briefly: my life has been consumed by my women's coop (we've started grass mat making, which includes trips to get the grass from the valley, as shown in the pictures, and things like learning how to make peanut butter, creating a leadership committee, and discussing future projects...love these women!)...my girl's club at school and planning a girls' camp with other volunteers for next month, love these girls!... playing sports at school in the afternoons, particularly focusing on the girls and making a general fool of myself on the volleyball court and soccer field, and teaching them how to throw a disc, which they are super enthusiastic about!...building bookshelves from scrap wood so our "library" might actually look like a LIBRARY!...and the daily activities, visiting, chores, choir, and my kiddies! My full time partner in crime, Anita, turned 7 a few months ago but true to Rwandan style we didn't nail down her actual date of birth til sometime this month, so we celebrated late with a reallll boxed cake brought from America by another volunteer, happy birthday singing, and making a wish and blowing out the candle! She was positively glowing all night!

So, these pictures show getting grass with my coop women, kids playing at the well which is under construction and will sooooon bring water all the way up to the village (!!), walking around enjoying the scenary with my housemate Josie and little neighbor Anita, some of my Senior 1 girls doing tons and tons of laundry down by the well (the taller one in the back is Anita's older sister and also awesome), and Anita's birthday celebration.

5 months left, holy cow so much to do! It's going to be beyond incredibly difficult to leave...

When it rains...

Warning: This is long, out of character I know…

Projects pound down! Exciting, overwhelming, full of possibilities. And only 7 months to go. Here's the summary of things that may (or may not) come to pass in the rest of my time here:

1. IBIJEGA-- Two 40,000 liter underground rainwater collection cisterns are going to be built at my schools, one at the primary and one at the secondary school. After a long, long (insert a few more longs) drawn-out process of writing a Peace Corps project proposal and waiting for it to pass from desk to desk, gaining all the necessary stamps of approval on the Rwanda side, from which it would then face the beloved bureaucratic processing of DC, and THEN finally would require your well appreciated donations, my project was mercifully given full sponsorship by an NGO working in Rwanda, bypassing all further waiting! Awesome in many ways, mostly in saving time. My community has had their contribution (about 30% of the total project costs) ready since December, so they've been anxious to get started, and we should begin digging in the next few weeks, hopefully in time to catch some of the up-coming rainy season's water. The water will be completely potable, and will be used for drinking, hand-washing, and cleaning purposes by some 2,000 students and staff between the two schools which otherwise have no water. Although you will no longer be hounded by me to donate money, thanks for all your support in getting this project going!

2. GLOW Club/Camp: Girls Leading Our World-- Many volunteers worldwide have GLOW clubs, which are meant to promote gender equality, girl's empowerment, and HIV/AIDS education to young girls. I'm just getting my own club started at school with the secondary school girls, and working with many other volunteers from my region (Eastern Rwanda) to run a 5 day GLOW camp this summer for about 100 girls from our schools. My club at school has had a bit of a mixed start- a combination of really excited girls with great ideas for what they want to learn and do in this club, what skills they have to offer, and what their overall goals are, plus the logistical nightmares of trying to work with 80+ girls at the same time within the school club hours, which sometimes become mandatory cleaning or farming or all-school meeting hours. A not so uncommon scenario from the past term: "Benjamin, we are having clubs today, yes?" "Oh, Julie, I think today they must clean." "But can we have club for maybe 1 hour, and cleaning for 1 hour?" "Oh, yes, it isn't no problem..." Which inevitably means, yes, theoretically a miracle could happen in which they will spend only one hour cleaning, but really clubs won't happen at all today. And so it goes. We have a few weeks of school break now though, which I am trying to use to restructure things and move club meetings to my house, on my own hours, which might also reduce the number of girls coming to something more personal and manageable. A few of my Senior 1 girls also approached me asking if they could write a song to present during National Memorial Week, and the plan is to start writing and practicing at my house this week. We'll see!

3. AMAZI-- Water! I've mentioned before that almost all the villages in my area (which basically means about a dozen villages spread across several miles of a ridge top) have no close water source. Everyone goes to get water from the valleys, which can be 30-90 minutes round trip, balancing heavy jugs of water back uphill on the head. There are many different valley springs, but only a few have good, clean water. The spring closest to me (about 50 minutes round trip) actually has clean water and an existing pipe and pump system connected to 5 pump wells among the ridge top villages, but the motor broke sometime before my arrival here, and everything has fallen into disrepair. Total costs for getting the system up and running again, and thereby allowing somewhere between 500-1,000 households to have a close source of clean water again, is about $3,000. I recently submitted a proposal, along with my new project conspirator (Simon, the father of one my S2 students, an incredibly motivated, insightful, and fluently English speaking man who has been of immeasurable help to me in the past few weeks), to our Sector Secretary (think big wig of our area) to get the officials and community members involved in bringing back the water. His response: "Good. We already have a plan to do just this. And the money. Thankyou." Which means a. Thanks, now mind your own business, b. Water is actually on its way!, or c. Water will someday...somehow....maybe...just make it to us...but there's no actual timeline for it. So, we wait on that, for now.

4. Young Mothers' Cooperative-- This is what has me really jazzed this week. Said Simon from above tells me he has an idea I might want to help him with. All ears. He has become aware of a large number of young girls and women who have had to drop out of school, both primary and secondary, due to unplanned pregnancies. These girls are now living at home (some got pregnant while away studying at boarding schools), husbandless, jobless, and with the responsibility of raising their children alone. Concerned for their well-being, and that of their children, Simon has located and contacted as many of these girls as he can find, inviting them to come to a meeting to discuss options for their futures. Am I interested? Not even a question. So, last Friday, we sat outside the secondary school at 2 pm, waiting to see who, if anyone, would show up. A little after 3, two girls and their toddlers arrive, a start. After another 30 minutes we're up to 6 girls and as many small children. And by 4:30 we have 23 mothers and 25 little ones, mothers ranging in age from 17 to 25 years old, and children from still in utero to 6 years old. It was nuts—screaming babies, toddlers stumbling around, and 23 eager young women discussing how they can work together to start a cooperative, gain job security, and better provide for their children. !!!! In a word, I’m stoked. This is the very very beginning, and I have no idea where this could lead, but I was absolutely floored that 23 girls came on such short notice, and am excited to see where they take this. We have another meeting next week, where they’ll elect some group leaders and focus in on a few specific ideas, discussing ways to get started. Simon and I want to provide support, but not run the show. Since this is the first time for all of us, we’ll just have to roll with it, but I’m excited!

5. ICYONGEREZA-- Community English classes. Also with Simon, I’m offering English lessons to any and all interested adults in the area, free minus minimal contributions to buy chalk. For the past year plus, adults everywhere I go ask me to teach them English, and I always say, sure, organize yourselves and tell me when, and I’ll be there. Nothing has ever happened but they still all ask, so I’m handing it to them. If there are any takers, great. If not, great, I really don’t need to add anything else to my schedule :-P Not my focus, but could be fun if there are a few interested, motivated adults. (Secondary school students here are the same as middle schoolers in America…“Studying? Make me!”)

BASI—The end. Am I forgetting anything? Probably, but that’s more than enough for now. Looking at some very busy, but hopefully very fulfilling and productive, last months here. If even one of these comes off well, I’ll be pretty happy!

Here are some pictures: My kiddies, shelling dried corn (corn harvesting season just came and went), and young mothers with their babies!

Thanks for reading, hope you are all well!