July
12, 2007
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I'm working on the slowest computer in Gisenyi, Rwanda so I won't make
with all the niceties.
After teaching a seven hour class of mediation on Sunday, I went to town
on Monday am and changed money, and bought a cell phone, my first I 've
ever purchased. I think more people here have cell phones than small pox
vaccinations. They are carried by everyone because the land lines are as
functional as the water supply in the dry season which is now. The water
runs once a week (that's one day a week) in the quarter where I was
staying. I was luckey to hit the water day when I was there. But washing
is out of a bucket, the toilet is flushed that way too. And drinking
water is bottled or boiled. In the afternoon on Monday I rode the bus
with Eugene who teaches the Alternatives to Violence courses here. We
travelled three hours through land that makes West Virginia look like a
prairie state. JUst beautiful and every hillside cultivated from bottom
to top. Impossible slopes to grow on, but the Rwandans have developed a
technique. There's not much forest left, I'm not sure where the wood
comes from to make the charcoal that most people cook on. Probably the
Congo. We travelled to the northwest side of the country to a town called
Gisenyi. I'm about 200 yards from the Congo border. There were a lot of
UN soldiers (Indian) on very deluxe buses heading that way while we were
travelling.
For
two days Eugene, Marthe, and myself conducted the AVP workshop with some
remarkable Rwandans at the Quaker church. Next door, young Canadian and
American volunteers were carrying hod to help the Rwandan masons build a
youth center. To say I taught AVP is a misnomer, I assisted Eugene and
Marthe, but I think I connected with a few people who were there. The
class was taught in Kinyarwandan language and translated to me in French
and I did my part in French that was translated back. One old gentleman
named Ignace (77 yrs.) caught my attention, and I sat with him and
conversed in French which he understood. I told him that my wife Marie's
grandfather shared that name with him. He said in front of the group that
I was the first European that ever greeted him and treated him as an
equal, and he came across the room and hugged me. Believe me, the biggest
thing I contributed in two days was probably that moment, and for me it
was the biggest gift. There are some tears in my eyes as I write this.
Lots
of building is going on, the country is still in reconstruction after the
war that ended 13 years ago. Streets are volcanic sand and projects of
lava that stick through the sand. You can see 3 or 4 volcanos from here
on a clear day. The latest eruption was 2002 and it destroyed forty
percent of the neighboring town of Goma in the Congo. Tomorrow I cross to
Goma to teach a three day course in mediation. I had the phone number of
a man named Samuel who lives over there. I called and spoke French and he
answered in English that he will come over tomorrow AM to pick me up and
accompany me to the class site. Nice to have a cell phone, and to know
that everyone else has one. Costwise it was thirty dollars and you buy
cards to add minutes, just like home. NO monthly bill.
Cant
send photos on this old computer.
I better send this before there's an electricity failure.
All the best ,
George
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Itinerary
George's
Route
Archive
Aug 21, 2007
Aug 16, 2007
Aug 14, 2007
Aug 12-13, 2007
Aug 10, 2007
Aug 6-8, 2007
Aug 5, 2007
Aug 1, 2007
July 30, 2007
July 29, 2007
July 23-25, 2007
July 24, 2007
July 22, 2007
July 20, 2007
July 15-17, 2007
July 12-13, 2007
July 13, 2007
July 12, 2007
July 8, 2007
June 30, 2007
June 12, 2007
June 11, 2007
Mediation Classes
and Case Studies
Nairobi
Kakamega/Lubao
Bujumbura, Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda
Goma, Congo
Photos
1960's Africa
Germany
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