The Road to Rulindo

A Recipe for Development

Road to Kigali.

Arriving at Heathrow on the morning of 4^th July entailed nerves and excitement as two teams set off on a 3 month volunteer placement to Rwanda. After saying goodbye to family and friends, we boarded the first of two long flights to Kigali, changing in Istanbul. Upon arrival we were met by Alison and Sam, our team leaders who have already been doing groundwork in-country for several weeks, along with four International Service staff. We all headed to a Jesuit centre near the airport where we stayed for several days to receive in-county training. Several days, however, became over a week and a half as visa complications meant that we could not travel to our respective districts – an inevitable delay when setting up a project in a new country. While we were all keen to get started on project work, this delay did give us all more time to get to know our fellow team members, especially our counterpart in-country volunteers whom we will be sharing host homes with for the duration of our time in Rwanda.

‘Road’ to Rulindo.
Departure day finally arrived! We embarked along a dusty track, which turned out to be the main road north, to Cyinzuzi in the Rulindo district – a very rural area which certainly gives credence to Rwanda’s title ‘the land of a thousand hills’.

Climbing 2000m above sea level proved challenging for our van, its engine eventually failing and five people having to push-start it.

Upon arriving in Cyinzuzi we headed straight to the office of our project partner, Bamporeze, where we met our host families. Meeting our host parents for the first time was a nerve-wracking experience, for while our team leaders, Sam (UK) and David (Rwanda), had visited the host homes we still had very little idea what they would be like or what the standard of living is out here. Furthermore most of us will be sharing a room, 1 UK to 1 Rwandan volunteer; though not all as 2 UK volunteers had to unexpectedly return home due to family emergencies so Angelique and Solange are living by themselves.

After meeting our ‘host parents’ we all headed to our new homes where we were received very warmly and were pleasantly surprised by luxuries such as sofas, big wardrobes and even TVs in some homes. Running water is amiss though so water is typically fetched at one of the community taps, built by the Norwegian charity ‘Water for People’ several years ago, in 20L jerry cans – meaning we must all get accustomed to bucket showers!

The native language, Kinyarwanda, has been challenging for the UK volunteers to familiarise themselves with – even after a month here we can only just about grasp the basics! Exploring the local area has been an interesting experience in itself; locals are very intrigued by the UK volunteers, who are known as muzungus (meaning ‘white person’ in Kinyarwanda and applied to most foreigners). While attempts to speak basic Kinyarwanda are greatly appreciated by locals, young people are particularly keen to learn English, which has been one of the official languages of Rwanda since 2008. One of the UK volunteers Kavita found this out one weekend when she unexpectedly spent one hour and a half teaching ‘heads, shoulder, knees and toes’ and ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ to a group of children in her garden.

Bamporeze Project Partner

Our Bamporeze team will be working on the protection and promotion of the rights of children, youth and women in the region. Rulindo, just north of the capital Kigali, was chosen as a priority district due to its large youth population (59.6% of the population is under 25), high rate of unemployment (72.8%) and the lack of support in place to help these vulnerable groups. Our work will focus on two of the seventeen sectors of Rulindo, Cyinzuzi and Ngoma, where respectively only 25.7% and 21.1% of children under 7 have access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. Since we are the first International Service cohort in Rulindo our work involves extensive baseline research into the community’s needs and the formation of strong relationships with Bamporeze and the community groups with which we, and future cohorts, are working with.

One of the biggest challenges of the placement so far has been the language barrier. The British volunteers talk too fast and our Rwandan counterparts struggle to understand what is being said; strangely, a northern accent is easier to understand than a southern accent! This has slowed the pace of work but since the UK volunteers have made a more conscious effort to speak slower and more clearly, it has improved. Furthermore since some of the host-homes have no English-speaking family members the ICVs have been a great help to the UK volunteers with interpreting and helping communication between volunteers and host families.

Another interesting observation has been the differences in approaches to time management between cultures. As noted by in-country volunteers, the British way tends to be more fast-paced and eager to get things done; whilst Rwandan culture is more relaxed, valuing people more than time with people often using the phrase ni ah’ejo (‘you have tomorrow’). This has meant the team had to adjust to a stricter schedule whilst also accepting that some things may take longer than expected. The same principle goes for punctuality as time is more of a fluid concept in Rwanda. Therefore we have all made a conscious effort to be at the office on time and to be flexible if a meeting happens later than scheduled.

Though these first few weeks have gotten off to a slower start than expected and the Rwandan way of life has been difficult to adjust to for those from the UK, things are looking positive and productive. We are all becoming more settled in our host homes and communities, improving the cohesion of our team and establishing a solid plan for our activities. With these plans currently coming into fruition we will be posting more updates in the coming weeks on our activities as we begin to really get started on the project.

Rory, Solange, Redempta, Alice, Angelique, Patrick, Kavita, Jane, David and Sam.