Rwanda - Day 8 & 9

I know I didn't blog yesterday.  I was gone to church and then to my daughters house all afternoon.  By the time I got home and did chores I was ready for bed.  So today you get two days.....

January 30
I got up this morning at 6:45.  Jemrose made me couple of pieces of toast and a cup of tea.  Got all my goat books ready and also my ice water and some bread slices.  I worked on a projection for the Sanctuary for 10 years.  I figured Jodi would start with 10 does and by the end of 6 years she would have about 70 does and producing a substantial amount of milk for cheese.  I think I revised this chart about 5 times, each time adding another calculation on the milk production. I also gave Gashumba,    ( co-op organizer), a copy of my rough draft so that his organization could see what was a possibility for the Dairy. 
Jodi was here at 8am  we drove to pick up Gashumba so he could help us translate the idea with the women's co-op.  We also picked up Zilvana (the Russian horticulturist).  She is going to work with the guys at the sanctuary and the veg. and banana plants today.  We left her at the Sanctuary and left for our meeting with the women.
We have a meeting with the Women's Co-op today.  We met at the Women's location rather than the sanctuary.  There was a big garden area next to us that isn't in the pictures.  I think the ladies understood what the proposal was, but they still didn't like the idea.  So we explained another alternative.  In the end I think they all understood what we were trying to propose and they will let us know after they talk to their families about this idea.

Some of the Women's Co-op under the tree for our meeting

It was a long meeting and as you see one of the little boys took his nap

One of the women from the Co-op. 

 This is how we met several times with the women.  Jodi is in the background too.

We went back to the Sanctuary and picked up Zilvana and went back to town.  We dropped the two passengers off at their stops.  Then headed to  Jemroses house so I could change clothes and go out to Pizza with Jodi.  She is the Quiz Queen at this restaurant on Monday Night.  Its a fun evening to answer questions and see how much you know.  If you get the most questions right your whole table gets a free dinner and second place gets the whole tables drinks free.  This restaurant uses Jodi's tomato sauce on their pizza's.  We had a fun evening and I was home by 10:30pm.  I was ready for bed.

January 31

Got up this morning at 6:45 am, made myself some tea and toast.  Jodi got here with the tomatoes tat needed washed, cut and  mashed for the sauce.  She brought some of her workers to do this task.    Jodi left the tomatoes here at Jemroses house and took the workers to  go with her to the freezer where she had some more sauce. So Jemrose and I got into working on the tomatoes, cleaning and cutting.  Jemrose had to take her daughter back to the dentist and had to leave, so I just kept working.  Jodi got back and her workers took over the job.  I went out to the front porch and started revising my spreadsheet.    When the sauce was done, Jodi took it and her workers to deliver it to the restaurant.  I thin had some lunch and the girls showed me how to wash my clothes.

I am sitting on a traditional Rwandes chair for  doing laundry

Claudine is in the pink shirt, and Marie Claire, and of course me

Marie Clair

                                                        Claudine


Now the truth is this was all staged... cause they said I didn't do it right.  The girls washed my clothes and I sort of washed cause they said I didn't get everything clean enough.  I was so surprised that the whites were white and the socks were spotless.  Its crazy how clean everything was.  Thanks girls.  I never washed again the whole time I was here.  The girls were great.  They even wash their shoes and sandals about every 4 days.  My tennis shoes were so white.
When we got done washing clothes we hung them on the clothes line.

When the  laundry was done we were just hanging around visiting when we heard a swam of bee's.  They came into the back yard area by the clothes line.  It was huge.  We all ran into the house, shut windows and doors quickly so the bee's wouldn't come into the house.  We watched the swarm through the window's.  Its illegal to kill honey bees in Rwanda.  As we watched the bee's left between those two buildings in the  back there.  Then we went back outside.  I got onto the Internet this afternoon.  Checked my emails, put alittle bit on facebook. 
We ate dinner: cauliflower, broccoli, boiled pumpkin, fryed banana and potatoes and beans.  It was very good and filling.
Then we had prayer and to bed by 9:05pm.  I have to be up by 5:30 because tomorrow is "Hero's Day" and Faustin is taking me to the Stadium where it will take place.

I want to throw a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my eldest daughter, Jami.

The Farm Report

Yesterday we didn't have any new babies born.  We let the boar mom's and kids out of their pens.  They were so cute running around in the field.  Ali and I went to church yesterday in Longview, about 45 miles.  Then we went up to Heathers, my #2 daughters for chili lunch and Ali and Jamie worked on her college applications for financial aid.  Jonathan came over and helped with chores in the morning and then went with us.  He also helped us with evening chores.  We reheated up left over spaghetti for dinner. 
Today we had a photographer here to take pictures of me and the cheese for the article they are putting together about the Rotary Club Benefit.  The Chronical.  I packaged all my restaurant cheeses and cut up a round of Grande Rosa for the photo's. 
Have a GREAT Day.. Its sunny, windy but no rain!!!)

Rwanda - Day 7

January 29
Well last night wasn't so good for Elina, she had a root canal done and it is infected.  Last night she was hurting so bad that Jemrose at 2:00am had to catch a motor scooter into Kigali to go to a 24 hour pharmacy and get her some antibiotics. I must of been pretty tired cause I heard none of this movement.

This is Dieudonne, the boy in the chair, and Elina - the day before her emergency night

This is Claudine

This is Faustin playing on my Blackberry phone, games



These are all of Jemroses children names:

Dieudonne, Innocent, Elina, Jane (Jeanne), Claudine, Marie Claire, John Paul; Jean Paul (JP), Eric, John Peter, Faustin, Sunday (Jean Claude).  I only have 5 of them in pictures.

I got up at 6:45am and made some toast and tea and sat out on the front porch and listened to the birds. 
When Jemrose got up and told me what had happened I knew this would be a long day.  We caught a motorbike to the bus station to catch the bus towards Bugesera, where the church was located.  Also one of Jemroses sons goes to school across the road from the church, John Paul.  We got to the bus area and climbed on a bus always watching our watches.  The bus didn't move and no one else came to get on so we decided to catch another motorbike to the church.  We were a bit late but caught the last of the worship....I felt at home, safe and warm.  It was so great.  I could of danced in the isles.  The message was wonderful too.  I just relaxed and prayed for strength for Jemrose after last night.
After church we walked up to the school to see John Paul.  We found him preaching at the school.  That was also very cool.  The students were so sweet.  You could feel Jesus everywhere.  John Paul is in his senior year there then he will go to the university if his test scores are high enough.
After this we walked to the bus stop to catch a mini bus.  We went back to the bus area close to the house and took a bicycle ride down to the house.  These guys don't have helmets but do all the same driving tactics as the motorbikes.  So I was in my jumper and had to sit sidesaddle.  It was actually fun.  You go slower and they swerve a bit more to miss the holes and bumps.
When we got home Jemrose made us lovely sandwiches with croissant, Avocado, tomato cucumber and pepper and a cabbage salad and Mayo.  YUM!  I have to tell you I am allergic to citric acid... when I eat tomatoes here or for that matter anything so called fresh I break out with sores in my mouth, canker soars.  Over there I never got one and I ate the stuff all the time.
Jodi came and picked me up so we could go out to the handicap orphanage and deliver some of the goodies I took over there.  We had Emmanual with us and his helper.  Emmanual is going to the university and Jodi found him a sponsor through her organization.  We drove out of town for quite awhile.  The only wild life I actually saw were two monkeys and by  the time I found my camera they were gone.

There are 11 children living here.  One was in the hospital.  We gave them enough color books, crayons, stuffed animals, wooden cars and a couple soccor balls for all 11 children.

Emanuel is on the far right.  The girl standing up had her arms macheted off during the Genocide, if I remember the details all right.

After our visit here we went to Emanuel's house and left all the calenders I brought.  He makes the beads and sells the necklaces and such to help pay for his tuition and things he needs.



This is Emmanuel in his house holding some of the calenders I gave him



On our way home from the orphanage we got a flat tire.  At first there were only a few people watching but by the end we had a crowd.  The gentleman in the pink shirt finally changed the tire and got us on our way.  I slipped him some franks---cant tell you how much, but it was a big number on the paper money for helping us.  I was so grateful for his help and calmness.

Jodi trying her hand under the car, to get the jack situated right.

We had the crowd gather, I stood watch as the tire got changed.  That's why I have a husband, just for these moments.:)

These next pictures were taken on our way to and from the orphanage.



This is a trumpet tree. 

They have goats in Rwanda... I took alot of random pictures of goats.

A young man hauling roofing material on his bike

These are fish ponds.  They raise a white fish, tolopia

One of the buildings we went past.

A Catholic Church

A young man pushing his bicycle up a hill with alot of weight.  Could be charcoal, some sort of veg., beans or rice.

There is a natural fence line here.  The make them out of this tree that will make a fence.  Its very cool looking.  Its like a succulent plant of some sort.

This is the only picture that looks like I was really in Africa!

When we got home from out trip the kids had dinner ready for us.  What great kids.

Jemrose got home a little later and we were all in bed by 9pm. 

Farm News:

Today the weather is rain.  I went out at 7am and cleaned the milk parlor while the girls fed our 4 babies - 2 lambs (freezer meat) 1 new sannen buck, and supplementing a boar doe kid.  Then I headed off to the processing plant to put my feta into buckets and into the cooler for 5 days.  The chevre I hung is looking good.  And this afternoon I will turn the Grande Rosa over.  House bound today... Our car is getting a new engine, our bulk tank is holding the temperature _ after spending a large amount of money and having to have the guy come out about 5 times. 

Danyel has an interview on Tue for a job at the Feed Store in Longview, keeping my fingers crossed.  Ali is going to be working on her drivers license - cause if Danyel gets the job Ali will be doing markets until she leaves for college in Sept..

David is at the first Proctors Farmer's Market this year.  We haven't got our health permit so we cant sample our cheese.... the usual no money thing.  We will get it this week so in two weeks we will be back sampling.  David is bearing the elements - rain, wind, cold to sell our cheese.  He will stop on his way home this afternoon to drop off a cheese order to a restaurant in Olympia.

No more babies born last night.  So we will be  watching those Nigerians very close... we are putting the baby monitor up there in the barn so we can hear them.

Have a great day and stay dry and look on the bright side:)

Rwanda - Day 6 - + sad news/farm

Janaury 29

This morning I got up at 8am, maybe I have adjusted.  I had a couple cups of tea some toast and some watermelon.  Jemrose bought it the other day at the market.  Rwanda is starting to grow them, but they are very expensive.
Today is  a National Work Day.  Its the last Sat. of every month.  From 8am - Noon each community does a project.  No one travels.  If your out the police will stop you and ask why your not helping your community.  If you must go somewhere you must be back before 8am.
It is usually warm here, and there has been a smog hanging over the town until about noon.  I didn't take many pictures yesterday. 
Jemroses other son is here visiting, John Paul.  He is a senior in high school.  He is studying to be a doctor and he is also like a pastor on campus.  You must study very hard because you have to past a test in order to get into the next level of school.
School in Rwanda isn't like ours.  Jemroses children go away like to boarding school.  They get holidays off and come home then.  Jemroses children seem to get sick stomachs when they are away from home.  Its because the food and water they have to drink at the schools.  You have to pay for these schools.  You can go to primary grades for free.  But the middle and high school costs your family money.
Jemroses foundation helps pay for the schooling and all the school supplies that these kids need.  She helps them stay on task and is their support.
The girls braided my hair so I would look nice for Church tomorrow.  This took all morning to do.  But if I say so my self I think it turned out great.



At 2pm Jemrose, Faustin and I left for the town.  First we walked about 3 blocks mostly up hill to the market and we walked on the outside of the market.  There were lots of fruits and veg. as well as fish and chicken.  It was very busy and congested.  It really looked like a big farmers market.  We caught a bus that would take us to town.  Now let me explain about the bus routes.  There is no posted schedule and there are no arriving times or leaving times.  Its when the bus is full. 

The bus on the left is one of the mini vans.  The people on the right are waiting for buses.

Now this first one was a mini van, there are three bench seats and then where the walk way is another seat flips out.  They sit 5 across each seat and the seat next to the driver will hold two people.  There is a guy who calls out to the people waiting for a bus telling them where his bus is going.  Every time we stop half the bus gets off to let someone else out... it was crazy.  One note, I was the only white person on the bus - every time I took a bus.  You pay for your ride just before you get off.  I don't know how that guy keeps track of everyone but he never missed a beat to collect that money.  This first bus took us to another stop where Faustin got off and took another bus to go see his mom in another part of Kigali.  We took another bus that took us to the heart of Kigali.  Where  we got out and walked through town.  We needed to find and exchange place so I could get some franks for my American money.  The exchange that day was 6.1 to our dollar.  so I exchanged $100.  Sure got alot of money back. 

Me and the Elephant at the Mall which is behind me

After this we walked to this mall and went in, through security.  We took each others picture with the elephant.  Then we went up stairs to a restaurant and had an ice tea and a piece of chocolate cake Ala mode.  It was my first spending money in Rwanda.

The security

Jemrose and the elephant at the mall

Then we walked back to catch a bus, or mini van.  We made it to with in about 10 blocks of the house.  So we caught a scooter or motorcycle with helmet back to the house.  The boys driving the motorbikes went slow cause I was new to all this.  This whole trip was about 5 hours long today.  When we got home the kids were cooking dinner and we ate at about 8pm.  Then prayer and to bed.  I was tired and ready to go to sleep.  It will be an early morning tomorrow to get ready to catch a motorcycle to Church.

The Farm News

Our baby Nigerian Dwarf passed away this morning.  It was so sad.  This was Willow's first baby.  We will continue to milk Willow and start adding her milk to the bulk tank for now.  Eventually after all the mom's have their babies we will save the milk to only add to my chevre recipe.  Yum!

Today I was a busy lady... as usual.  I got up at 5:30am with David.  He left for Seattle to sell at Pikes Place and check on our restaurants to see if we had any orders for this next week.  We are getting ready for the Farmers Markets to start opening.  Proctor in Tacoma starts this Sat.  Olympia starts next week.  So today I washed my cheese cloth so I could hang the chevre that I made yesterday.  I checked on my feta it will go in the cooler tomorrow for 5 days.  Then I made 36 gallons of milk into 5 rounds of Grande Rosa and got it pressing.  I also packaged about 70 packages of Chevre for the markets this weekend.  Then to the milk parlor to clean the bulk tank and hose as well as the milking system for this evening milking.  I set it all up for the girls.  Now I am making potato soup for dinner.  I will hit the bed early tonight. 

I really hope  your enjoying the Africa trip - I enjoyed myself and learned alot about this country.  Some extra info about Rwanda is that its considered the cleanest country in Africa.  Pretty cool.

Rwanda - Day 5 and New Nigerian Baby born

January 27
When I got up this morning, Jemrose and one of her daughters was heading off to the market.  The market is like our farmers markets.  Open stalls and there is lots of veg. and fish and chickens.  It is very noisy.  The vendors are trying to get your attention and show you their food.  What I have heard if your a white person there is a higher price they charge you and if your Rwandes its a lower price.  They think all white people have money.... wonder where they got that idea? 
Jodi picked me up at 8:30am which this time she was on time.  She had errands to do.  The first thing we did was move some of her stuff from a storage shed to where she is stying at the moment.  It is very hot today... don't know the temp. but its much warmer that the days before.  I have my frozen water bottle and a few slices of bread in a baggy to snack on today.  I also keep putting my sunblock on.  After moving her stuff... which was an adventure cause one of our tires went flat and we had to  have it pumped up.
Then onto the Sanctuary.  But first we pick up Zivlana,( I am sure I didn't spell her name right) she is a Russian lady who works with plants and agriculture and her specialty is banana's.   On our way to pick her up Jodi took me over some of her shortcuts..... I was holding on for dear life.

This is the sign to where Jodi's Sanctuary is



  So Jodi wants her to check on her bananas and check out the rest of the agriculture at the Sanctuary.  When we got there Jodi and Zivlana went to check the agriculture out and instruct the worker guys to start implementing her suggestions.  I went and checked on the chickens and looked at the goats.  Then I found a wicker chair to sit in the shade with and read my goat books.  Its very quiet here and peaceful.  I do notice at my feet a large amount of ants, so I had to move my chair a few times.

Zilvana is sitting in the middle.  The other ladies are from the Women's Co-Op

Later that afternoon we had a meeting with the women's-co-op.  I was to explain how much work it takes to do a goat dairy.  Our main idea was to weed out the ones who were not going to take this task seriously.  So that I could train the core group about dairy goats and milking.  And again the biggest issue was they didn't want to buy goats for themselves, they wanted Jodi to do that.  And Jodi said no way.  Emiy, Jodi's right hand helper, translated for us and then translated for the women. 

This lady was such a sweety.  Her baby was very cute.  All the mom's that have babies on thier backs carry umbrella's to shade the babies from the sun.

This lady decided to lay down with her little boy at the meeting.

Here is alittle bigger shot of the women from the co-op

 We will meet again in a few days to see who comes back for the real deal.

We left the farm about 5:30pm.  The conversation on the way home was how do we get the women to see that this is a good idea.  We came up with the co-op buys the goats and that way each women would only have a very small investment.  The co-op would then own the goats so it would make the money from selling the milk to Jodi.  This way the co-op could pay each lady back her investment in order to make another investment.  So to make their money back quicker we thought Jodi could buy the baby does back from them since their goats would of been bred by the Sanitaries Sannen buck.  Jodi would agree to pay the price they paid for the adult goat for the baby goat... thus they would make their investment back in 7 months.  And if they had a buck kid they could sell that at the market and again make their investment.  So on Monday we will present this idea and see what happens.
Today Jodi payed her employees their salary.  Then we dropped Silvana off at a bus stop.  And the went to Jodi's house so she could change clothes so we could go to a birthday party and a Rotary Club Meeting.  (I was upset that we didn't have time to go let me change into clean clothes for this party). I had on my holey jeans, a t-shirt. I went and tried to stay away from people cause I smelled like sweat and goat. I went and got a glass of wine and sat in a corner. Jemrose came with Bobby , a friend.  And they came and sat with me and visited.  Later Jodi came over and sat too.  It was a nice party.  They had BBQ some goat and then made a bunch of traditional food.  I met some business men and women at the meeting.  It was a nice house and nice people.  I got home about 11:45 and was very glad to hit the bed.


FARM NEWS: March 29
  Our first Nigerian Dwaf baby was born.  Mom's name is Willow and we think the babies name will be Alder.  Willow had the baby last night and we found her this morning all cleaned up - but she was weak so we brought her in the house and milked Willow so we could get some colostrum down the baby.  I looked at my tube for tubing my reg. sized kids and thought it might be to big.  So today I will run to the vets and get a smaller tube that will fit these guys.  I like to give them a tubing if they are alittle weak so they get a good start.  We are feeding it a little colostrum from a bottle.  I am making Chevre today and packaging up cheese for the weekend markets.  Our car broke this week and we are having to have a new engine put in it.  It should be ready by Friday this week if all goes according to plan.  The goats are milking great and things are sort of running smooth.

+-

My trip to Rwanda - Day 4

January 26
Got up today at 6:45am.  Jodi picked me up at 8:30am and we met Gashumba, he helps the women's co-op get organized and teaches them how to run the co-op.  What this entails are alot of talking and explaining sessions with these women.  They are smart believe me, they just have to be reminded over and over how it all works.  One of the things the women thought and kept bringing up at our meetings was that Jodi would give them goats.  They are so use to organizations giving them things they assumed that this was the case with the Sanctuary.  This was repeated over at each meeting we had that this was not the case.  I think in the end it became clear to them. 

This is the co-op womens group we worked with at one of the meetings we had later in the week.



After the very long meeting we came back home to Jemroses house and had lunch and then Jodi left to do more veterinary work and some of her errands.  I have another headache, don't know if its from the heat or elevation here.  I took some aspirin and went and laid down.  When I got up I went on the computer in Jemroses office and wrote to David and got to talk to all my children in the States.  So many questions and so many people on at one time it was crazy.
Jodi came back for dinner and then went back to the house she is staying at.  Jemrose had company this evening.  A husband and wife and three cute kids.  I gave them each a color book and crayons to entertain themselves while we visited.  They didn't speak English or not well, but Jemrose understood what they were saying.  These people are so sweet and kind.  I love the Rwandes people.  Today was kind of a relax day for me as I was home most of the day.  So I didn't take pictures
We  said our prayers and went to bed by 9:15pm.  Before I got to go to bed the oldest son had to catch a gecko that scampered into my room.

Faustin is teaching me Rwandes:
I am not spelling this right but it helped me sound the words out:
Azuro dkigiza - Good Night

Rwanda Trip Day 3

This morning I was up at 6:30am and got to see the sunrise while eating my toast and fresh pinapple and cup of tea.
Jodi came at about 10am to pick me up.  She had Carlesa with her, she is the wife of the Dutch Embassy.  She is a really sweet lady.  And I must assume she loves adventure.
I must tell you about the roads here.  They are like going up into the mountains 4wheel driving.  They have thier paved roads and there are a lot of very nice dirt roads, but I starting noticing that Jodi loves taking the short cuts - which are roads with huge holes, sometimes ruts as deep as the tires are.  And sometimes the car is almost on its side... but she assures me, she knows how to drive them.  And I have to say she did too.
She took Carlesa and myself on one of those such roads this morning, I think to see if we were awake and had our energy juices running.  We actually went and picked up a puppy that had been caught running around and Jodi was going to take it to the Sanctuary.  The pastor that was holding it for Jodi was very nice and he was also helping the farming with the Rwandis people and he already had 3 dogs and didn't need another one.
We went out to the Sanctuary with the puppy.  It was along day looking over everything.  When we got there Emey took the puppy and put it into a quanteened pen.

The building in the background is the Office building thour right now it is housing chicks and chickens.  Being outside all day I got my first sunburn, though not bad it reminded me to put my sunblock on. 

So we took a tour of the Animal Sanctuary.  This is her rabbit and guinie pig pens.  Eventually she wants the rabbits to be in the pen that surrounds the little pens, running free.  They have snake wire around this pen to protect the rabbits from snakes.  I must mention - I didn't see any snakes while there.  Thank you Lord.

This is the chicken coop.  It is split into several differnt area's for the differnt ages of chickens.  On the side of the building are outside pens for the chickens to go into.  There is chicken wire in all the windows.

The building on the left is the goat barn and he one on the right is the chicken coop.  Her field is about half of the field area you see behind the barns.

This is the inside of the goat barn.  The open area is for the tree, it has weaver birds living in it.

Me and the Banana plants.  you can see a flower with the banana's growing on it. Jodi has quite a few banana plants.

This is the new well that was dug just before we got there.  It will water the plants and animals quite well.  The people that drilled it said the water was good water.... but I wouldn't try it (its not boiled and filtered).

This is one of the goats Jodi bought last year.  And Jodi brings them fruit scraps and this one sure likes it.

These are her other goats.  These are does.  The building to the right is the milk parlor and feeding area.

This is the new green house.  Jodi wants to grow some more exotic fruits and veg. in here.  This should open up a new market for sales.  This green house is huge.

This is the pinapple field.    We picked 2 pinapples this day.  It is the first harvest off of this field.

So they have water and fresh fruit... Ya!

This is the womens co-op's field of cabbages.  They tilled this field by hand and they carry water from the new well to water the plants.  The field is a bit of a distance from the well.  These are some hard working women.

After the agruiclture tour we went back to the main housing area and there were her two cats resting in the sun.

 Ater this tour we decided to head home.  Carlisa didn't want to leave the puppy, so we took it back to Kigali and she is going to adopt it.  But before we get very far we stop at a little bar type place and have a soda  and get a bottle of water to go.  This place had pool tables and tables and chairs and a counter area to order your drinks.  It sounds like a bar now that I think about it.  We sat outside at a table in the shade and took the puppy with us.  Carlisa bought the drinks and it was a very quenching drink.  Thanks Carlisa!

When we got back to Jemroses house I took a nap and Jodi took Carlisa home. 

We had beans and carrots and potatoes with peanut sauce and rice.  Dinner was cooked by the three girls.  It was very tasty.  I took a shower today, in cold water.  Dont cringe yet.... thier water isn't anything like the NorthWests water temperature.  The water was cool but it sure felt good.  Everyday I did sponge baths and made sure to wash my feet, face, neck and arms.  When I would wash my hair there was so much red dirt in it the whole shower area turned brown. 

Today I saw my first geco, climbing on the wall.  I saw many geco's during my visit.  They never were on the ground and they eat mosqitoes.  Jemrose said when they moved to this house there were no geco's.  So they prayed for them to come....and they came.

                                                                   This is a baby one. 
I also saw a hug cockroach on the wall outside.  I didn't take a picture but it was almost the size of my hand.  Ick!
One side note is that just before sunset we shut all the windows and pull all the curtains.  No mosqitoes get in this way.  I also never did use the bug net... there were no bugs yet!
Bed was sweet tonight.