Umugandu

On the last Saturday of every month, Rwandan’s are supposed to take part in umugandu, a day of community service and cleaning. So today I went with Betsy, Matt, and Caitlin to Nyarambo, a smaller district in the outskirts of Kigali, to meet up with Vincent, Betsy’s Rwandan friend. Vincent brought us back to his neighborhood, a cluster of small houses that sits haphazardly along winding and narrow dirt paths. Armed with machetes, hoes, and shovels, we began to attack the weeds that surrounded Vincent’s home. Of course, within fifteen minutes the entire neighborhood knew that we were in town and everyone came out to get a glimpse of the four “muzungus”. After we had cleared out Vincent’s little back yard, we helped clear some of the paths and drainage ditches and then went next door to a smaller mud-walled house to help clean up the yard. It turns out that the community had built this house for several boys (now 19 years old) who had lost their parents during the genocide….sadly, it’s really not that uncommon in Rwanda to hear of orphans raising other orphans.

After about two hours of work, we headed back to Vincent’s house where we met his four brothers, his aunt, and his nieces. The entire family was so hospitable and warm to the four of us and kept bringing us peanuts and corn. After about twenty minutes, we all headed over to the monthly neighborhood meetings. The meeting was called to brief the neighborhood on the local government’s work and to vote on several vacancies. Watching the meeting unfold was really amazing and inspiring…practically every adult came to the meeting and they were all so clearly dedicated to improving their neighborhood and country. And, when the time came to vote, the community commissioner actually came over and told us to vote as well. It was really an amazing experience to not only observe this unique and quirky little neighborhood but to also really participate in it.

After the meeting, we said goodbye to Vincent and his family and headed back to our guesthouse to grab some food, do a little bit of reading, start some laundry (I’m learning how to do it in a bucket!) and take a much-needed nap. Tomorrow a couple of us are headed out to a lake in the countryside (about an hour and half outside of Kigali) that is supposed to be really beautiful…I can’t wait!

-Luke