Kubaka

During my time in Rwanda, I have had the pleasure of connecting with the organization of my roommates Amir and Anna, called “Miracle Corners of the World” (MCW). This is an international network that empowers youth to become positive agents of change, to improve their lives and contribute to their communities. MCW serves youth through leadership training, community development, oral healthcare, and partner initiative programs.

In Rwanda, MCW has begun building a community center inspired by the ideas of youth throughout the Bugesera District, several kilometers south of the capital city of Kigali. This center will house an ICT center for learning computer skills, a classroom for language instruction, and a preschool, among other facilities.

This project will be particularly important in facilitating Rwanda’s switch from Francophone to Anglophone, which occurred officially only several weeks ago at the end of 2008. In fact, Miracle Corners Rwanda hopes to build the first public library in the entire country, focusing on making English-language books available to the community.

"Kubaka" in Kinyarwanda means "Construction."  This film tells the story of the groundbreaking ceremony for the center, highlighting some of the ways MCW has been working with the community, and celebrating the opportunities for education, networking, and socialization that have been and will be "constructed."

PART 1

PART 2

A lovely evening

Yesterday, in desperate need of exercise, I ran up one of Rwanda's "thousand hills" after work.  At the top, I enjoyed a dazzling view of Nyamata and the surrounding villages.  Coupled with the sound of my own heavy breathing was the never-ending chorus of children squealing in glee or utter dismay (i've remembered recently that kids rarely fall anywhere on the spectrum of emotions except the absolute extremes).

Later that night, I found myself interrupted at my computer by my landlord Bosco, who showed up at my door with his larger than life, tooth-missing smile, insisting that I join him and his wife for dinner.  Moments later, I found myself at table with the two of them and Amir, laughing our way into the African night and struggling joyously through our language barriers, elated to discover in the immense confusion an almost sacred bond of friendship that truly united our common humanity and reaffirmed my strong belief in Christianity, a religion focusing on the two qualities that made the night transformative: love and community.

Mayange Drought

Ironically, it is raining here in Nyamata as I begin this post.

After a week-long vacation with my brother in Uganda and the Nyungwe rainforest (click on the "Rwanda pictures" window on the right hand side to see a photo album of our travels), I returned to work and caught the feverish energy of the Millennium Village Project office as they scrambled to finish end-of-year reports, and action plans for 2009.  

In the past few days, I produced two videos.  The first is three and a half minutes long and has been successfully posted to YouTube.  This piece was by request of MVP's Evaluation and Documentation Coordinator, Schadrack, who asked me to put together a minute-long video showing effects of a drought that plagued Mayange last year, and presented many challenges to the project's programs.  He wanted something to attach to his annual report e-mail that could tell the story visually, in addition to his written report.

The second video is 13 minutes long and tells the story of the construction and groundbreaking ceremony of Miracle Corners of the World (MCW), the organization for which my roommates Amir and Anna are working.  I have split the video into two parts for YouTube, and the first part has been uploading for over 20 hours now!  The file is only 50 MB, and I am slightly frustrated at my modem's inability to upload files at a reasonable rate.  However, I remain amazed that I can get internet access at all out where I am living.  

More to come soon...