Day 1 of Batwa Visits

6/9/15

Day 1

These last two days have been spent visiting the Batwa. The drive from Kigali back over the border into western Uganda has beauty that never ceases to amaze. In contrast to the hectic Ugandan streets with cars, trucks and motorcycles vying for space with no regard to laws or rules, the roads in Rwanda are well kept and road rules are followed. The road winds through hilly green farms growing corn, tea, and more. It is peaceful and incredibly beautiful.

After going through the new and improved system for border crossing, which is done on foot, we met with our partners from the African International Christian Ministry, with whom we work on the Batwa Development Project. We continued up into the mountains on the road that is always either dusty or muddy and a bit treacherous either way. This day there was no rain, so it was dusty. The views on this drive are breath taking. There is food growing as far as the eye can see on hills and terraced mountains speckled with houses and people working. You will see even very small children of 4 or 5 walking down the hill with bundles of sticks on their heads. It was a national holiday in Uganda, so the children were not in school and they were everywhere.

We visited 4 groups, each one welcoming us with song and dance, which is always a special treat in visiting the Batwa. They are known for their excellence in drama and song and dance. In dance, one drama group performed for us that had one a region wide competition for their performance about human rights.

The first time I visited the Batwa, they had very little food growing, but I was thrilled to see that through our program, land has been rented and seeds planted and there was sorghum, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables growing everywhere. On our first few visits, there people living in tiny grass huts that were not waterproof and had the kitchens inside. It is wonderful to see houses with steel sheet roofs, outdoor kitchens, drying racks for clean dishes and pots and latrines.

I was very happy to see one Village Savings and Loan group with a 20 year old woman as its chairman! The people seem to be dressed much better and to have better hygiene that before.

There are still many challenges that we are addressing that need solutions. For example, the diet of the Batwa right now is consisting of mostly only vegetables and the children are eating plenty food, but not any protein, so are malnourished. There is a problem with locally brewed “beer” and it there seems to be a lot of alcohol abuse here. The village savings and loans groups have more neighboring Bakiga in them than Batwa, because the Batwa do not see the value in saving. One settlement has lost 4 children in the last month to a severe cough, because they can’t afford to go to the hospital.

The day was very long, but the drive home was rewarding. Driving down the mountain , looking over the hills at the most incredible sunset gave us all renewed energy after a very long day. We came upon a crowd watching a group of men loading huge poles onto a big truck in the dark. It was like an event for the people, as the men sang a chant to keep a rhythm for moving and then lifting the huge poles with no benefit of a crane or any machine. Because our car couldn’t pass until the pole was loaded, our friend/photographer, Rand, entertained a gaggle of kids by making silly faces with his flashlight and his face mashed up against the window.

We didn’t arrive at the hotel until almost 9:00 PM and then there was sleep…

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