it takes a village to see

i woke around 6 am ...we were hoping to leave around 7am. but you know it's africa.. kinda like how people say in hawaii..you are on island time.. well africa has the same thing.. you throw your hands up..smile and say TIA (This is Africa). so we left around 8:30ish.
We took the HDI's van, we had hired a driver who knew the east province (his name meant love), Karl, Bob, Dr Dan, Claude, Olivia, Me, and then randomly another volunteer Phil came along too. Phil has been volunteering with PSA/HDI for a few months, and he will be living in Rwanda for about a year. He is from Canada (the gulf islands..and by the way .. he loves desolation sound as much as i do ;) )..he wants to take professional recordings of the Pygmy music and make a CD, so that PSA can sell it in the states and the pygmies can sell it here and after performances, as a way to get funds for the village.
so we were on our way.. we head out of the city.. and africa appeared. big ol banana trees everywhere.. hut houses constructed out of mud bricks and tree limbs and then plastered. I saw a lot of bicycles too....
before you go to a village, you have to get the blessings of the province (our equivalent is the region), of the district (state), and of the sector (county) and then cell (town) and the village is like your neighborhood. anyway.. well before you go to a village you need permission/blessings from each governance body. Olivia use to work in the east province office, so he went in and let them know of our visit, our plan, and then they blessed us. We were on our way.. to the next office.
After driving a little more.. we ended up going to visit a vocation school, where they are learning how to sew, make baskets, etc. Interesting thing though.. learning how to sew.. but no thread nor cloth.. so how do you learn? ...well we brought them some supplies, and asked them to make us bags for Coffee Rwanda.. we will pay them when we pick them up next week.
When i got to the school and stepped out of the van, i had my camera around my neck.. and these kids just flocked to me and asked me to take their pictures..they were posing for me.. grabbing other kids, asking for them to be in the picture. ADORABLE. They had a gift shop of sorts, I bought a traditional Rwanda basket thing and a wall art woven thing.. i like it.
After that, we went driving.. looking at the country side.. hills.hills hills.. people.. hills.. banana trees.. you know.. seeing rwanda..
before we went to the village.. we had to eat lunch.. we pulled over at this one place.. and all of a sudden we were surrounded by people.. so we packed up and left to a quieter spot. we got out and Bob made us cheese sandwiches and bananas and water. I took my camera out again and started taking pictures. of course there were still people around us.. but just not as many. maybe only like 30 people. I met a bunch of interesting people. They look at you so inquisitively that i have no real words to say to them. I look at them silently and with full of smiles. They laugh and smile back. lunch was over. we headed back in the van and headed to my first pygmy village.
We drive through dirt roads, pass this school and with out real boarders between the surrounding village and the pygmy village ...we were here.
you notice first of all.. the people either have no shoes, or old worn out shoes. Their clothes are torn and raggedy. I personally can't tell pygmies apart from the other members of the surrounding village. I guess to me, they don't seem short at all. They seem like regular people. I honestly can't tell a difference. I looked. I was studying facial features, size, etc.. they guys are like 5'5" or so..and the females are a little shorter then me. or a little taller. The biggest difference is that the people are what the global community calls the ultra poor. poor is like living off of $2 a day .. the ultra poor is like living off of less then 50 cents per day (and that might even be a stretch for these people).
Karl is wonderful man. we got there and he asked for all pygmy leaders to come and meet. He asked them what was their biggest problems, and what are their resources. This of course was translated by Claude/Olivia..
the problems of this village is the lack of:
-housing
-land
-medical insurance
their strengths/resources are:
-energy
-will
-intellect
:)
so PSA/HDI's role then becomes to be the bridge to be able to help them solve their own problems. We provide some know how to accomplish their goals.
I love how Karl operates with the Pygmies. He is full of respect, honor, and dignity to the people.
So after our initial meeting, we went to the school and started taking a base line assessment as well as taking their pictures, administering the de-worming medicine, and providing shoes.
I took the pictures (these will be used for the medical insurance cards). Claude/Olivia/Phil took their names, weight, and height. Karl and Dan gave medical care, and assessed the kids that needed the peanut butter/wheat medicine to combat malnutrition, and Bob gave the kids shoes.
After we were done with our supplies, Karl had me leave the school.. he told me, see if i can get the kids to move away from the door way.. Well obviously that wasn't a problem. I walked out the door, and the kids just followed me. Curious about me. Before i knew it, i was surrounded by about 100 kids with some adults. I was in the center. What do i do? What do i say? everything seemed so trivial to say. I racked my brain for possibilities.. and i ended up thinking about numbers.. so let's count. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15.. 30.. the kids immediately joined after one. they can count. :) and they do so smiling. okay 30.. well that took about a minute. now what? hmm the alphabet? i saw bob do this at the vocational school earlier.. so why not.. so we started the alphabet. A B C D E F G H I J K...Z.. the kids were smiling so bright.. okay another minute or two passed. now what? hmm.. what do you say to a group of kids surrounding you. what do you do? hmm.. for me. i danced. and they started singing. singing. all of them.. the parents.. the kids.. a huge choir.. and i was in the center listening to it. I loved it. trying to dance a bit. i got a video of some of it. amazing. :) happy soul. after that ended.. Bob came up and joined me in the middle.. and we sang to them (yes i sang.. poor poor children having to endure that) we sang twinkle twinkle little star.. they laughed and smiled. they liked it. i wish i had some of my singing friends with me.. they would have loved to be entertained properly.
hmm anyway.. that was truly special. to be surrounded by humanity. sharing. loving. laughing. smiling. that was surreal.
hmmmm... well I am still wondering what do you do/say to humanity when you have so many ears and eyes on you.

for now.. i think smiling. dancing. high fives. counting. laughing.

I feel extremely grateful for humanity.

Love you. lots!
Lizzie