good morning!

Hello!
So yesterday was great.. we woke up.. had avocados omelettes and coffee and then headed out to Bwiza. Karl and Olivia went to get the manure with the bwiza men, and i hung out with the woman that were around. i got more stories from them, took more pictures, of their houses, inside/outside, of the land, the kids etc. fun day.
I got a simple cold though. picked it up. so i passed out early last night like around 7pm and woke up around 6am. i needed the sleep. i feel better today. i also have medicine to stop my dripping nose. I am taking care of my self.. lots of apple juice, water, and sleep.
so today is bob's last day. he leaves at 9pm tonight. He is a professor at UW teaching IT/web stuff.. and he needs to get back to his classes. So today we will go be tourists. We are going to go to the us embassy and to the genocide memorial. we don't have a meeting at the us embassy but i just want to go and check it out as a citizen. see how they spend our money overseas :).. we are going to meet with some people from the us embassy/us aid on saturday night for a fancy dinner thing. i am making a presentation with pictures of the villages, their problems and resources and talk about how we can all work together to be the bridge for these people. and talk about how the most marginalized, poorest people are becoming invisible to aid. I will make the presentation probably later tonight and bring it on saturday just in case we have time to show them. Karl will actually do the presentation. I also want to know what america is doing to help get the kids in schools. i want to ask a lot of questions. i want to know what they are really doing. yes i want to put them through a lizzie audit. so who knows how that dinner will go. and if it will even be a chance to talk/discuss. i have no idea what to expect. or who will even be there. the most important thing though is that Karl discusses the pygmies in one way or another. And i know he will. hmm.. what else. i feel a lot better. i mean i am forever changed. but i feel good. like my heart expanded and i have more room in there now. it feels good.
Okay .. i got to get up out of bed and go do. :)

I LOVE YOU!!!

Lizzie

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where do i even begin... . .. .. .. .. ............

well first of all.. i realize that most of the blogs here need serious editing.. so i apologize to all my readers. most of the blogs were written in about 10 min. So i just had to write as fast as i could and just get the point across.. you know that i was alive.. doing well.. and explain something about my day. so thank you all for being patient with me and my grammar and bad spelling. Thank you :)
so let's just recap.. i leave seattle on saturday the 18th.. fly all day and night and day and night and arrive in rwanda around 1am on Monday the 20th morning. i go to a hotel and pass out.. wake up.. go to HDI.. hang out figure out some stuff.. pass out .. tuesday.. wake up go to HDI, then we go to a high school that has an after school club on sex/HIV/AIDS education. Tuesday night Karl and Bob arrive.. we go out to dinner..get them caught up.. and pass out.. Wednesday we wake up.. go around the morning get our house stuff figured out..and then make a plan for while we are here.. and make a shopping list.. we buy some supplies. Thursday we wake up..we go out to the market.. buy items for the trips to the villages..make medicine balls.. and then pass out. Friday we wake up early and head to the east proviane. We meet with the officials.. get blessings.. we go to the vocational school for some pygmies and other locals. and then we head to the pygmy village. Karl has only been to this village once before.. we talked to the village council, we did a needs assessment, took names, height, weight, picture of the children (so we can get them health insurance cards), gave all of them de-worming medicine, gave out protein supplements (the medicine..we called it medicine so that the men wouldn't eat the pills-peanut butter/wheat and we gave them to the mothers so that they would actually be given to the children), and gave out shoes. after done with that part the kids crowded around me, we counted, we sang the alphabet, i danced, they sang, we sang, we cheered. then came home and passed out for realz.. saturday.. it was rwanda's monthly day of volunteering.. so everything was closed.. we walked to a hotel, edited some pictures, played on the internet..got more supplies made a plan for the rest of the weekend.. and then later that night we met with Cedy, one of the national leaders/advocates for LGBTQI that also works with HDI (Aflodis) for their HIV/AIDS Human Rights programs. I got tired at 10:15 on a saturday night.. and went home and.. what.. passed out. :) Sunday.. i went to bwiza.. the village that PSA primarily works with. With our partnership with HDI we have weekly activities with Bwiza for the last 3 years. This constant support has made huge impacts. I will get into that on another post.. but basically when Karl first went there, people were dying from treatable causes, like malnutrition, etc. today.. they are not. and by no way.. am i saying that we have successfully treated the need for adequate food supply (hence the need for terraces). but you can drastically see the difference between Bwiza and the other pygmy villages of Rwanda. So Bwiza on Sunday.. we go .. get a tour see the village, the well, meet the people, i meet with the women, hear some stories/lullabies, i record them, then they sing and dance, we play. the kids surround me and my camera.. they are the best little models.. they want all your attention and almost demand photos be taken.. it is actually really cute and sweet how they do it. But total models :) then we have a meeting and we head back to the city. we stop and eat at a chinese restaurant, and guess what.. i HAVE TOFU :) YUM YUM YUM for my TUM TUM TUMMY :) Ohh i was so happy.. veggie egg roles and tofu and veggies and rice and noodles.. it was delicious. so then monday.. this day .. changed my life forever.
Monday monday monday..... . . .
we left to head up north.. to the volcano national park.. you may have heard of this park.. it has gorillas there.... one of the reasons rwanda is now a tourist spot in this world. yeah cause of the gorillas.. and to have a park you need a fence..this then allows to segregate the gorilla sanctuary from non sanctuary... ..
So we drive north..
Karl, Bob, Dan, Olivia, Claude, the driver, and me. I am the only female in our group. (Olivia is a guy). It is like a 3 hour drive to get there.. up mountains, and through the woods :) so we drive.. and drive.. the car overheats twice. .we add water.. wait. meet the locals.. some dudes offer me banana beer and are kinda obnoxious but funny.. the car is fine we drive some more.. some paved roads.. some dirt roads..but red dust is everywhere. this red dust is africa...i am sure. anyway.. we are on this dirt road heading up the volcano.. and we stop. we all get out.. which is then met by about 100 locals. no matter where we stop we are surrounded. i am not use to this at all.. and still shocks me a bit. anyway.. we look.. it is a ditch cutting down the middle of the road. about 3 feet deep and about 8 feet wide. maybe.. but anyway.. there is a make shift bridge made out of bamboo and mud .. all of a sudden.. the guys of the village decide to start hauling over rocks..like huge boulders.. and they start making a rock bridge.. sorta next to the bamboo one. interesting.. by this time the kids start surrounding me, and i am hanging out with them.. saying hello or amakuru etc.. and then all of a sudden i hear this motor going. .it is our vehicle.. the driver decided to get in and gun it. the rock bridge was barely built..and he went for it.. and with some miracle.. made it across. no problem. insane style.
so we got back in.. and headed up the volcano. we got to this town.. but really the buildings were all dilapidated..looked like a ghost town with people actually living in there. we get out..and again surrounded by the town.. the problem.. this is not the pygmy village.. we have to walk now up the mountain to their homes.. and of course.. we can't go alone.. we have seriously almost 200 people surrounding us and following us.. ohh by the way.. we also picked up the government officials so they are with us.. i think they were on the cell level.. maybe the sector as well. not sure. but so we walk up the mountain.. and come across beautiful farm land.. it is lush land... and all of a sudden these "houses" pop out in these weird intersections of farm land. It is not far down the mountain from the sanctuary .. you can see where the forest ends.. and the farms begin.. you can look up and see the divide clearly. We came up to the village, and Olivia and Claude talk to this village, they introduce Karl, Bob and I, but we don't talk at all. They know the routine..
Their major problems:
-Land (they only squat on the land patches, but do not own any of it)
-Houses
-House stuff (Stuff inside their houses)

Their strengths/resources:
-Energy
-Unity
-Hospitality

I love these people... okay anyway.. we have them all go to their "houses", and group off into families.. We take height/weight measurements of all the kids, we give out shoes, we give each person de-worming medicine and Vitamin A (we finally found a pharmacia that had vitamin A)..and then I took their family pictures. I may never post these photos. I need to think about this for a second.. anyway.. we went to all the houses.. about 10, with a total population of around 40 or so.. i never did count at the end.. and why we are doing this work.. the village that followed us, are all around us..they would ask for money for school (you have to pay for school here, pay for the uniform and books.. it is relatively very expensive and most families can't afford it), or money in general. Dr Dan and the gov official got a stick and told the kids to back away.. Dr Dan later went around to the kids and gave them all deworming medicine and Vitamin A. The worms are so bad here that when the all the kids played they said that the worms would sometimes come out. they are not hungry though or malnourished, at least the pygmy kids we saw, because they work on the farms, and the farmers give them food in return and some small area of land for their "houses".
we left there.. and headed back down.. the kids from the regular village kept following me.. asking me for all sorts of things.. it is hard. It is hard to tell a kid you don't have money for them to go to school, even if its just non verbal communication.
we left.. we started driving and then stopped. we decided to buy beans up here for bwiza to save money. bwiza finished the terraces but needs to plant the seeds now.. and so they will plant beans. ..anyway.. we stop and get beans.. i stay in side the van.. but of course.. the van get surrounded by people.. by kids.. by teenagers. etc. we get the beans and we leave..
we head home.. i take a shower.. and go to my room.. and fall asleep crying.. i wake up today.. and karl knows that yesterday was rough for me.. and he hands me cup of coffee (just the way i like it) and he asks me how i am doing. i immediately start crying again. Karl and Bob come over and comfort me, like older brothers. Karl tells me it is normal to be overloaded. and he told me the first time he left that village he had the worst stomach ache. it is interesting what happens to the body when you are emotionally full/overloaded. so after i drank my coffee.. karl gave me a science experiment to make me happy. test the phosphorous and nitrogen levels of the soil samples from bwiza. it worked.. it made me really happy.
Karls friend eddie who use to work with us in Bwiza returned over the weekend. He is going to help out in Bwiza with us .. and he also just so happens to own a bed and breakfast. we moved in today.. and i LOVE IT!!! and guess what color the house is painted? my favorite leaf color yellow/orange. this place is leap years ahead of our other house. and it has internet!! WOOHOO!!! among other essential things like no bugs and constant water :)
so after we moved in .. we went for lunch and then headed to bwiza.. it rained as soon as we got there.. like heavy rain.. like rain that bounces when it hits the dirt. man did it feel amazing. we were the governments building when it started.. and so we decided to have all of bwiza come there to meet. we had to figure out how to pass out the beans and to make sure people would work with planting the beans and the share the crop. the village has strong leadership skills now, and they found appropriate solutions. karl would like to bring the leaders from the other villages to bwiza to learn leadership from them. but that is in the future.. olivia brought his computer and we showed them pictures from the other villages, some of the people they recognized. Sometimes i am so darn happy i brought my camera on this trip.. and this moment was one of them.
so after the meeting, we go with the government official and go look at the manure as a fertilizer for the crops.. i mean actually look at big old piles of manure..they also wanted to sell us old manure that was old.. like 2 years old.. karl picks it up and says this is now soil.. not manure or fertilizer.. weeds are growing in this .... so he starts digging around in the manure.. and which point.. i leave and head back to the car laughing at what a crazy fun loving man he is. when he gets back to the car i immediately give him antibacterial wipes thanks to bobs suggestion.. a bunch of them. but he got us a deal and the good stuff.. so we pick it up tomorrow.. and start putting it down on the terraces..
before we got home tonight.. we had to stop by the store.. i was beat so i stayed in the car.. karl gets back into the car and hands me a gift.. coffee icecream. we get home, unpack, and eat a delicious cup of icecream. the most perfect icecream for the moment.



my favorite quote is:
""one's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions" Oliver W. Holmes"

i think it really should read:
"One's heart, once stretched by someone, never regains its original dimensions" Elizabeth M Scallon




okay.. well now i am officially beat..

Good night.
I LOVE YOU!
Lizzie





and ps.. i just have to let everyone know at my work.. that i miss them. out of everyone i know.. i dream the most about you guys while in africa. i spend probably the most time with you guys then anyone else so i think it is natural..or i hope so at least. i have had long convos with marty..patty.. aaron, marybeth, andrea, shoot the entire group. it is comforting anyway....so um.. hi .....and i miss you guys. :)

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my family told me there would be days like this......

...Where I would see/feel/do/experience/be, and that at the end of it, you just feel emotionally full. They told me this is normal. I take solace in their words.

I can honestly say...I have seen some stuff now.

On Sunday we went to Bwiza. We were going to go on Saturday, but Rwanda has once a month mandatory community service day, and it was on Saturday. This is where everyone in the community gets together and they do local projects (mostly involves cleaning). Kinda cool. :)

Bwiza is the village that Karl (PSA) and HDI has been working with for over three years, and these are my perceptions of:

Their Challenges:
-Low Quality Land
-Lack of Proper Housing
-Food

Their Resources/Strengths:
-Being Alive
-Heath
-Happiness

We arrived and they smiled so brightly, clapped, and hugged us like we were all family. The love during the introduction was incredible. I got a quick tour of the village, saw the terraces, the well, met the people, and then started a little side project.
This project involves recording the lullabies that the women sing to the children, as well as the stories they tell (I have a bunch already that I need to get translated). I asked the oldest woman in the village if she remembered the stories or songs her mother told her (she grew up in the jungle). She looked at me laughed and said that her memory is not that good (of course all of this is translated via Olivia).

Okay we are leaving here.. be back on later.

Love you very much and miss you tons!

Lizzie

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Photos and Video

Check this out.. a combination video of yesterday's activities.
Film makers: Bob and Me. ;) Bob combined them and put it on YouTube. He rocks. :)



Or you can watch it here.

And the photos:

You can see the rest  here.


Okay I love you!

:)
L

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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

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