Raising for Another Hope

Mara muzze everyone,
it is a wonderful morning here in Gisenyi – Rwandas little Nizza at the south of lake Kivu and a stone throw away from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last weekend the Internet connection of the clinic broke down and with it my only web access in the range of a one-hour motorbike trip.
It was surely bad timing with the call for donations just being sent, but it’s amazing that you people helped us anyways!

Thanks to your contribution the children will have enough food for the next three month! Of course we are far from a stable situation and I hope that anyone of you who is considering it will overcome his doubts and help us out.
(here you find a pdf with all neccesary information to make international transactions:
how-to-donate-to-another-hope)

In the orphanage I became friends with Innocence, a 20 years old boy who grew up there after loosing his family in the troublesome Rwandan history. Together we use the free time during the weekends to travel around lake Kivu.
Last Saturday we rented a motorbike and drove southwards, following the invitation of some engineers to visit their project.

After a stopover in Cyangugu -a small city in a triangle between Rwanda, Burundi and the Congo- we drove into the Nyungwe national park. It is one of the oldest jungles in Africa, crawling up a group of high mountain slopes.

Not really aware what was waiting for us we drove as we were directed: “just follow the nicely paved road up to the sign to the Banda primary school, then it’s a small way down the mountain…”

A warning that the “small way” was in reality nothing but a tiny track, going down a steep mountain through a wild tropical forest would probably let us have rented a dirt bike. But so we were driving a street machine down the slippery slopes, thankful that the rain started only after we had reached the village. The weather became so bad that we happily accepted the invitation of staying over night and so I had a lot of time to learn all about the project.
“Kageno” (www.kageno.org) was started by a New Yorker orthodontist with the aim of helping remote living societies in the developing world. His first project in Kenia went quite well with reaching self-sustainability by selling craftworks and so he decided to start something in Rwanda.

Provided with energy by a hydropower station (the project the engineers worked with) they are building a Community Center, a Nursery School and a Clinic. As the remote village lacks opportunities to sell stuff (nobody around to buy it…) they are building a Eco Lounge to gnerate sustainable income and I am quite excited to follow the project over the next years.

The next morning we learned that the other road out of the village got blocked during the storm in the night and that the only chance we have is driving up the exact way we came down yesterday. Adrenalin filled two hours later we arrived the paved road again and it was sheer luck that our front wheel went flat just there and not on our way up! After an hour of driving with a flat tire we reached a village where they repaired the damage and wished us good luck for our 4 hour drive home through the purring tropical rain.

In the clinic I spend most of my time in the pediatric ward and the maternity where I assist women giving birth, either naturally or by cesarean section.

Hygienically the conditions in the hospital are one of the hardest I ever experienced and its not always easy for me to feel myself comfortable working there. Sterility is something quite relative here and I won’t forget the moment when I opened one of the drawers in the OR to find a several days old umbilical cord establishing its own microbiological cosmos in there.

Non the less I really learn a lot and whenever things are going to bad in the hospital I go over to the laboratory and spend my afternoons leaning over a microscope to check some blood smears for malaria.

As it was quite an exhausting week so I wanted to spend a relaxing weekend.
I was also in the urgent need of getting an Internet connection (no one knows when the one in the clinic will be repaired) so I reserved a room in a recommended hotel in Kibuje, the closest (1h) city to the orphanage.

We arrived at a beautiful place and were mentally all prepared to jump in the water – just after the check in – when we were told that our “reservation” was never written down by anyone. Now all the rooms were occupied and there was no place to stay for us. Very frustrated we walked back to the city center (no motorbike taxi available), crossing a small harbor. Here a man walked towards us and asked if we wouldn’t like to come aboard his ship, leaving for Gisenyi that evening.
It was an amazing trip, shipping slowly between the Congo on the left and Rwanda on our right with our load of empty bottles and a goat illuminated by the stars of the Milky Way.
Here in Gisenye we stay in a nice little hotel, situated in an old colonial house constructed by the Germans some 156 years ago. One of the modern hotels directly at the border to the Congo has wireless internet and so I am finally able to write this blogpost, answer the eMails that accumulated during the last week and send my thanks to the donors

(Sonja K. and Johannes K., please send me a mail to hesse.sebastian@gmail.com as I dont have your contact, thanks)

Thank you all very much and with the best wishes to wherever you are
Basi