Visit to the Canteen


On the day of my visit to the finished Canteen, it was pouring rain and the cool air was an enormous relief, after having been in the stifling west African heat for the week prior. I was accompanied by my driver, and Delphin Muhizi from the Millennium Villages Project. As I looked out the window at the beautiful scenery, they told me of some of the incredibly positive changes that  President  Kagame has made in the country, apart from the very obvious things, like the shockingly good roads and availability of electricity, water and internet in an increasing number of areas of the country, I was amazed to hear that he had passed a law to outlaw home births and another to require all children to go to school. These are unprecedented laws in Africa. I had not known that I had planned my arrival in Rwanda during the 15th Commemoration of the genocide and also easter weekend, so the members of the Health Workers Cooperative had come in just to welcome me and to proudly show me what they had created. I met first with the president of the cooperative, who outlined the structure, accomplishments and goals of teh Canteen. Then, I met with all the members of the Canteen council, who offered me tea and beignets that are items sold at the Canteen and honored me with a beautiful gift, a basket woven by a woman at the local basket weaving cooperative. I had the opportunity to ask them questions about how the Canteen was serving the community and what benefit it had for them, as well as what their jobs entail. This group is the first group in the country that have been trained to administer a new malaria test that is eventually going to be used.

Next, we met with the group of women that are part of the upcoming Pig cooperative. They apologized for not singing for me, in welcome, as is customary, but that they were not supposed to sing during this week of mourning. I felt a little bad that I had been the cause of bringing them out on that day from their homes, but also happy to be able to tell them that the foundation could offer them a loan to implement their plan and that did make them  smile, changing the whole mood in the room for the rest of our meeting. Each one of these women had something to mourn, whether it be the loss of a spouse, parents, siblings, children, injury either physical or mental to themselves, but surely haunting memories. These women told me that they first realized that being together as a group made them feel stronger, as they could share their feelings, experiences, and problems with others and found they were not alone. They also said that they felt empowered by the idea that they could make some good money for themselves, their families and their group and make improvements in the lives of those around them. One really could not help but be inspired by the strength of these women. They are a reminder that life goes on and you must make the best of it.

Throughout my stay, my driver, Jean Marie, honored me by sharing with me many of his memories and experiences during the genocide and those of people that he knew. He is very knowledgeable about the history of his country and wanted to make sure I understood very well what had happened there. It was not easy to listen to, although I had heard about the atrocities that had occurred there, I it was more difficult hearing them from a survivor and knowing that the man sitting next to me was speaking about his own famiy and friends and neighbors. The local newspaper was filled each day with survivor stories and on television was shown the buriels happening throughout the country during the memorial week, from the mass graves where many bodies were laid originally, due to a shortage of grave space and identity issues.  There was slogan used during the commemoration, "Never Forget."
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