Author: borderjumpers

This is the second in the four-part series on my visit to Heifer International projects in Gicumbi District in Rwanda. Crossposted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet blog.

Holindintwali Cyprien is a 40-year old farmer and livestock keeper in Gicumbi District, outside of Kigali in Rwanda. But he hasn’t always been a farmer. After the genocide in the 1990s, he and his wife, Mukaremera Donatilla, 40, were school teachers, making a about $USD 50.00 monthly. Living in a small house constructed of mud, without electricity or running water, they were saving to buy a cow to help increase their income. And when Heifer International started working in Rwanda almost a decade ago, Cyprien and Donatilla were chosen as one of the first 93 farmers in the country to be Heifer beneficiaries. Along with the gift of a cow, the family also received training and support from Heifer project coordinators.

Today, they’ve used their gift to not only increase their monthly income–they now make anywhere from $USD 300-600 per month–but also improved the family’s living conditions and nutrition. In addition to growing elephant grass and other fodder–one of Heifer’s requirements for receiving animals–for the 5 cows they currently own, Cyprien and Donatilla are also growing vegetables and keeping chickens. They’ve built a brick house and have electricity and are earning income by renting their other house.

Although Heifer trained them how to collect water with very simple technologies using plastic bags, Cyprien took the training a few steps further and installed his own concrete tank. In addition, Cyprien has enough money to invest in terracing his garden to prevent erosion, a necessary farming practice in this very hilly area.

And today, Cyprien is going back to his roots and making plans to teach again–this time to other farmers. He wants, he says, “the wider community to benefit from his experience.”

Ready for a math nightmare — every US Dollar is 1,800 Ugandan Shillings! Here’s a test for you: if  something costs 51,450 shillings — what is that in US dollars? (No cheating with a calculator…)

Aside from mental mathematics, Uganda is much more affordable than the other countries in East Africa. With the exception of taxis (petrol is a fortune for drivers), everything here is a bit less expensive than Uganda’s neighbors: Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya. That’s of course if you don’t go Gorilla Tracking (at least $USD200 per person) or whitewater rafting at the source of the Nile ($USD125 per person). Looks like our schedule will prevent us from the first and bad weather kept us from the latter.  But we love this country so much we have no doubt we’ll be back sometime in the future and we’ll try to do both!

People here are also very laid back — I’ve even gone three days without a cup of coffee here and didn’t seem to mind.

You hear the words “Hakuna Matata” everywhere. Literally.

Internet services down nationwide all day? Hakuna Matata…

Flights cancelled? Hakuna Matata…

Two hours in wall-to-wall rush hours in Kampala? Hakuna Matata…

I am just trying to let go and not be that stereotypical American traveler who can’t go with the flow….(and sometimes failing miserably at it)…

We like the money here, no former or current presidents or war generals, just birds and mammals on the bills. And they are all different colors–very pretty.

We also tried the local beer — called Club — which reminded me of Budweiser (no offense to  to Dani’s home state of Missouri).They have a darker local beer aptly called “Nile” which we will try before leaving. Oh, and for some reason Smirnoff is not only the vodka of choice — but those little Smirnoff Ice wine coolers are ubiquitous in local hands…

I can’t complain about the toilets (mostly clean, toilet seats almost everywhere in Kampala, but almost nowhere outside the city) — mostly because Uganda offered me my first hot shower since landing in Ethiopia!

Follow us as we visit toilets, drink beer, and spend money across East Africa ;-). Check out Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

This is the first in a four-part series on our visits to farmers working with Heifer International in Gicumbi District, Rwanda. Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute Nourishing the Planet blog.

Recovery is a word you hear a lot in Rwanda. From public service announcements on television to billboards—it’s the motto for a place that just 15 years ago was literally torn apart by genocide. More than 250,000 were murdered in 1994 as ethnic strife turned neighbor against neighbor in one of the bloodiest civil wars in African history.

Recovery—and healing—are also things I heard a lot about during my visit with Heifer International Rwanda. “Heifer is helping a recovery process,” explained Dr. Dennis Karamuzi, a veterinarian and the Programs Manager for Heifer. Heifer started its projects in Rwanda in 2000 in a community in Gicumbi District, about an hour outside of Kigali, the capital. This community was especially hard hit by the genocide because it’s close to the border with Uganda. Residents who weren’t killed fled to Kigali for safety.

In the years following the genocide, Gicumbi District is making a comeback thanks, in part, to Heifer International. Heifer International works with farmers all over the world, helping them develop sustainable agriculture practices, including providing livestock and training farmers how raise them.

Heifer began working in Rwanda in 2000, but their start was a little rocky. At first the community was suspicious of the group- because they were giving farmers “very expensive cows,” says Holimdintwoli Cyprien, one of the farmers trained by Heifer to raise dairy cows; they didn’t understand how the group could just give them away. Many community members thought that it was a plot by the government to have them raise livestock and then take them away, a remnant of the ethnic rivalry between the Hutus and Tutsis that started the conflict there in the 1990s. And Heifer has certain conditions for receiving cows- including that farmers build a pen and dedicate part of their land to growing pasture- which made people skeptical, especially when they were used to letting animals roam freely to graze on grass. But as people began seeing the results of Heifer’s training, they become less suspicious and more interested in working with the group.

Heifer introduced a South African dairy breed, known for its high milk production, because, according to Dr. Karamuzi, “no stock of good [dairy cow] genes”; was left in the country after the genocide. And he says that these animals help prove “that even poor farmers can take care of high producing cows.”

And these animals don’t only provide milk—which can be an important source of protein for the hungry—and income to families. They also provide manure, which provides not only fertilizer for crops, but also is now helping provide biogas for cooking to households raising cows in the country as part of a the National Biogas Program.

Stay tuned for blogs about our visits with three farmers who received cows from Heifer International.