East and West

Rwanda is a great place to visit! We are having a lot of fun with our mobile cinema, which has taken us to many beautiful places. It has also brought us in contact with numerous interesting people, both Rwandese and foreigners. Last week we visited a vocational centre (a school where youth can learn a craft, mainly mechanics and tailoring) in the east of the country. The centre is beautifully placed in a small village in between banana trees and fields of crops, and it is also close to Lake Muhazi. The staff and students at the school took well care of us. They donated the kindergarten to our use, prepared food for us, came with us for a hike and went out to eat with us. In the evening of the day after our arrival we set up the cinema in the mechanics hall, and students, teachers and neighbors came to watch. The atmosphere was good and the number of people relatively high despite the pouring rain.

After a few days of rest and re-packing in Gitarama we headed west towards Lake Kivu and an orphanage close to Kibuye. From Kibuye we rented a bus which drove us up the hills on a dirt road following the lake. The view was stunning, while the same cannot be said about the comfort. An hour and a half, and five soar buts later we reached our goal. We understood quite fast that we had not come to an average Rwandese orphanage. At first glance it looked clean, organized and colorful. The orphanage L’Esperance is run by a creative Guatemalan guy and hosts at the moment 127 children, from newborn babies to older youth. Most of the children have lost their parents to the AIDS epidemic and to malaria. Some women also die when giving birth, and some of the older children are victims of the genocide. Volunteers from all over the world (NASA, Engineers without Boarders just to name a few) have contributed in making the orphanage high-tech (internet access, low consuming stoves etc.), sanitary (water purification system) and nice looking (colorful buildings, playgrounds).

The orphanage overlooks Lake Kivu and the Congolese city of Goma is visible of the other side. In the evening it is even possible too see the Nyiaragongo volcano in action. We ate all our meals outdoor overlooking this landscape - magical. Apart from eating and drinking well we had the opportunity to go hiking, swim in the lake, play with the children and learn more about the orphanage and the people there. Some of us even managed to spot a colony of monkeys. Of course, in between all this fun we also had to do our cinema thing. We set up two movie evenings in the orphanage. The first one for staff and children, and for the second one neighbors were invited as well. We also decided to do a third screening in a neighboring village. Most people are very happy to see films in their own language concerning social topics they can relate to. The movies we have on HIV-AIDS are particularly popular.