This is Africa...

The past week did not go on as planned. We had planned to do a joint initiative with an employee of the Rwanda Cinema Center, the organization that we borrow films from. The guy is very interested in the Batwa minority and their culture. The Mobile Cinema wanted to do a screening in a Batwa community since the group is impoverished. We therefore decided to join our efforts and set up a movie night and a small film initiative were the people themselves would be invited to make simple short films. However, the day before our planned departure we got to know that the Batwa community we wanted to visit had been moved. This was of course sad news for us and our planned schedule, but the saddest part of the story is that it illustrates well how deprived the Batwa people in Rwanda are. They have been forced out of the forest and now they are being moved around the country.

Peace Corps volunteers have showed a great interest in our project and invited us to villages all over Rwanda. Because of a full schedule we have had to turn some of the offers down. The recent cancellation gave us the opportunity to visit a Peace Corps volunteer and his village located 45 minutes south of Kigali, and do our first real outdoor screening. Just a few raindrops came down, we were quite lucky in other words. The following planned screening that week also had to be cancelled because our contact person could not get a hold of the district officer and therefore could not arrange a permit (we always need a permit from the local office in each village to do our screening). The officer in charge had left the village and could not be reached by phone. Another silly cancellation. We did not manage to find a replacement for this screening, we therefore ended up going back to our house in Gitarama, and we also decided to leave earlier to the next planned site; the Banda Village in the Nyungwe forest.

Banda is the most remote village we have visited so far. There is no electricity and running water, and the village just recently received cell phone coverage. Moreover, there are no cars either, only two motorcycles in a village of 6000 people. With this pre-knowledge about the Banda community we were quite excited to visit the village with our mobile cinema. Naturally, we were also a bit curious to how it would be to stay in such a place, and we prepared for a few days of simple living. After 3 ½ hours in a bus we were put off in the middle of the forest. Two of us continued the journey on motorcycles while the rest went by foot. The ride/walk down to the village was amazing; high mountains, hills, the rain forest and local people carrying goods up and down the mountain side. At the foot of the mountain we were in the most authentic, rural village none of us had ever been in. The village has a center with small shops and an open space for market days when people in the village come to sell some of their crops. Houses and fields are scattered around the center and everything is connected by small paths and some larger dirt roads. Most of the people in the village are poor farmers, but they still take pride in their community and their houses, which makes the village beautiful in its own unique way.

Two Peace Corps volunteers and a development organization named Kageno are active in Banda. Kageno is trying to develop the village by empowering the people through education and small business initiatives (www.kageno.org). While in the village we got to stay in the Kageno guest house which comes with a cleaning/cooking lady and a battery (charged by power from a nearby waterfall) powering light bulbs. Our stay in Banda therefore ended up surprisingly comfortable. The two Peace Corps volunteers, a married couple fro, Arizona, took well care of us and the villagers were friendly and open, so we really had an amazing time in Banda village.

After a few days of enjoying we were excited about giving something back to the people. Because of lack electricity we would power our equipment with the barbers’ generator. We set up our equipment in the community building (built by Kageno), turned on the generator and were ready to start the show. But instead of the movie starting smoke came out of the DVD player. Out of fear of completely ruining our equipment with the generator we decided not to continue trying. To make up for the failed movie night we invited everyone for a dance party. We were all disappointed, but the party was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy.

By the way, we have been able to test our equipment with normal electricity and it luckily works, the Mobile Cinema can therefore keep on rolling. From Banda we hitch hiked on to Nkanka, a village close to Cyangugu and Lake Kivu. On our way we made a one day stop in the city where we enjoyed the view of the lake as well as the Congolese city of Bukavu. The boarder with Congo is simply a tiny bridge over the lake. Congolese and Rwandese people cross the bridge all day long, moving goods (including completely white eggs) from one country to the other. In the next English update you will hear more about our stay in Nkanka and some other upcoming visits.