Let the Adventure Begin!

Hey folks:  If you have not heard, we are getting ready to move to Rwanda, Africa.  I have been working in Rwanda since Nov 2010 and will soon to be joined by the rest of the family after checking out a long term consulting job with the Government of Rwanda as an Irrigation Specialist.  I have been in my element helping implement irrigation projects all over the country and Meg will be in hers homeschooling the boys and making this Africa adventure a rich experience for all.  We are looking forward to growing where God is planting us and being used by Him to be a part of what He is doing in the lives of each other and our new Rwandan friends.

Dan with some of the project staff (LtoR); Vincent (GIS),
Maurice (Procurement) and Azene (Ethiopian Consultant)

While Meg and the boys are busy packing up the house for renters, figuring out what to bring with them, and getting Meg's mom moved back to Virginia, I have been settling into my new job in the capital city of Kigali and getting things set up for the family.  Although there is a lot to learn and adjust to, I feel like I am already making a contribution helping the Ministry of Agriculture with its aggressive plans to boost the economic backbone of the country with irrigation projects by utilizing some of the runoff from this mountainous country before it finds its way out of the country and into the Nile.

There is untapped potential around every bend and I am as excited as the settlers of the US west must have been to be part of what will hopefully be responsible development of this country's rich agricultural resources.

Project Management Team attending a planning workshop at Lake Kivu

Rwanda is a small densely populated country in the middle of Africa between Lake Victoria and the Congo.  Most of the people are poor farmers trying to eek out a living on the steep slopes of this "Land of a Thousand Hills."

As you can see in this photo of 2 women preparing a field to expand their sweet potato patch, soil erosion is a serious problem with literally tons of soil being washed into the rivers from heavy tropical rains that fall during 2 rainy seasons a year.  Our project addresses this problem by constructing terraces, which help more water soak into the soil for the crops, and cutoff drains to carry the excess water safely to the streams.

Behind this lady carrying a clay water jar to market you can see one of our project sites where some of this Land Husbandry work is nearly complete.  Trees will be planted on the steeper areas with no terraces, food crops will be grown on the flat part of the terraces, and fodder crops will be grown on the steep banks separating terraces.

Water for irrigating lower parts of the project areas can be diverted from streams similar to the canal shown at the base of this waterfall taking advantage of the topography by designing gravity irrigation systems that do not need pumps which are expensive and difficult to maintain.

For areas where the stream flow is too little, dams like this one will be constructed to store the water that runs off when it rains and used for irrigation during the dry season when the demand for produce is high.

The irrigated area below the dam is also gravity fed through a network of canals and pipes which are managed and maintained by the farmers themselves.








The video below was taken form the top of a recently constructed dam which is still filling in preparation for the dry season starting in June.  The meeting taking place is regarding compensation to a farmer who lost land inundated by the new reservoir.

The video below is the song and dance of a community welcoming project and World Bank staff to the site.

This is one of our project sites where a dam will be constructed.








The video below was taken at one of our dam sites showing a family carrying plantain bananas to the market and a couple of enterprising men working very hard sawing lumber by hand to earn about $2 a day.

In the short time I have been in Rwanda I have traveled all over the country.  Here are some photos collected along the way...

Beautiful people...

Happy friendly people...

It is not all laying around in the grass for the boys here.  There is grass to be cut and carried home to feed the cows, and water to be collected from the spring for Mom.

One of the difficulties is figuring out how to get your goods to market; water jugs tied in a basket with some help from your neighbors, potatoes in a sack on your head, or off to the butcher in Kigali by pickup to fetch a good price for your pigs (home again home again jiggedy-jig).

This fellow decided to use a dug-out canoe to transport his sacks of cassava and arrow root and even a turkey tied in the bow.

Houses are tucked into the hillsides and the zero-grazing policy requires cows to be penned to protect the environment and your neighbors crops.

We will try to add to this blog regularly so you can stay up to date with us.
Bye for now,
Dan