Johnny Umuzungu Does Umuganda

I wanted to mention one more thing about the caves. Last week talked about the bats but there is another side. There is a social aspect to the caves of this region. During the genocide, some caves were used by rebel forces for hiding in. Some caves were used by villagers. There's one cave in particular that a village hid in for two years. The women and children never left, the men snuck out at night for food and didn't always return. Some caves are littered with human remains while others are simply littered. Some are considered to be sacred places. There's a rumor of carvings in one from the last King of Rwanda. The caves are an important piece of the history of the region and tell the story of the human experience as well as the geological past. I wanted to include this information last week but I wasn't quite sure how to put it. In this picture, my job was to block the hole in the net that spanned the entrance. Why do I get all of the weird jobs?

Umuganda is a national work day. On the last Saturday of each month, people are to return to their home village or community and work. The task will be determined by community leaders. It might be picking up trash or it might be sweeping the streets. The November Umuganda was planting trees. The night before, I was at the Murabura hotel for dinner. The crew there all know me well by now. We were talking about Umuganda and I asked them what they would be doing. They said that they would be along the road near the border with Uganda towards Kisoro planting trees. I said "sounds like fun, I think that I will join you."

They all erupted with laughter at the thought of some Umuzungu doing manual labor. I reminded them that I am not just some Umuzungu, I am Johnny Umuzungu. I told them about planting trees with the 4-H club back in Ohio, working for Pancake's Nursery and planting thousands of Christmas trees one summer just outside of Rogers. They didn't believe me. The next morning, bright and early, I piled into the bus with over a dozen employees of the hotel and we headed out.

Being the only Umuzungu working, I attracted quite a crowd. It was a lot of fun and I met Dean, the Dean of travel. He snapped these pictures. He is a professional traveler/photo journalist. He is currently working with a local conservation and research group and just happened to be on the road that day. Dean is originally from Nebraska and worked for Pfizer so we have had many interesting conversations since then.

The guy that I am talking to is Justice. He lives in Uganda and commutes. He lives with his 65 year old mother and 2 nephews, one 7 and one 3. The nephews were orphaned when his sister and her husband died in a bus crash. The rest of his family (dad, 3 brothers and 2 sisters) were killed during the genocide. The guy in the picture with me swinging the pick is Pacifique. He is the guy I mentioned a few weeks ago with the full ride scholarship to the National University at Butari. He starts on January 5th.

The kids were just from the neighborhood and wanted to talk to the Umuzungu. It was a really fun day and we planted a bunch of trees. I don't know what kind they were, other than the fact that they were native trees. I will be learning the trees as we develop plans for Gishwati where reforestation will be an area of emphasis.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Johnny Umuzungu