General Update

I guess it's been over a week. My, how time flies in developing countries...

Last Wednesday I went to Butare, in the Southern Province of Rwanda, to help Tom (a volunteer British man here for three years) catalog some small, rural micro-enterprises that FHI is supporting and sponsoring through PPPMER (Projet pour la Promotion des Petites et Micro-Entreprises Rurales, or for you non-french 3ers, Rural Small and Micro-enterprise Promotion Project). We spent one night and a day and a half in Butare and the surrounding countryside, trying to hunt down a comprehensive list of the businesses registered with PPPMER in the districts that we're working in. We want this list in order to better assist in the marketing of their products and/or services, as most of them, as the project name would imply, are very small and in rural areas where networking and distribution is a logistical nightmare (Matt, there is probably a job for you here if nothing works out in the big-D. Linsday too; PLENTY of babies being born). This experience proved to be a very good lesson in the difficulty of obtaining essential information in Rwanda. After much uncertainty and vague directional prodding for nearly a day, we finally discovered that a list existed, but that it could not be accessed because it is, ironically, in Microsoft Access format which for some reason would not open on the computer the list is in.

We did, however, get to interview a few cooperatives of beekeepers that we're working with, to learn about their productivity and the problems they face. We met them at a workshop being conducted in association with PPPMER where they were learning how to increase their production of honey through better hive construction, increased use of fertilizer for plants to be pollinated, more efficient ways of harvesting the honey, etc. It was very interesting. The businesses are formed through Cooperatives: groups of people in the same trade who pool their resources in order to increase efficiency, productivity, and investment possibilities.

Back in Kigali on Thursday night, we found out that Friday would be a national holiday in celebration of the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. So that was pretty interesting. There is around a 5% Muslim population in Rwanda, which I didn't think merited a Government-endorsed nationwide early weekend, but obviously I didn't complain too much. It was a nice, unexpected free day, full of reading, Facebooking, hanging out with fun people, market-shopping and eating Brouchettes (Skewers of delicious goat meat for about $0.50). Great combo.

It turns out that I'll be helping Tom a bit more intensely with the development of marketing for these PPPMER businesses. It should be fun and interesting. I'll try to post a more in-depth synopsis of what we're doing, maybe prompting someone to give advice or ideas ;).

I've also been learning some Kinyarwanda. I know how to say about three phrases: Mwiriwe (Good afternoon), Murakoze (Thank you), and Umuhungu arahinga (The boy is hoeing). Just enough to get my point across in most situations.