A lovely story to share

While sitting in a waiting room in a Kigali hospital with one of my children some years ago, a young woman sat down next to me. Of course, I spoke and she answered me in English. Wow, this was great. Her name was Christine and she was a fifth-year medical student. After visiting for some time, we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, promising to keep in touch. This was the beginning of a long-time relationship.

She finished medical school, and I was invited to meet her family and to attend her beautiful wedding. Time passed, and we were a bit out of touch. She let me know when her daughter was born. Contact was lost, and I did not know about the second child.

This September, Dr. Christine brought her children to visit me after the long, quiet time. I was surprised and delighted to see her and her children.

Wouldn’t you know this was the day I did not fix my hair or put on any makeup to enhance me a bit. Oh well, there is love and that is what counts.

When my young man Diescor was ready to go to medical school, we needed help. So I contacted Christine as she had walked this path before. Christine went to her father, and he was instrumental in getting Diescor admitted as a student at Gitwe Hospital. Again time passed.

Now Diescor is in his third year of medical school and is home for a short visit. Always happy to see him although his visits are short.

Dr. Christine and medical student Diescor

Dr. Christine and her two children made their surprise visit the same day Diescor came home. It was the first time Dr. Christine and Diescor had met. God incident to be sure. No other way to explain it. Diescor is seldom home. It was great listening to them compare notes and discuss experiences and in English.

Dr. Christine is now working at our local hospital. Hopefully we will see more of her and the children in the future.

Rock Garden

My rock garden has grown a new word.

As usual, John, Egide and David are hamming it up.

Reunion for best friends

The story:

Edison’s mother works at Urukundo, and Edison has grown up and gone to school with Urukundo kids. It was not a surprise that Edison missed Jacob, his best friend through daycare and preschool at Urukundo Learning Center.

Jacob was moved to a foster family over a year ago. One Sunday morning, Edison asked his mother, “Where is Jacob? I need to see Jacob.” His mom called Olive, our child advocate, telling her that Edison said, “‘If I can't see Jacob, then I will ask NCC to find me a foster family so I can live with Jacob.’” The NCC is the National Commission for Children.

This was a bit funny to adults as Edison has a mom, dad, brother and a great home. It was not funny to Edison. He was serious.

Tresor who just came home from Arizona State University and was very close to Jacob when they both lived at our home. He also wanted to see Jacob, so a surprise trip was arranged.

Benita, who also lived at Urukundo Home, had a history with Jacob. When Benita was 3 years old and had to go visit her grandmother far away, she was told she would come back but had to see her grandmother. She agreed to travel by bus to see her grandmother near the Burundi border. When she stepped out of the bus and saw her grandmother, she looked at her traveling companion and said, “OK, now let's go home. Jacob needs me.”

The impact Jacob had with so many has been felt. So Tresor, Edison and Benita went to spend the afternoon with Jacob. They had a wonderful time together.

Next visit, our maintenance worker Benjamin, who was Jacob's idol, will go to see Jacob. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Jacob’s answer was always the same. “I want to be Benjamin.” No greater love.

Jacob in green and Edison in blue

Benita, Jacob and Edison, who were best friends at Urukundo Home, meet again after being separated for over a year.

Kids are kids. Photos are fun.

Edison and Benita came home to tell me, “Jacob has a tooth problem and needs to come home to get it fixed.”

Tresor and Jacob

Construction

This will be an all-purpose classroom.The main use will be the Sewing Center.

The Sewing Center classroom is looking good. Ready for use. Outside painting is all that remains to be done. White is the primer coat.

Front

Side

Back

From my window, this addition now blocks my view of the mountain. Progress sometimes is wonderful, but it changes the environment. I miss seeing the cows walking across the ridge to graze.

August 2019 Newsletter

Several years ago, Urukundo experienced the horror of what a lightning strike can do. A day worker at Urukundo sought shelter from the rain under an avocado tree. The tree was struck, and the young man lost his life. It was a sad time and an awful experience for Urukundo.

Rwanda is a dangerous place for lightning strikes.

The New Times, a newspaper in Rwanda, wrote in March 2018 that “49 people were killed by lightning strikes in Rwanda, from January last year up to last weekend when 16 people were killed in Nyaruguru. The strikes also injured another 187 people and killed 45 livestock.”

Urukundo is stepping up.

In August, Urukundo, with help from the parent committee, took steps to protect our school. Most schools are built at the high point. As Rwanda is mountain upon mountain, there is no place else to build.

In order to protect our area, Urukundo has installed lightning rods to protect our school and the children and staff who attend there. The rods were installed by Optone Engineering Group Ltd. The rods are now the highest point on the mountain.

I remember the big metal rooster that sat on the top of my grandfather’s barn when I was a child. We called it a weathervane. Oh, so long ago!

At the school

In the village

Not only will the lightning rods protect the Learning Center and our Urukundo Village but also the local community in all directions. As far as I know, the community is not aware of this protection given to them. If one life is saved, it is a good mission outreach.

Safety for day care kids

A new walk to my front porch was needed. I feared that one of the small children coming for day care would fall and get banged up knees or worse. Photo of before and after will show you my meaning.

Before

After

Hello from the farm

Old MacDonald had a farm and so does Mama Arlene.

I remember singing this song as a child and teaching it to my children and grandchildren. Here in Urukundo, our children also sing this song and in English.

We don't have all the animals in the song here on our farm.

We do have chickens.

Our egg layers are beautiful and productive. We do not have a cock-a-doodle-do.

Layers are a source of income. As the demand for eggs goes up, so will the number of layers. Seriously, no rooster. We buy our layers as day-old chicks.

Broilers are also bought as day-old chicks. How fast they grow after only one month! They are sold after three months.

Pigs and piglets

Our mamas produce large litters.

The story of biogas:

Our pigs are a necessary part of our farm. We do not butcher pigs but sell the babies to private parties.

Now here is the cycle our pigs make possible. Our kitchen has many scraps as does the dining room. These scraps are fed to the pigs. Pigs provide manure for our biogas. Biogas is used in cooking the vegetables in the kitchen.The kitchen provides food for the pigs.

Hey, it cannot get better than that. A perfect round robin.

Cows. The one outside the shed is me. Oh, yah.

Love the little black and white calves (baby cows).

We have four cowboys and one intern: Pierre, Jean, intern Abais, Everist and Jovith.

We are honored that other schools choose the Urukundo farm to send their students as interns for further training.

Our boys who work the farm are actually called cowboys. No, they do not ride a horse, wear a 10-gallon hat, sing or play guitar. They also do not ride off into the sunset. That was only in movies from long ago. That was Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter & Tom Mix. Showing my age.

Our mountainside farm.

Pigs at top, cows in middle, chickens on bottom.

Built one level at a time. Seems like the pigs should be on the bottom, not the top.

Drainage is well contained and not a problem as it is collected and used in biogas production.

A short history of the farm

Our farm started as a place purchased to move 40 chickens from the boys’ compound in

Gitarama town. When we rented a compound to start a home for boys, 40 chickens went with the property. Chicken dirt and little boys were not a good mix. We decided to move the chickens out into the country, so we bought a piece of land for that purpose. Not to move the boys, just the chickens. Later we moved the boys and all of Urukundo to this land. The cow first came as a wedding gift from one of our employees, so we needed a cow shed. A visitor from Ringgold, Pennsylvania, USA, decided we should have pigs. So like Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (age again) the farm just grew.

It is now a productive part of Urukundo Village.

News from the Farm

Bringing you up-to-date, farmwise.

At our last monitor and evaluation meeting, it was decided to reduce the number of cows from nine to three, not counting calves.

Owning cows means wealth in Rwanda, but providing grass and food for them is a big problem. We have tried different types of grasses and maize (corn) fodder. When you use the milk only for home use and not to sell, two fresh cows are enough. We do sell the calves, but that does not add up to enough income to support the cows.

What to do?

After much deliberation, it was decided to keep three cows, one for milk and two to produce babies. OK, maybe I am not so knowledgeable, but as I see it, one cow would be giving milk, another would be nearly ready to deliver and the third one would meet with a bull.

Make sense???

Where does the farm make its money? The chicken part of the farm is our main source of revenue. It was decided to convert all but three stalls for the cows into chicken houses.

With more than 100 laying hens, we use the eggs at the home and sell eggs in the community. We also sell young layers to beginning farmers. Chicken manure is also sold as garden fertilizer to community growers.

The largest number of chickens are broilers. These are raised on a rotating basis. We try to bring in day-old chicks every month as we sell full-grown broilers each month. Our customers are hotels, restaurants, schools, other NGOs and our village. On any given day, we have more than 3,000 broilers.

We are trying to get more customers, but we need to have more space for more chickens. We have an old building on the farm that can be torn down and a storage barn could be built.

The building has a bad roof and holes where small animals invade and birds fly in and eat the grain. It is also not a good size for storing food for the animals.

I thank you for the generous gifts you have sent so that we can continue to improve our farm and vaccinate our animals, pay our cowboys and buy food for the animals. We cannot grow enough food for the animals as land is scarce and the growing season short.

With more space we can up the production of broilers and purchase many more day-old chicks.

Our goal is for the farm to be self-sufficient someday or at least break even.

Donations for the advancement of the farm are so needed and appreciated.

Memory Lane

Take a good look.

Down Memory Lane…some time later.

New Sewing Center classroom

Having a classroom connected to the Sewing Center is a requirement of the Ministry of Education. The curriculum requires not just sewing but English as a second language, business and entrepreneurship. The classroom is also more convenient for the students and teachers. The Sewing Center already has earned a Level 1 qualification, which permits it to give a diploma to its students.

Work began June 17.

The location of the former boys’ home, now the Sewing Center. The building in the lower edge is the kitchen.

This photo shows the location in proximity to the new boys’ home and Hope House.

Work as of June 21.

Continued monitoring of project. Progress as of July 1.

Front view on July 10. Ready for metal sheets for making a roof.

Side view on July 10. Ready for roof.

Back view on July 10. Ready for roof.

Inside work in progress

The floor will be cement and tiles. Blackboard will be in indicated space in the back wall. Classroom is for 48 students.

Two entrance doors in front of the classroom.

Good looking on July 25. Building with roof and ready for exterior paint.