Uganda-Rwanda Trip: Day 10

Gav’s journal entry from Day 10 of his and Dunc’s trip to Uganda & Rwanda.

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After having a very emotional day, yesterday, we continued on with what we were in Rwanda for.

This morning, we went back to the Serena Hotel to meet with Willa Shalit, one more time, before she headed back to NY.

We discussed many items and kept the ball moving on various projects -– especially the tentative one for this summer.

Willa has been fantastic and has really helped OA not only with networking but also with helping us gain perspective on how things are done here: It is almost impossible for a North American to arrive in East Africa for the first time and have idea of how things are done. There are customs, traditions, and ways of doing things that neither books or research, nor conversations, can prepare you for. Having Willa introduce us to some of these was invaluable.

Willa introduced us to two more interesting people that day.

The first was William Bahati. William is a fantastic person who grew up in Uganda and moved to Rwanda in late 1994. He speaks six languages. Among many roles, William works directly with youth who live on the streets in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kigali.

It was very interesting listening to the details of what he does and why, and we are hoping to go with him one of these days and talk to some of the youth about what it is like living without a home.

The second was Gad Mutaganzwa. Born in Nairobi and raised in Uganda, the UK, and the US, Gad now lives in Kigali. Gad is trying to introduce a new sport to Rwanda -– Futsal.

For those of you who don’t know what this is, it is basically a smaller version of football (soccer) that is played on a hard surface and with a smaller ball.

Our chat with Gad was interesting and enlightening, and he walked us through what has been working and what hasn’t been working. We also discussed the current football infrastructure, its needs, and how OA could focus its efforts in the most effective and responsible manner.

Both talks were great and gave us more perspective on what is happening, and what isn’t.

That night we received a phone call from Louis, telling us that we had a 10:00am appointment with some important people from the Kicukiro district of Kigali. Not sure exactly who it is that we were going to meet, we felt a bit unsure of what to expect.

Later that night, during an amazing Indian dinner, I answered a call from someone who barely spoke English. I was very confused and assumed it was a wrong number (as there are over 8 million people in Rwanda with similar #’s), but then I was able to decipher a bit: It was Basil, the Director of Schools in the Kicukiro district and the National Coordinator for the Ministry of Youth. Wow.

Tomorrow, we visit Kicukiro, some of the people there, and identify some potential sites for field re-construction.