Woke to a rather dank damp morning. Today was our visit
Nkombo island we had to wait for the road to dry as the road down to the lake
was very tricky with some steep muddy sections as the better road was being
repaired.
The sun broke through and we eventually set off arriving at
the lakeside and crossed over in a little wooden boat with an outboard motor.
Nkombo is a very poor island with a large population and not enough crops in
the ground and fish in the lake. The project has 500 kids on it they are able
to feed about 350 of these twice a week at present.
They are fed a porridge made of a special flour called
sosoma which is very nutritious with the right mixture of carbohydrate and
protein. The children were a very well behaved bunch of ragamuffins sitting in
rows and singing for us. The children who were in the program were in a much better
state than when we came in September last year. There were less signs of
malnutrition and less of the horrible ringworm which infects their scalps.
There is a tiny class room and a canvas lean- to so there are two classrooms
where they can be taught. There were three teachers employed by the diocese so
they can start a very basic education. Hopefully through education they will be
able to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty in which they are currently
trapped.
We were very touched by one little girl dressed in a very
grubby leopard skin print tee-shirt who noticed her neighbour had less porridge
in her plastic mug than her and shared hers so they were equal. It was a real
lesson to us all.
We then went over to the government school on the other side
of the island where Mary O described her project to prevent rural girls dropping
out of school, making unwise choices, becoming pregnant and ending up trapped
in the slums of Nairobi. She was fact finding to see if her training could be
adapted for use in Rwanda.
When we eventually got back to the shore the lake the wind
had got up and the lake was quite choppy this worried Mary and Bertha but we
got across safely.
In the evening Jonas, one of the Rwanda Aid managers, came
over for dinner. He told something of his life story how he had struggled with
his education but managed to largely fund himself through designing and making
cards .This was very enterprising something a lot of poor African children lack
to raise themselves out of poverty. This was one of the themes of Mary’s work
to get girls to produce a life plan for themselves with communication skills so
they did not just drift downwards into the traps of pregnancy and prostitution.
Rob and Jan had spent the day discussing their water
collection projects with one of the possible engineers Basil who eventually
joined us for dinner.
We were all exhausted by our busy day and eventually climbed
into bed.
Feeding the masses
Mary with the little girl who shared her food
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