So,
here’s a spin-off email for those who are interested! It’s a far more warm
fuzzy story than the GO! update…
At
the start of my trip to Rwanda, I met up with a Belgian family who I became
friends with in 2009. They are in their
4th and final year of teaching in Rwanda. They talked about an orphanage hey had
visited in Rwanda called L’esperance
and suggested I check it out. With all
the rugby stuff and nursery school stuff, I completely forgot about it. Then, I
saw them 3.5 weeks later, the day before I was scheduled to leave Rwanda. They asked if I had been to the orphanage and
I sheepishly admitted that I had completely forgotten about it. They suggested that I definitely check it
out. I said I would go that day, then
they reminded me it was on the banks of Lake Kivu and involved a 4 hour bus
ride and a 1.5 hour motorcycle ride to get there! (Opps!! Clearly, I had
COMPLETELY forgotten about everything they had told me!!). That night, I called the director of the
orphanage, just to see if it was possible to visit and he was AMAZING!
Completely warm and welcoming and encouraged me to come for a visit. He
off-handedly mentioned that there were a group of Americans engineer students
there working on some projects.
SOLD! That was all it took to convince
me to postpone my departure and make the 5 hour journey to his orphanage.
On
a confusing yet relevant side note, I had been at a different orphanage in
Kigali the week before and the directors had mentioned that Engineers Without Borders (EWB) were helping them build a school
on some newly acquired land. That little
comment planted a little seed in my mind! How cool would it be if EWB helped us
with our project!!!
So,
when the director of the orphanage mentioned that Engineer students there at
his orphanage.. it was definitely enough to seal the deal. So, I got up Thursday morning and headed out
to the stunning shores of lake kivu!! The bus ride was fine and the 1.5 hour motorcycle
ride up the winding roads overlooking the lake was breath taking!!!! And then I
arrived as L’espereance!!!
WOW!
It’s absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! PHENOMENAL in fact!!! It is everything Hero Home
must aspire to be!! I was only there for 24 hours.. but the amount of
information and inspiration I gained easily filled an entire month!!
First
off, the Director is absolutely incredible (I feel like I need more adjectives
but my brain doesn’t work well in English anymore). He was amazing!!! Truly inspiring. He’s been running the orphanage for 7 years. Just a brief bio so you can appreciate how
amazing he is. He’s around 40 and comes
from a ridiculously wealthy family in .Guatemala. He finished top in his class at a top university
but wasn’t happy. He was surrounded by
wealth, but it wasn’t what he wanted. He
started a successful agricultural university in Norway, at some point, was
diagnosed with testicular cancer and went to the black forest in Germany and
fasted for like 6 weeks or something.. it all sounds pretty incredible.. but I
believe every word of it. His cancer
went into remission, he stopped working at the university and decided to pack
up and run an orphanage in africa. He
was supposed to go to Ethiopia but it got changed and he ended up in Rwanda and
that’s where he’s been for the last seven years. I got his story while soothed in candle
light, sitting on the porch with the engineer students, the rolling hills of
rwanda all around us and the smell of jasmine wafting in the air. It was powerful. One of those moments that seems so surreal
you never really forget.
The
orphanage itself is situated on the top of one of Rwanda’s thousand hills. It has sweeping views and is ridiculously
serene. He has 126 kids and they are
separated in Family Homes. Each “house”
has a house mom, 3 bedrooms and is filled with kids of all different ages. Each house basically exists as an individual
unit. They have their own cleaning
schedule and their own kitchen. Each kid
has their own chores and they exist as a family. Very cool idea.. seems simple but it’s
amazing how many orphanages don’t exist like that. Definitely something we want to incorporate
into Hero Home. On top of that, the
whole place is full of amazing technology! He’s basically put himself out there
as a guinea pig for companies creating new technology and it’s amazing what things
have been installed! He as an awesome water filtration system complete with UV
filtration, high efficiency stoves designed with volcanic rock to limit the
amount of wood required, open air kitchens with thin cement/wire roofs, a weather
station, tons of rain water catchment systems, solar power, composting toilets,
plus more than 10 acres of fruit tree plantations and thousands of pineapples
which he cuts up and dries in solar dryers and will then sell to Whole Foods in
America!! The guy is a genius!! He has partnered with EWB, NASA and a bunch of
other organizations that have helped him create this amazing place!!!
What
else can I say about it. It’s amazing!!
The kids all seem super happy and well adjusted. He is in the process of becoming the first
completely self-sufficient orphanage.
He’s building an eco-lodge on the shores of kivu that will fund the
orphanage. It’s amazing all around. He gave me tons of advice, contacts, ideas,
encouragement, and inspiration! Like I said, an amazing 24 hours!!!
I
definitely will have to go back and learn more from him.
And,
while I was there, I spent a lot of time talking to the Engineer students who
were with EWB and who were in fact, the very group of students that are in
charge of the project in Kigali at the orphanage I had just visited. Small world eh!!! They were awesome and gave
me lots of advice on how to apply to EWB and hopefully get my project picked up
by one of the chapters!!! And now that we actually have land.. that’s even more
exciting!!!!!!!
So,
destiny makes itself known once again! I love it when the world works in a
totally unexpected but totally positive way!!!!
It’s
always encouraging to know sometimes things turn out alright!!!! :)
Keep
believing!!
Take
care
Amanda
