NKOKWE Primary School and NKOKWE Alphabetization...Newness of Life

February 15, 2009 When we began this project almost three years ago our first dream along with the people of Rugari Parish was to build some new classrooms for the Primary School of NKOKWE. This is the school where Bahati’s father is Headmaster. Of course you all remember how when we finally began the project the war erupted in earnest in just that area and we lost some of our materials to theft and the whole idea of building there had to be abandoned as literally almost every living soul fled as INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS to live in camps at Gisiza/KABAYA, Kibumba, or other places living with family or friends. Now after people have returned and school has restarted in the villages I was so delighted some of them were still present the afternoon I was finally able to arrive in NKOKWE last week. What a joy to finally meet some of the teachers and students we have been joined to for the last two years. Left to Right Back: SEBUKE AIMABLE,Alphabetization; MIHATANO BARIYENDERA,Nkokwe Form 5; BAGORA RURIBIKIYE, Nkokwe Form 1 Above Left to Right Front: NZABANITA Albert,Alphabetization; BIZIMANA ANANIE,Alphabetization; BARAKA CHARIGUFI,Nkokwe Form 5; Right: SEBURIRI Bernard,Alphabetization; You have been supporting them now for two years with a small stipend but we yearn for the day DRC government will become accountable and take this project to full and logical conclusion of a government that takes responsibility for paying its teachers and ensuring a proper education for every child, male and female. Phase two during the war was to move our building plans to the secondary school of NDATA INSTITUT at Gisiza/Kabaya. Finally a wonderful and amazing thing happened…when CNDP took control of the area the month of September, people returned to the villages, almost all of the population returned. They were able to start farming again, lives were returning to normal, and by November we were taking stock of the situation and wishing we could start school again.

Nkokwe classrooms last year empty and grasses growing wild.

Our plans were finally realized when we restarted schools back in the villages the first week of December. Now that is not all, for an even more amazing and more wonderful thing happened when in January the governments of Rwanda and DRC decided to work together and CNDP agreed to come together with their DRC government and all joined forces together to continue the process of building peace in DRC. Nkokwe classrooms to be replaced, now with grass trimmed.

Well, you might wonder where I am going with this story…this is the story of returning our building project back to the original site of NKOKWE. Since the people fled over a year ago the area has received three minor earthquakes as well as war in the last two years.

This all means that the structures, which we had intended to replace, are now in even further danger of falling apart and most urgently need replaced. One building is open to the rain every time the wind blows; the roof blows up, the rain comes in, the earthquake has started the walls separating, and rocks in the walls are threatening to fall down on the children in the classrooms.

NTAMABYALIRO Eduard is happy to see the construction project returning to NKOKWE and we are quickly approaching the time to begin our construction…ONCE AGAIN!!! But this time we have more hope of peace that will last and safety that will grow and endure for generations to come here in Eastern DRC. Please keep this upper most in your prayers; prayer is so powerful.

The second building of classrooms to be replaced; photo from last year when the grass and weeds were in control, as well as FARDC and FDLR...

THEY HAD NO SECURITY IN THAT TIME!

Following are the pictures of arriving at NKOKWE last week to see the site once again and I was greeted with the beautiful site of students studying in the Alphabetization Project St. Anne is funding!

What a gorgeous site it was to see the beaming, happy faces of all these students who up until now have had no chance to learn even the basics of ABC’s.

For now, SIT BACK AND ENJOY this picture of several of the Alphabetization students out in front of one of the buildings to be replaced.

Down in front are some of the students from NKOKWE PRIMARY SCHOOL. This is a beautiful story...TO BE CONTINUED as we now begin our construction of our very first school building at NKOKWE!!!

Yours in the peace and love of Christ,

Jackie

THE GIFT OF BEDNETS FOR HOSPITAL MUUNGANO RESURRECTION

This will be a story of pictures... ...a story that was very fun for me!!! Many of you at St. Anne remember the fund raising last year during Lent when you saw the youth showing just how creative they can be. In the end, those Bednet Funds were used to buy 3000 bednets. I worked with Roger, the director of Health Services for Caritas Goma and together we came up with a plan to cover nearly every last bed in the hospitals and dispensaries of the Diocese of Goma. Well that was wonderful, but low and behold after covering all their health facilities with BEDNETS we remained with 1500 nets left over. Then it was very easy to decide to use those in the maternal / child clinics to dispense for pregnant women who are in a high risk group facing the scourge of Malaria. In the photo above you see Sister Francis who is the director of Hospital MUUNGANO Resurrection in a very poor neighborhood of Goma. She stands beside the pickup that is the only means of transportation they have for their facility. We had arrived at the warehouse to pick up over 800 bednets which would be distributed to 8 facilities in and near Goma. Each bag contains 50 bednets and of course carrying them on your head is the way much work gets done here in DRC. To the left you see the pickup filled with 300 hundred nets...near to 1/2 of our load for the day. Our photo at the end of filling the pickup with the chauffer, Sister Francis, KASOLE (manager of the warehouse, and the staff who toted all those bags on his head). We were feeling good for the job we were undertaking for the day!

Then we took off with our load and deposited all but three bags at Caritas Goma before continuing on our way to arrive out in the far neighborhood of NYABUSHONGO

The women and children who greeted us sang for many minutes and I had to join in the clapping, singing, and dancing!!! These are the women and children who are tended the NUTRITION PROGRAM for children who are suffering malnutrition.

The wonderful joy for MUUNGANO RESURRECTION HOSPITAL is that they have a reputation for helping the sickest of the malnourished and many come from long distances to arrive at their facility. These three young ones are evidence of the good results of daily good food.

This walk way takes patients up to the hospital wing and clinic exam rooms from the nutrition centerat the bottom end of the walk way.

These are some of the beds in the nutrition center that will be covered with BEDNETS.

This is Sister Francis sitting by her desk in her office as we visited about the hospital she tends. It was built just two years ago and the patients are able to pay some fees. Of course it is never enough for the hospital to make BIG PROGRESS but they manage to get by and with gifts like the BEDNETS...they get by even much better!!!

This woman stirs one of the huge cooking pots she tends in the kitchen for the NUTRITION PROGRAM. As in most places they cook on a wood or charcoal stove.

The ward for the sickest of the malnourished infants and children is here. There were some children who even had feeding tubes in to give them feeding directly into their stomachs. They are all so appreciative of the BEDNETS; they clapped with joy upon hearing of your gift.

No hospital can run without a good complement of nurses and these are some of the day shift who we met on my tour of the facility.

The lab technician just wanted to be shy and let me see the lab where the technical work takes place.

They are happy to have an electric microscope, but the centrifuge is still a hand crank model.

What a nice color the beautiful blue fridge is. Looks like a great big oversized cooler and so it is made of just those kind of materials to conserve the cold. It is run using a gas powered motor as too often the electricity fails and then prescious medicine is quickly lost.

This is a receptionist who really knows her job; she made me and the children who followed us feel most welcome. This is a woman with a warm heart and love for children!

MUUNGANO RESURRECTION HOSPITAL is staffed with two full time doctors. This woman is one of the two; we caught her at her desk hard at work...paperwork never ends.

She took her medical training at a school here in GOMA. They work days, but are also on call on the nights. She was tired the day we visited her.

This pharmacy seems to have a pretty good stock, as it goes here in Goma. I was impressed with the cleanliness and organization of this hospital I visited. And I was so happy to be able to distribute the prescious cargo of BEDNETS.

Every hospital that has received is sending you such a huge and heartfelt THANK YOU!!! I hope you can feel the words of blessings sent to you from across the ocean, they are real!

I close sending my love in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Peace be with you, Jackie

Water Cistern #1 Nears Completion

January 19, 2009 Hello Gang, Time runs way too fast for me these days and I am so aware that my time here is running away with me. I love the times I can see something so substantial actually happening...

Construction is like that, a person gets to see form and substance taking shape out of ideas, thought, and planning.

The form of our shared ideas is taking shape. When I first came here I began asking about building something like the rainwater cisterns I had seen in Tanzania.

Roger of Caritas Goma asked an engineer to submit a bid, but it was a bid to place a plastic tank. I asked him about building with rock and stone and he said it couldn't be done.

I explained to him what I knew and how it has been done in other places but he seemed unwilling.

I talked to another engineer who immediately went with me to look at the facility and imagine what it could be like. He did the thinking and the planning of a bid to build this project.

St. John's did the fund raising for building one of our cisterns...

And look where we are today!!!!

Idea, thought, planning...taking form, taking shape and soon to be assuming FUNCTION!!!

The cement cover has been poured, it will be three weeks before the form supports can be removed and then we can hook up the gutters, downpouts, and piping. Then full functioning will be complete, people will begin using water on sight at the dispensary of RUGARI.

Now the really wonderful news is that Roger Ndagije, director of medical centers, for Caritas Goma is so impressed with what we are achieving, with the form and function of these water cisterns that he wants to build more of them for other dispensaries. This is a tremendous success, a simple idea that has grown into a powerful tool of development for improving the care of patients in health centers throughout the DIOCESE of GOMA!!!

When I was taking some of these last pictures they brought a patient to the dispensary in this litter and I was so impressed with the form and function of this idea. This basket has been woven from strong small tree branches and placed inside was a thick cushion of grasses and leaves. Then bamboo poles are used to lift and carry the patient. The patient was then covered with a warm woolen blanket and she was quit nice and warm when she arrived.

Unfortunately she had been sick for over a month with malaria. Living alone, no knew just how sick she was, she had not eaten for so long that she was down to skin and bones. As I examined her I immediately saw how perilous her condition was and how she was treading the threshold between life and death.

The nurses started an IV, started medication, called for an ambulance to come pick her up and take her to the nearest hospital...but she died within just short minutes of her arrival at the RUGARI DISPENSARY. It was a sad day for us.

These next two photos are of people who make a living using the CHUGUDU to help them get their products to market.

These young men are taking a rest beside the road before continuing their trek. Notice the round leaf cushions on the sides of the sugar cane load. This is where they place their heads so that they push with all the force of their bodies as they get this load to the market. Hard physical labor.

Then on the way in the truck to get the gutters for the dispensary we were treated with this wonderful tourism opportunity.

This is the third time I have seen these baboons in this location, but the first time they sat around to let me get some photos.

Notice the injured hand of this female who is sitting with her baby. It is an injury from a trap that was set by local population who still catch these animals to eat. She was able to escape but her hand is useless and it remains to be seen if she will heal or gain some massive infection from this injury that will eventually take her life.

Above, sitting in the grass, is male who leads this group of baboons. He sat for just a minute before going off into the bush. I thanked him for taking his time so I could get his picture.

These three sitting on the cut trees were much more content to sit and watch me and didn't run off, they were almost as interested in me as I was in them. I really like this picture.

Well my friends. I send my love and prayers for you all, blessings in your endeavors for this week, and greet all for me in the peace of Christ!

Jackie