The Making of the Nature Hut

As you know from, past blog posts, I am a big fan of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village Nature Park. It is a truly wonderful place and we wanted to make a nice meeting space up there to encourage more use of the park.

Rainbow on our last day of work at the Nature Hut

In the third term, Nathan (one of the other cousins) and I worked to build a Nature Hut. We started September 12th, 2012 and finished October 17th, 2012.  We had the help of many of the maintenance workers, a team of 27 students, support of the directors and also help from various families and the environment club during Saturday Service.  We started dreaming of this project in second term and managed, with alot of hard work, to make it happen in the third term.  It wasn't always easy but with teamwork, Nathan and I managed to keep the momentum of the project going when we hit bumps along the way.

Nathan and I in the finished hut

This is our How to Make a Nature Hut PDF which has many wonderful pictures and the steps it took to get from start to finish.

We opened the Nature Hut on October 22, 2012 with the help of Anne Heyman, founder of ASYV.

Opening ceremony- photo by Steve

Anne cutting the ribbon- photo by Steve

Natural building team at the opening ceremony-photo by Steve

Natural Building team with their certificates of achievement- photo by Steve

The girls in my family who were part of the Natural Building team and Mama Annociata

We also had the closing staff meeting for informal education at the Nature Park on November 1, 2012

End of year staff meeting at the Nature Hut

Nathan and Miki helping Mama Emerthe on the slackline

I can only hope that the Nature Hut will be well loved and used in the years to come!!

Sunset yoga at the Nature Hut

Mango trees!

Environment Club planting a mango tree at the green clubhouse

ASYV is a fairly new village, in a country that is densely populated, where most people use firewood to cook.  As such, there are not many mature trees in the village.  Like any good environment club, the 2012 environment club wanted to plant more trees in the village.

The mango tree acting as distribution centre where families and staff can pick up their baby mango trees

They specifically wanted to plant mango trees.  Who doesn't like mangoes?  The kids will even eat the immature green fruit.  It is a bit of an acquired taste, something like eating crab apples or raw rhubarb.  After many months of waiting,  we eventually got the money for 60 mango trees.

Environment Club member in charge of making sure everyone got their trees

We planted them on October 13, 2012.  Every family house got 1 tree, staff house received trees and the club houses.  The trees were all a grafted variety from a lovely fruit farm in Kabuga, Rwanda (just east of Kigali).

Environment Club planting a mango tree at the orange club house

A Visit to Akagera Park with the Environment Club

Practicing with the binoculars 

Yesterday we had a lovely trip to Akagera Park with the Environment Club.

We woke bright and early, got our picnic lunches from the kitchen and departed in 4 safari vehicles supplied by Intore Expeditions.  The safari vehicles were a surprise for the kids and they were very excited about them.  There were many pictures taken with them beside the safari vehicle, pretending to drive, on the roof of the car.  I can only imagine what their facebook pages are going to look like soon. :)

A guide giving the students an orientation of the park

We arrived at the park and the guides there gave the students a great orientation about Akagera Park, about the other National Parks in Rwanda, how Rwandan Parks compare to other parks in East Africa, and what it is like being a guide.  After that we hopped in the cars and went in search of animals.

On the search for animals

We a saw impala, topi, waterbuck, zebras, buffalo, many different kinds of birds, turtles, hippopotamus, giraffes and elephants!!  I think the elephants were the highlight of the trip because they are difficult to find in Akagera Park and they are so majestic.  That being said, the students were excited about all the animals.  If you have spent anytime in Rwanda, you might of noticed that Rwandans make alot of different sounds to convey emotional states- especially surprise, awe, and happiness.  It was the soundtrack of the day yesterday.

Elephant

Buffalo and turtles in the muddy ponds

Hippos

Impala

Look at that!

Giraffes

Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias caudata)- I think. Second opionon?

Zebras

Delicious packed lunch from Chez Hilam

Beautiful lunch spot.  We could even see an elephant and some hippos grazing near the lake with the binoculars.

I think the pictures say the most about how fabulous the day was.  Thank you to everyone helped out to raise funds for this trip.  It was truly AMAZING!  Thank you also to Shelley and Paul and everyone at Intore Expeditions for supporting this trip not only financially, but with encouragement and organization.  The drivers were fantastic- teaching the students about the different types of habitats and animals in Akagera.  For example, it is the rainy season right now, and our driver Andrew, explained that the topi and buffalo have their babies at this time of the year when the food is abundant so they have a better chance of survival.

Topi with their babies

Thank you from the Environment Club!

Thanks so much!!!

Send the Environment Club to Akagera!

This year it has been my great privilege to work with the Environment Club.  There are 18 members of the club and they are all wonderful kids!  I want them to have the opportunity to go to Akagera in this last school term- and I want you to help me do it!

Clubs at ASYV
There are many different clubs in the village- technical club, newspaper club, sports club, IT club, language club.... etc.  The clubs are responsible for organizing different events in the village, education and suggesting ways to deal with problems in the village.

Environment Club Missions 2012

The students in the Environment Club decided on the following four main missions for 2012

• Maintain the Environment at ASYV from pollution, bad air quality, erosion and other environmental risks.
• To increase the products of ASYV such as fruit, flowers, medicine and timber.
• Educate about the importance of the environment.
• To protect and steward the Nature Park.

A glimpse into the Nature Park

Rwandan Youth and the Environment

We have had a wonderful year of work.  The Environment Club is made up of the two youngest grades with a couple of the older students to help. In the first term I focused on educating the kids about what the environment is and why it is important.  The older students already had a grasp on some environmental issues because of their exposure at ASYV but the younger students for the most part had never though about it.  The kids at this school are selected because they are vulnerable orphans. For most of their lives they have struggled to go to school, to get enough to eat, to have a safe place to stay.  So it is understandable that they have never thought about ecology, about climate change, about garbage, about clean water, clean air, about the role of living systems in their lives.  That being said- I am sure that environmental issues have touched their lives in: access to clean water, erosion causing crop loss and thus a lack of food, to having to walk a long way to collect firewood because of deforestation.

Maintaining the walking trail around the Nature Park

Education about Environmental Stewardship in the Village
In second term the environment club started to educate the other students about the environment. Specifically they were teaching their brothers and sisters how to take care of their gardens and to avoid throwing garbage everywhere.  Garbage is an issue everywhere in the world.  What to do with it? Where does it go?  This is the same in Rwanda- with one twist. In Canada we have anti-littering laws and education about littering. In Rwanda there is no such thing. When somebody opens a packaged item- gum, cookies, juice- they immediately just let the wrapper drop to the ground.  The number of times I have seen garbage thrown out a car or bus window is appalling. Most people do it, not  just the kids.  The only saving grace for Rwanda is that they have banned plastic bags (so one less thing to litter), and they clean all the time.  In other countries in East Africa the roads are lined with garbage.  At ASYV, the Environment Club is making a concious effort to education their peers and staff members about littering and trying to keep the village clean.

Sitting area under the shade of an acacia tree and an Entada abyssinica tree

Walking the Talk with the Environment Club
In the third term we are going to plant mango trees at all the family and staff houses.  This initiative is to increase the products of ASYV, educate students and staff about planting trees as well as improving the environment of the village.

The Environment Club as Stewards of the Nature Park

The Nature Park in the Village has been a big part of the work of the Environment Club in 2012.   (Please see this post for the history, mission, and goals of the Nature Park.)  In brief, the Nature Park is a lovely sanctuary for plants, trees, birds, insects and other critters on the hill above the school.  It is a place of learning, a place of relaxation, a place to connect with nature. 

The Environment Club creating a new walking trail inside the park

2012 Vision
This year in the Nature Park the goal was to add, improve and maintain last year's achievements.  So far this year, the Environment Club  has:

•  made new signs to direct visitors and ASYV staff/students to the Nature Park
• made a new walking trail, and start tree seeds to plant in the Nature Park
• cleared lantana (invasive species)
• planted a living fence around the Nature Park
• guided visitors on nature tours of the park
• researched trees and animals of the park to make interpretive signs

Currently there are two projects that are being completed in the Nature Park.  One is to finish the interpretive signs for the park.  The other is to make a meeting space using natural materials just outside the park.  This meeting area is to encourage more students, staff and visitors to come to the Nature Park and teach a core team of students natural building skills along side with leadership, teamwork, and responsibility.

Natural Building in progress during Saturday Service

A Field trip to Akagera

At the beginning of the year the Environment Club suggested to do a trip to Akagera Park.  Akagera Park is a 1200 km2 park that protects lakes, wetlands woodlands and savannah and many animals in eastern Rwanda.  Due to budget constraints, the trip was cancelled.  The Village has given me permission to fundraise for this trip directly to make it happen.

Planting trees for a living fence around the Nature Park

Why?

The environment club is one of the hardest working clubs at ASYV.  Most of these kids have never seen a hippo, a zebra, a monkey, a giraffe or even antelope before.  These students have the potential to become guides, rangers, biologist and advocates of the environment in the future. 

  

Planting trees for a living fence around the Nature Park

" You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own.  That they must protect them." Wangari Maathai

Give these students the opportunity to see what a rich diversity of flora and fauna Rwanda has.  Give them the opportunity to understand that the parks , the air, the water, the forests of Rwanda are their own to protect.

The students can go to Akagera Park if I can raise $500 by October 8, 2012.  This will allow 18 students to go to the park in two mini buses.

If I can raise $800 by October 8, 2012, then this will allow us to go in 4 safari vehicles provided by Intore Expeditions.

A special Thanks to Intore Expeditions who has graciously agreed to donate half the transport costs!

Tree planting in the Nature Park

History of the Agahozo Shalom Nature Park

 Thank you to  Jared Cole, one of the 2011 long term volunteers (cousins), for the most of the information, vision, goals and history of the Nature Park.  He was important in starting the Nature Park initiative along with many staff and students at ASYV.

The History Nature Park

The ASYV Nature Park was formed in 2011 by over 300 ASYV students and staff.  All 24 families helped to make the park trail, remove lantanta, and/or plant trees over the course of May-October 2011 during Saturday Service events.  The Nature Park is 1.72 hectares (4.26 acres) and is 1558 to 1597 meters above sea level.   There are over 72 established native and fruit trees in the park, not included those planted in 2011-2012.  Around 90 species of birds have been observed in the Park as well as toads, skinks, striped mouse species, bats, mongoose and different types of insects.

Trail head sign at the Nature Park

Park Goals

1. To provide a space for the Environment Club to explore, enjoy and educate others about the environment.
2. To provide a space for students, staff, and volunteers to relax and enjoy the outdoors.
3. To provide a training opportunity for skills in forestry, wildlife management, ecotourism, park management, and other fields.

Ecological Vision for the Park

In 10-20 years, the Nature Park should be mature enough so that cavity/tree nesting birds such as hornbills, woodpeckers, turacos, barbets, parrots will return to this area, to live in the Nature Park.  Not only would the local biodiversity benefit, but these are iconic birds that people tend to enjoy.    These species are also good indicators of ecosystem health. Their habitat is dominated by trees and these trees provide fruit and shade to people.  In order to accomplish this the park needs native trees similar to other remaining native forest areas, i.e. Akagera National Park Hills, Kibungo Valley and lower areas of Nyungwe.  These native trees need to be planted and they need to be protected so they grow to maturity.

A small Acacia tree growing. In several years this will provide a nice shady spot.

Social Vision for the Park
To get people involved.  If people enjoy the park, they will keep it .The park has many opportunities for learning (formally and informally), enjoying (art, relaxation, walks, eating fruits) and doing  Saturday service (clearing trail, removing lantana, caring for the trees).

" You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own.  That they must protect them." Wangari Maathai

Park To Do (during Saturday Service or other times)

• maintain trail so to prevent the park from being cultivated or grazed.  Unfortunately the fence was stolen in 2012 but a living fence was planted in September 2012.
• Maintain native trees and fruit trees (and plant more where necessary)
• Remove lantana
• Make park accessible to people (sign, benches, trails).  Get people in it (to enjoy and help keep it as a community resource)

2012 Vision
This year in the Nature Park the goal was to add, improve and maintain last year's achievements.  So far this year, the Environment Club  with the help of 16 families have:

• made new signs to direct visitors and ASYV staff/students to the Nature Park
• made a new walking trail, and start tree seeds to plant in the Nature Park
• cleared lantana (invasive species)
• planted a living fence around the Nature Park
• guided visitors on nature tours of the park
• researched trees and animals of the park to make interpretive signs

Currently there are two projects that are being completed in the Nature Park.  One is to finish some interpretive signs for the park.  The other is to make a Natural Building meeting space just outside the park.  This meeting area is to encourage more students, staff and visitors to come to the Nature Park and teach a core team of students natural building skills along side with leadership, teamwork and responsibility.

Sewing bags filled with soil. One of the natural
building techniques we are using is called rammed earth or
earth bag construction.

Mixing cement to hold the poles for the building secure.

It's a Jolly Holiday....

 Here are the highlights from the 2nd vacation!

My parent's came to visit the village and we went together to see the gorrillas in Rwanda and also to Zanzibar.

My parents after seeing the gorillas

In Agahozo Shalom Youth Village, my Rwandan family was very happy to meet my parents!  My parents generously helped with my 'save the trees project'- which was to transplant all the viable tree seedlings from the nursery at the school to the nursery at the farm.  The school nursery was dry for about a month before my parents got there and the trees were looking very sad.  Some had even reached the permanent wilting point (ie dead). I'm working on a rain water catchment plan for the growing space up there so we will no longer be at the whim of the municipal water.

Tree nursery of acacia, eucalyptus, calliandra, greveilla

After very nicely helping me with my random projects around the village and getting acquainted with village life... we left for vacation!

First to the misty, cold(er) volcanoes of NW Rwanda.  Home of the mountain gorillas.

Silverback contemplating life

Then from there to Zanzibar.  Spice and beautiful beach isle!  wow!  It was so nice to swim in the ocean and to eat food with spices.  My parents left us in Zanzibar and we continued on our way overland (and a ferry) back to Rwanda.

Spices, white sandy beaches, clear ocean!

Most of our time was spent on buses but we did make one side trip to the Udzungwa Mountains.  We saw Mangabeys which are an endemic species of monkey from these parts.  We also met a biologist studying the shy, small, furry forest elephants.  It was a beautiful place to visit, and the streams were clear!  No mud water all thanks to the remaining forest cover on the Udzungwa Mountains.

Udzungwa Mountains

The rest of Tanzania was kind of meh.  We didn't do the northern safari circuit, maybe next time.  Although many people live on less than 1$ a day here, these are not the same people that go on safaris, or go to visit National Parks.  My Canadian sensibilities are insulted by exorbitant park fees, required guides, porters and all the ring-ga-ma-roll around visiting East African Parks.  But hey, this isn't Canada, where camping and hiking is cheap. I can't even imagine how much money goes into people climbing Kilimanjaro every year.  Where does this money go?  Back to the park? To the people?  I don't know.

The train should definitely be avoided.  You only take it twice: your first and last time.

The streets of Stone Town, Zanzibar

I know that some people love Tanzania, but compared to Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya- the people were not helpful, wanted to rip you off most of the time, and were aggressive.  I was so happy to get back to Rwanda where people are nice, more honest and cleaner than Tanzania.  I wonder if this is cultural or if there is also a difference because of the emphasis on lowering corruption in Rwanda.  Tanzania gets many more tourists than Rwanda, but I'm not sure how much of the population actually benefits.

The rest of the time we spent at the village.  When we got back, they were just finishing off a theatre project with the International Theatre and Literacy Project.  The theatre piece that they made was amazing! (see last blog for photos).

And the village lived happily ever after...

We had a month of quiet (kind of in an eerie way), no water -except from the rain tanks, fast internet (well fast for the village) and different projects.  Jack installed a solar shower with some help.  Basically he put a black piece of pipe on the roof which gets hot in the sun. (Think of a garden hose on a hot day).  Our house keeps getting better and better, garden, mud oven and now solar shower!

Sun showers!

Genunine Progress Measures

I was inspired to write this after reading this blog by my Member of Parliment, Elizabeth May.  Elizabeth May is the leader of the Green Party of Canada and the first Green Party candidate to be elected in North America.  She is also the best MP I have ever had.  She is the role model of what every democratically elected MP should be.

Here blogs and tweets are informative. Her emphasis on democracy, free speech, integrity and cooperation are commendable. She represents the Canada I want to live in. 

Her blog was about the Genunine Progress Act, which is a way to measure quality of life instead of basing all our political decisions on GDP. 

Traditional Intore Dancers at Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

 

She quotes the late Senator Robert Kennedy, who said just weeks before his death in 1968:

“Too much and too long, we have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things….The (GDP) counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”

 

How does this factor into Rwanda?  So often the speech in 'third world African countries' is about development. Africa needs development - in order to....what?  Feed it's people? have democratically held elections? provide clean drinking water? supply commodities to developed nations? provide a market for consumer goods?

Agricultural land just below Volcanoes National Park. The potato basket of Rwanda

Never mind that Africa is a continent, not a country. Africa has more than one story. 

And what does it mean to be third world? Is it as simple as taking GDP of a country as the indicator for the health of a country? Are the people actually poorer in the qualities that makes life worthwhile?
 

What do you see in the small children in dirty, ripped clothing playing on the road?   What do you see in man who pushes a bike full of pineapples 15km to the market?  What do you see in two old woman resting in the shade of an acacia tree while they wait for a bus?

Do you see only poverty... or can you also see the wit, courage, wisdom, learning, compassion, devotion... can you see that which makes life worthwhile?

I think Peter Godwin illustrates this perspective clearly in his book 'When the crocodile eats the sun' about his birth country Zimbabwe. 

"The cause of the cicadas' silence crests the path into sight; a ragged crocodile of small black children jogging back from school.  Joanna takes in their threadbare khaki uniforms and the striped jute book bags bouncing on bony shoulders, and I can see how it must look to her.  Even when they whoop and wave and flash bright-toothed smiles as they pass by, she sees ill-fitting, hand-me-down clothes and scuffed shoes or the bare feet of kids who walk miles to and from school each day and go home to thatched huts without indoor plumbing or electricity.  But what I see are functioning schools: pens and paper and a near-universal education producing Africa's most literate population.  She compares up, to the First World, where privileges are treated as rights.  I compare down, to the apocalyptic Africa that presses in around us, where rights are only for the privileged."

One side of the feuding families (asyv theater)

It is true that there are many problems related to poverty in Rwanda.  The fact that I am volunteering at a youth village for vulnerable orphaned youth is testimony to this.  There are problems with access to clean water, to schooling, to food, to health care, to housing.  Sometimes the stories I hear from the staff, the students, the farm workers, and villagers break my heart.  But there are also these problems in Canada and any other country  in the world. Perhaps the scale is just different.

 

But back to the original topic. GDP was developed to measure basic flows in the economy. (Next two quotes taken from The Pardee Papers, No. 4. Jan 2009, Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress)

"The US Bureau of Economic Analysis’ description of GDP states the purpose of measuring GDP is to answer questions such as “how fast is the economy growing,” “what is the pattern of spending on goods and services,” “what percent of the increase in production is due to inflation,” and “how much of the income produced is being used for consumption as opposed to investment or savings” (McCulla and Smith 2007). "

 GDP was not meant to be an indicator for National Progress nor of well-being, but it is now used to compare quality of life in different countries.  More frightening is that: "Internationally, changes in a country’s GDP are used by both the IMF and the World Bank to guide policies and determine how and which projects are funded around the world."

There is at least one country that has refused to be pigeon-holed by its GDP. Bhutan measures its progress in not just economic growth, but also Gross National Happiness. 

"The concept (of GNH) implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing.... The nine domains are: psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards."

And wouldn't you be better off if your MP, your government were making policy decisions based on a wider range of indicators than just how much money you were making and how much you were consuming?

Dancing at the King's feast (asyv theater)

Many Rwandans struggle with poverty.  Many Canadians struggle with poverty.  Some Rwandans are very rich. Some Canadians are also very rich.  We are the same and different.  But one difference that strikes me is the access to education. While most Canadians attend good public schools up to grade 12, Rwandans have only to grade 9 and then they have to pay to go to high school. In addition, while I believe Canadian schools and teachers could have more funding, we are very well funded and developed compared to Rwanda.  The textbooks, the student-teacher ratio, the level of teaching and extra-curriculars are far different in Canada than in Rwanda. Where as highschool is a right in Canada, it is a privileged in Rwanda.

Rwanda will progress as a country but not necessarily through the penny counting of IMF loans, but through the resiliency and the cooperation of its people.  The GDP doesn't measure 18 years of continual work towards peace and reconciliation in this country.  It doesn't measure how Rwandans are trying to move forward to make some things right after the tragedy of the genocide.

The other day, the enrichment year students did a performance after a two week workshop led by the International Theater and Literacy Project.  The play was amazing (of course, but I am partial to these kids).  It was about reconciliation and peace.  Four of the characters in the play were orphans.  They were actually the heroes of the story because by working together, they brought back peace and restored order in the village that had been feuding.  They came together and although they were scared, and didn't think they could do it, one of them said something along these lines 'we are orphans but we are rich in mind. Together, we have the strength to do this.'

the orphans coming together to save the day (asyv theater)