And More Good Sh*t...

In old days manure from various animals, once dried, was used as medicine!
It was rubbed on the body, mixed into food, or made into a tea!
Did you know that dried manure can be burned to keep houses warm or for cooking fuel?
No shit!

Greetings from what is now, here anyway, The  Nkunda U Rwanda Project -a kinder, gentler name we've adopted locally that means "The I Love Rwanda Project".
It seems "The Shit Starts Here" just doesn"t translate.

Our meeting today was with the Executive, yes Executive, of a cooperative of ex-poachers who refer to themselves as 'The Hope Group'.
There are 567 members, divided into 16 groups, spanning a distance of 60km.

We were positively blown away!
From the president to the accountant, this Executive was organized and cohesive, proving that a lack of resources doesn't equal a lack of intelligence!

A small group of hunters had voluntarily stopped poaching in 2000.
In 2007 The National Park started paying a small allowance to the first ex-poachers to encourage others to join them.
Their numbers have grown steadily since then, recognizing that it was better for them, their community and the future of their children to protect the animals and their environment.
Today, having given up illegal hunting, those that do not have land to farm are limited to making potato seeds to sell at market and carving wooden gorillas and walking sticks for sale to tourists for income.
While every family has a small house, for those who do not have land, farmland is shared, kibbutz style.

We were originally only meeting with these representatives to determine if and when we might begin working with a new cooperative.
Thinking that we wanted to see our first cooperative of porter/farmers firmly established, and knowing that set-backs are still likely to occur, we were thinking that maybe in another year or so we'd be ready to expand.

Well, we were so impressed with The Hope Group that we decided to excellerate our timetable and begin immediately.
In fact, an initial proposal for a contract will be drafted before we leave Musanze.

Now, sourcing 567 sheep for purchase is a daunting and expensive task, so we agreed to start with roughly half the cooperative, knowing the rest would have to wait a year or more, after the start date more than 3 months away.
How to decide who the recipients would be?

We were once again blown away when the Executive of The Hope Group immediately suggested that we focus our efforts on those most in need.

Wonderfully not the expected "what about me" thinking

They brought to our attention an area they call The Critical Zone.
The soil is especially poor and it is located near the animals in the National Park, thus being a constant temptation to revert to illegal hunting.
6 of the 16 groups live in this area, roughly 220 families.
So we will be purchasing 220 females and 44 males.

We're stoked!

And the shit continues...

The next few days  will be a whirlwind of various farm visits, meetings with local government officials, banks, and even the Park Warden, and last but not least, one of the neediest of the local schools.

A special thank you goes out to the kids at Perth Elementary School who raised $100 one dollar at a time, selling bracelets, to help buy 2 sheep.
The beautiful story book they made has pleased and amazed both young and old alike.
And to Trish, the very special  teacher/librarian that inspired them, our thanks for passing on "The Truth About Poop", a charming and insightful book for kids of all ages that has inspired the "what next?" part of our collective efforts here.

Stay tuned for more shit...