We're Spreading The Sh*t...

We are very excited to report that while we continue to expand The Sh*t Starts Here in the Musanze District of Volcanoes National Park in NW Rwanda, we will also be meeting with Rwandan communities in the NE, next to Akagara National Park and in the SW, next to Nyungwe Forest National Park. 

Akagara is home to all manner of wildlife, including elephants, giraffe, zebra and soon, lions, cheetah and leopard. 

Nyungwe is home to the largest concentration of primates in all of Africa, including large families of chimpanzees. 

So once again, our project becomes a conservation initiative as well as an income-generating, community-building one, in that anything that stabilizes the communities around the national parks protects the wildlife inside its boundaries from poaching.

 

We were encouraged to spread the sh*t farther afield during our last visit back in October, 2012.

We were honoured to be invited to attend an annual general meeting of the Rwandan Development Board (RDB) and the various sector heads in Musanze District.

The meeting focused on continued economic development, community improvement and park protection and conservation.

What an exciting moment for us when the Chief Park Warden, having responded somewhat quizzically at our initial meeting 2 years ago, now stood and described our project to those gathered, explaining, we learned from Paul's whispered translations, that it was the perfect example of an initiative that meets all the RDB's goals and mandates-

targeting the disadvantaged to achieve life improvement; 

encouraging long-term vision, ownership, community participation, benefit and sustainability;

having a visible impact; 

having a way of tracking; 

having a management plan; 

decreasing human pressure on the park- 

and we did it all with no economic impact on the RDB! 

Paul really is a genius!

Buoyed by this affirmation, we have our sights set on spreading the sh*t far and wide.

And so,we are equally excited to report that we will also be expanding the project into Northern Uganda, beginning with a visit there at the end of January, 2013, to determine our plan of action. 

We will be working with some of the communities ravaged by Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, helping them, in a small but effective way, as they recover and rebuild.

Is It Really 2 Years Of This Sh*t Already...

We celebrated our 2nd anniversary this past September.

In two short years we have over 1,500+ tagged sheep in the project, with more being born regularly and another 200+ females and 40 males to be purchased in the coming weeks.

We have directly affected the lives of close to 8000 men, women and children with cash in pocket (as we source sheep locally), improved crop yields (from 5 sacks of potatoes to 8 sacks), and access to funds (selling sheep) to pay for school fees, health concerns and home improvements.

139 of our first recipients have already completed the terms of their contract and, while we were there, each paid forward a female sheep. These little darlings are the first off-spring of the initiative!

It was incredible to watch as one of farmers from our first group of recipients addressed this group to tell them about his experience with our initiative. He was excited to point out how, in 2 short years he's gone from having no sheep to having 5, even after he paid forward a sheep! As long as he maintains 3 females, he can now eat or sell 2 sheep. That's a potential $100. in his pocket! And the 3 remaining females will produce up to 6 off-spring in the coming months!

Innocente (in the long, black coat) addresses members of the Amizero group.

 

And for the first time, we were joined by 3 very generous sponsor, Roman & Wendy Jovey and Andrea Fine, who were eager to experience Rwanda and see our project.

A whirlwind visit, each day full of insight and adventure, including an Indiana Jones-style trek up and down dense, steep, muddy mountain jungle following elusive chimps, a chance meeting with baboons, and an incredibly up close and personal encounter with the world's only mountain gorillas!

All that in only 3 days!

 

 

Paul also arranged for the opportunity to visit a local school to deliver them various supplies purchased in town (to help the local economy) and to interact with the students while sheep were being tagged for our project nearby.

 

Another trek through farmland, back into the National Park to see Colobus Monkeys...

and finally a visit to our newly fenced, leased land, most immediately being used to temporarily hold sheep being paid forward until delivery can be arranged. The first 139 sheep all spent up to 4 days here before trucks arrived to deliver them. That's a lot of manure to turn into compost!

and then 6 more days on safari in Tanzania! But that's a whole other story...

Greetings all.

Just home.

Sending out thanks to all my wonderful women for all the runnings shoes!

4 hockey bags filled with almost 300lbs of 150 pairs of runners of all styles and sizes made their way from Toronto to Musanze earlier this month, changing planes in Amsterdam and Nairobi.

Paul, our Rwandan partner, connected us with a local girls' high school, government run, for orphans and especially poor.

As the school population was significantly higher than 150 girls, the headmaster determined that girls participating in school athletics would get the runners, to enable them to participate effectively. (It's hard to play soccer in flip-flops.)
The most amazing part of the experience was, in the end, how generous the girls were with each other.
Very counter to the 'f#8k y#o' free-for-all' I've witnessed at clearance house events here in Toronto over the years!


This was but one small part, impacting in a simple yet profound way, of a very exciting and productive trip.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make the event back in June such a success.
Roughly the same time next year, ladies?

Oops, Wait...There's More Sh*t...

I almost forgot to mention that I had a 'Celebration Of Women' back on June 28th. A wonderfully eclectic group of women were treated to an evening of insight and aMUSEment thanks to a very talented group of 4 Intuitives (aka psychics) lead by Mara Leja who read Tarot, Rune stones, Goddess cards and the like, as well as some pampering thanks to masseuses Kimberley Landreville and Heather Heaney. Beautiful handmade jewelry by Shari Morasch and gift cards by yours truly provided a shopping opportunity.

Every woman was asked to bring gently used running shoes to be given to our Rwandan sisters when Jeff and I return to Musanze in October.

I am happy to report that thanks to all these wonderful women, we raised just under $1,000. and 150 pairs of running shoes!

Hey, What's Up With That Sh*t?

It's been quite a while since we updated our blog and there is much to tell you about this little initiative that just keeps growing and gaining traction.
Our February trip seems so long ago.

A brief recap...
Beatrice's house was rebuilt and the community volunteers were kind enough to wait for us before the finishing touches.

As these homes are a combination of wood and a mud/aggregate/cement mixture, we were able to help out with the 'mud' flinging that fills the spaces between the wood. It was great fun, very cathartic, and not nearly as easy as it first looked.

With Paul, our co-founder, Beatrice and Andrew, the leader of The Porters Club of farmers, all standing inside Beatrice's unfinished house.

A volunteer smooths the 'mud' 

We are excited to visit Beatrice and her children living in their new home when we return in October.

We also had a chance to be present for another round of sheep purchase and delivery, this time beginning with the first of the Amizero Group of farmers.
It was a lovely surprise to see that some of the recipients were the same people we met when we stayed over-night at a "traditional village', Iby'lwacu almost 2 years ago. In fact, Jeff had drummed and I did some dancing!

Andrew, the leader of The Porters Club of farmers addressed concerns the farmers had that they would soon have more sheep than they could look after, and wanted to get on with the last part of their commitment to the project, passing on a sheep to other Rwandan farmers from a different cooperative.

Logistics such as the great walking distances between the various farming groups made it difficult to easily pay forward the sheep owed to the project on an individual basis. It would also be more difficult to keep track of the growing number of sheep and to tag them, as well as to have them examined by a vet.

We would need a place to keep the sheep until the transfers could take place.

And so our project begins another initiative.
Thanks to the incredible generosity of a small handful of supporters who will be joining us on a trip to Rwanda/Tanzania in October, we are in the process of negotiating a 5 year lease on a lovely little piece of land, in the heart of the farming community, next to the Iby'lwacu Village, very near a small, spring-fed lake where women and children come to fill their gerry cans with water.
The lease contract is being prepared now, in Knyarwanda of course, so we will have to wait for the translation to be forwarded to us.

Once again, we cannot thank Paul, our co-founder, enough for all his commitment to this amazing little endeavour. It's really his efforts, along with the Rwandan farmers, that make this all possible.

standing on our land with Iby l'wacu Village in the distance

the spring-fed lake just beside our land

It's Not The Same Old Sh*t...

Many of the farmers from our first project, The Porters Club, are now ready, and eager, to pass a sheep on to another farmer, this time from The Amizero (Hope) Group.
And The Amizero Group have been meeting in preparation for our arrival on February 8th.





Meanwhile, we have also undertaken a small side-project.
Beatrice is a hard-working single mother of 3 and struggling subsistence farmer. After only one year Beatrice went from no sheep to 4 sheep! The ewe she received from the project was already pregnant. It gave birth to a female lamb and then went on to have female twins 10 months later. And all 4 will reproduce before the end of 2012. That’s a load of sh*t in the best sense!
Her crop yield increased and she started a small kitchen garden with her children’s assistance.
The co-operative leaders showed us the broken down state of Beatrice’s small, single room home back in October 2011. I didn’t have the heart to look inside. They said if we provided the materials necessary, the community would build her a new one.
Done!
So when we return in February, we will be part of the construction crew in this community initiative.
And we will witness as Beatrice, now the proud owner of a flock of sheep, passes one on to another farmer in a new co-operative. Rwandans helping Rwandans, making us eventually obsolete.