A New Adventure

Hey All!!

So I am once again going on an adventure, setting out to try and understand this strange world we live in.

This year has been phenomenal. Given the obvious ups and downs of moving to a new city and going to university I have learned so much, given some fuel to my passions and grown happier by the day. Montreal is maybe the best city in the world, and I don't mean that as a hyperbole. I have met wonderful people and set off on the life long journey to break down the McGill admin. I have tested the waters of left wing radical politics and activism and can't wait for more. I've learned to combine my love for Africa and History with academia and am loving every moment of it. In short, this year has been an adventure of it's own. But a new one starts now - and here it is...

On May 8th I will be setting off to Rwanda (eeeeep! Rwanda, for those of you who read my last year's blog you'll know how much Rwanda means to me). The deal this time is that I am doing an internship with End Poverty Now, an NGO (Non-Government Organization) which is dedicated to ending poverty through education and sustainability.

This trip will be pretty different from the last one. Aside from the new country and culture my role will be drastically different. I will be working at a project through a smaller Rwandan run organization called the Rwandan Village Concept project on one of their smaller projects with a group of widows living in a village about 30 minutes outside of Butare (the old capital of Rwanda, previously known as Huye, about 2.5 hours from Kigali).

The project is through a widows organization to make and sell honey products for a living. The numbers of the project are breathtaking as they claim that within the first year the women will have increased their wages by up to 80%. Wow. Many of these women's husbands were killed in the genocide, or in some cases from HIV. I truly believe that women are the silenced backbone of Africa and I am so excited to work with these women as they attempt to eliminate poverty in their community with this project.

My job at the root is pretty boring. The project is brand new (it was began in February). Since End Poverty Now (EPN) is an NGO it has to prove to the Candian government that all it's funds are going towards it's projects, and that it's projects are indeed running. So, my job is to go, take pictures, keep journals, keep records of all money dispensed, check books, put up some kind of End Poverty Now sign and ensure that things are just generally running smoothly. Eventually I think EPN will send this information onto the Canadian government as proof that this specific project is really up and running.

Luckily, this bureaucratic bull shit does not have to be the be all and end all of my work. I will also get to; work in the fields with the women, learning about how to make honey, hang out with the women, just doing the general talking about life thing (I am hoping for the occasional theorectical discussion on feminism) and dig around for whatever else needs to be done at the project. As well, I think that Hovaire, the director of the Rwanda Village Concept Project is wanting to start up another project and wants to utilize my language abilities to help him out with that. I am more then happy to do that since it sort of falls in line with what I was doing at House of Hope in Uganda.

I am leaving in 3 days. I still haven't subleted my apartment (please, if you know anyone send them my way!) and am completely distracted by that. Nonetheless, I am really excited to be going, and hopefully once the plane takes off I will just let my Canadian worries disappear. Most of all I am excited to be going to Rwanda, a country which has fascinated me for years. I am there until the end of August but am definitely going to take some time to travel back through Uganda to see some old friends, hug a few well missed children, and finish off with a night or two in Nairobi, discovering the attractions of Kenya. My hope is to pick up as much Kinrwanda as I can while living in Rwanda, since this time the adjustment period (hopefully) won't be as long, since I kind of understand the African routine. Montreal will definitely be missed, especially after living through the longest and most brutal winter of my life I feel I deserve to enjoy a little bit more of the wonderful summer here - but I'll be back in no time and will have a summer in Montreal one day. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to some friends whom I know will be having some good times without me - but hopefully facebook will let me live vicariously.

I will be updating this blog as often as possible, with estimated internet time of once every week to 2 weeks. You are all welcome to e-mail me any thoughts and just hellos at ally.macadams@gmail.com (i've changed e-mails).

As well, I will be keeping another blog going for the purposes of End Poverty Now with more project oriented information. That one will be kept more updated more often with details about the project. My plan is to keep this blog more for thoughts, emotions, and travels which fall outside of the EPN realm. Hopefully this blog will also include more pictures then I had up last time... but we'll see how that goes.
You can (and should!) check that blog out at : http://sustainabilibee.blogspot.com/

Here's to a new adventure, and a new visit to Africa. As the year has gone by I have only fallen more in love with Africa and have learned many new names, dates and anecdotes to put with my love. I cannot wait to go learn more hands on - oh change in the making!! It's going to be a good summer.