It felt good to be back in Africa for the first time since the pandemic.  The location of my volunteer assignment was Rwanda. The country is famous or infamous for two things: tracking mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains and the site of the genocide of Tutsis in 1994. The former are a critically endangered species, albeit now growing in numbers. The latter event is fortunately history. Thirty years on, the genocide is always present, but the country now is a model of recovery: it is one of the safest countries in Africa, well organized, nearly litter free – – and to my unsophisticated eye – – absent tribal or ethnic strife. The president, Paul Kagame, is credited with leading Rwanda back from its darkest days to its very promising present. He is quite popular in the country.  In the most recent presidential election, he won 99% of the vote.  Hmm?

Rwanda calls itself, the Land of One Thousand Hills. Many of which were right around my hotel.  I think of myself as a brisk walker. But that illusion was shattered: walking uphill a skinny local guy passed me while pushing a bike laden with two giant bags of charcoal. All I was carrying was my iPhone. Never underestimate the capabilities of the locals.

And speaking of the locals, I worked with COCOF, a women’s organization whose mission is to raise the status and equality of rural women.  I was asked to help this organization develop a five-year strategic plan to guide the achievement of their mission. Among their goals are efforts to enhance their agricultural services to farmers, entice more young women into farming or other agricultural related fields, e.g. tractor repair, and assist women to open bank accounts, secure business loans, and manage their finances.

I asked one member of the organization how they could measure progress toward their goal of enhanced female equality.  She replied, “We could visit their homes.  If the home is clean and well organized, then she has become more equal.” But, I thought to myself, “Or she has become less equal, but a better housekeeper.”

This women’s organization serves both genders, but membership is solely female.  The board of directors (all women) hired five executive staffers to run the day-to-day operations.   Curiously though, four of the five paid positions hired are men.  I did not question the wisdom nor the rationale for such a selection.  But I did recommend that the organization redouble their efforts to place more women in leadership positions.

One such position could be to run their seed bank, an effort to collect the seeds of the most productive crops after harvest and then redistribute them to the farmers prior to the next planting season.  My clients pronounce seed bank as “seedy bank;” so I thought they were saying, “Citibank.”  I couldn’t figure out how these poor farmers planned to open a branch of a major international bank in rural Rwanda.  Eventually, enough of my requests to please repeat, clarified the matter.

The NGO that brought me to Rwanda was Land O’Lakes – – of butter fame, but with a non profit arm. In addition to working with COCOF, they arranged for me to conduct a lecture at UNILAK University in Kigali.  I was asked to speak about marketing to a class of graduate students who aspire to start their own businesses. In our classroom that day were inspirational quotations painted on the ceiling.  I suppose if a student briefly falls asleep and then snaps his head back, he will see the quotes on the ceiling. One was attributed to Babe Ruth: It’s hard to beat someone who never gives up. I doubt they know who Babe Ruth was, nor do they know about baseball in soccer-mad Africa. Here’s another quote from the Babe worth mentioning: Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game. Striking out would be a foreign concept among Rwandans.  But I digress.

My partner, Micky, joined me near the end of my work assignment.  After the assignment we proceeded to circumnavigate this hilly landlocked country. (About the size of Maryland) Our driver was Debs, a charming 23 year-old woman who has broken the glass ceiling in the male dominated driver/guide hospitality world. She said her friends work as hairdressers, hotel receptionists, or have no jobs.  I asked if they were jealous of her.  “No, they are happy for me.”  Great attitude.

Our first stop was Lake Kivu, Africa’s sixth largest.  It lies in the Great Rift Valley and is surrounded by many of Rwanda’s thousand hills.  We set out on rented mountain bikes to conquer the Congo Nile Trail.  The leader of our biking expedition warned us that when you get on the actual trail, “You will cry.” The actual trail was dirt, nearly vertical, and had large rocks and small boulders densely located on the trail. I didn’t actually cry, I’m much too macho for that.  I can’t speak for Micky; she was too far ahead for me to see tears.  Anyway, we bailed out of the bike trail after four hours and rented a boat for a trip to Napoleon’s Hat Island.

The climb to the top of the hat was steep but we did it on foot, not on bikes.  Advice given to us: “Watch for snakes and don’t step on them.  They are not aggressive, but they are venomous…so don’t step on them.”  We passed under a stand of trees, the roosting place – – the upside down roosting place – – of 2000 fruit bats – all as big as rats.  Kind of creepy, 2000 bats echolocating the trespassing visitors three feet beneath them.  They are not venomous, nor carnivorous, they eat fruit. But creepy all the same.

We also visited Gisakura Tea Estate, Rukari Kings Palace in Nyanza, and Nyungwe and Akagera national parks.  Way too much to report on here but rest assured that we did not strike out in Rwanda.