The Journey Begins...

After weeks of hectic traveling, the Ungana Foundation is finally planting their roots in their new home base of Gisenyi, Rwanda. Please forgive our lack of updates, but in the coming stories you will soon understand why we have been largely unable to report our journey until the present time. Before the long narrative of our story takes place, it is necessary to thank all who have wished us well in our travels and have given their support and blessings to help ensure our safety. We would also like to thank all of the hard work that has been poured into this project by our associates, volunteers, friends and family, without whom we would not be able to call the Ungana Foundation a success. Gratitude aside, it is time to begin our tale. Picking up where our last post left off, we boarded a plane to Doha, Qatar. Taking full advantage of this stopover, we met with the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service to share our project with students and faculty in hopes to inspire students to start their own organization. After conversing with the students and faculty we felt energized about our work and ready to truly impact the lives of our host community. Even more invigorating is that right before our presentation we found out that:WE HAD RECEIVED THE OLPC CONTRACT!!! I apologize for the caps, but this point really really needs to be emphasized. Because not only are we starting our Social Entrepreneurial program alongside our Community volunteer program, we also have the ability to inspire the youth of Gisenyi through the deployment of 100 laptops! With this news we were eager to get to Rwanda and start providing opportunity and inspiration to the people of Rwanda. But before we could head to our final destination, it was necessary to conduct research on our Banana Fiber Machinery options in India. It is difficult to think how a five hour flight can take you from a calm commercially developed city to an overcrowded noisy world, but it was this shock that we experienced at 3:40 AM upon our arrival in Mumbai. Something that must be said about India above all else is the astounding kindness of the people. Through heat waves, night trains and somewhat terrifying rickshaw rides, our experiences with the people of Indian provided some sanity in our new uncertain surroundings. During our stay in India we learned much about the mechanical process of banana fiber and had the opportunity to witness the extraction of Banana Fibers first hand. This experience alongside our meeting with various organizations provided valuable information to help us in establishing our main project, Investment in Ideas for the Future (IIF). Although incredibly beneficial, the trip to India was not without its challenges. The hectics of our travel that I had referred to earlier in the post can be attributed mainly to our erratic schedule. In brief, within 48 hours we had arrived in Mumbai, travelled to Chennai at 11:00 AM and boarded a train to Tiruchi at 10:30PM. This may not sound as challenging, but add in incredible heat mixed with humidity, the second largest population in the world, 8 large bags and no sleep and hopefully you can see our difficulties. All complaints aside, we left India with a better sense of our project, new friends and a readiness to work towards our objectives. After 6 planes, two overnight trains, a variety of taxi's, and some foot work we arrived in our home and place of work for the next 3 months. Upon arriving in Kigali you cannot help but feel a sense of refreshment, especially coming from a long flight from India. The air is crisp and the streets are clean while the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Through our three hour ride through the sunset and darkness of Rwanda, it was finally possible to take a deep breath and reflect upon the enormity of the work we have set out to accomplish. In the following post I will elaborate on our time thus far in Gisenyi and provide an overview of the work we hope to accomplish over the next three months, stay tuned....