Cross-cultural Learning in Rwanda

Sometimes a picture does convey a lot.  If one reads it carefully, and knows the context.

At one point in late July in Rwanda, 4 students were working in a house, wiring the house for LED lighting, powered by a battery charged by a solar panel installed on the roof.  In the foreground, a (Hong Kong) student from PolyU is fixing a LED light to the wall. Behind him his partner (black) student from South Africa is shining a light on the workspace.  In the back, near the front door, a Rwandan student from a vocational school is installing an electrical cable to the wall.  While her partner, another PolyU student (from Hong Kong) is connecting another cable. 

In the mean time, in another house, a student from Beijing Normal University is installing a light switch on the wall, neat the real entrance.  Her partner, another PolyU student, is passing her some equipment.  All under the watchful eye of their professor from PolyU. 

In yet another house, a Rwandan student is installing an outdoor light outside the rear entrance.  The owner of the house is supporting him by steadying the tree trunk that the student is standing on.  

At yet another house, PolyU students and a Rwanda youth team up to put a solar panel on the roof. 

Why do we get so many people from so many universities/institutions from so many countries involved in this one project?  Why isn’t it just PolyU students installing solar panels by themselves?  The foremost reason is that we envisage service-learning as a means to cross-cultural education.  We believe learning about different people, culture and beliefs helps us to open our minds, accept diversity, and enhance mutual understanding.  It also reduces misunderstanding, prejudice, and bigotry.  Ultimately for a kinder, better world.  

How does this happen?  Naturally, the PolyU students were the ones trained to install solar panels and wire up a house for electricity, throughout the Spring Semester at home.  When we arrive in Rwanda, PolyU students then help to train students from several partner universities of PolyU, from Mainland China, South Africa and Philippines, as well as the students from the local vocational school.  Together, they then enlist the house owners in designing the layout of the wiring for individual houses.  When the foreign teams left, the local students, suitably trained, can help with maintenance and repairs.  

Further behind and beyond, the professors and staff design the service-learning subjects, secure the funding, find the local partners, decide on the suitable communities, procure and ship the equipment and material, negotiate with partner universities and institutions, sort out the logistics, transportation, lodging, food (how do you feed hundreds of people in the field?), safety and health challenges (which and how many vaccinations?), …  These are the non-glamourous but critical operations.  

This is to acknowledge the contribution of the team that put together the program that enable the participants to have a great exotic journey, very meaningful and fulfilling experience, and fantastic photo opportunities. 

 

Brick-making Rwandan style

Most houses in the countryside in Rwanda seem to be built with mud bricks made of mud dried under the sun.   The process is fairly simple.  

Dig up and break up red coloured mud from the ground, creating a big gapping hole.  Mix with water.  

Place a rectangular mould roughly 30 cm x 15 cm x 15 cm on the ground.  Fill the mould with the mixed mud.  Remove the mould.  Let the mud brick dry under the sun.  Use.  

The dried mud brick feels hard.  But it crumples easily and gradually melts when it rains.    The house starts to crumple.  Hence a house built with mud bricks needs constant repairs. 

I was told each mud brick costs around 20 Rwandan Franc, which is equivalent to 0.015 USD. 

Some, a much smaller number of them, are built with fired bricks.  These are much smaller.  Roughly 20 cm x 8 cm x 5 cm each.  

The mud I have seen come from a river back, much finer and smoother.  

Again, it is mixed with water, and put in a mould, and dried under the sun.  

But then, they are stacked up to form the structure of a rudimentary kiln, leaving big holes underneath for the fire.  The stack of bricks is the kiln.  There is no other structure.

A thin layer of mud is placed over the structure.  Then a fire is lit and fed by wood under the the bricks, for several hours.   

When the kiln cools, the thin layer of sealing mud cracks and otherwise removed.  And the fired bricks can be taken away to be used.  When the bricks are removed, the kiln is no more. 

The fired bricks are much more robust and durable. They are also much more expensive, at 40 Franc each.  Considering their much smaller size, fried bricks are 10-15 times more expensive, for the same volume of bricks.  No wonder they are used much less often.  

Why No One helped?

As part of the cultural preparation for the project in Rwanda, we make the students watch the movie “Hotel Rwanda”, which dramatise an event that took place at Hotel Des Mille Collines during the genocide.  When the movie was finished, we asked the students to express their thoughts.  

One of the students asked, not surprisingly, something along the lines of: “When the genocide in Rwanda ws taking place, why didn’t the United Nations, or other powerful countries, intervene? When innocent people were brutally murdered, why didn’t anyone stop the killers?”Another added: “It is not just Rwanda, the same is happening to Somalia, Sudan, Gaza, …”

That is an excellent question that many have asked.  Some pointed out that both the victims and the killers were black Africans.  While many of the countries in a position to intervene were white, or at least non-black.  The people of these countries do not feel particularly connected with the people of Rwanda.  The conflict in Rwanda was internal and of little interest to these countries.  And intervening involved significant determination, commitment and resources.  Hence the indifference.   

We should ask the same of ourselves.  Are we disturbed, even outraged by these acts of cruelty, gross injustice?   If so, what have we done to help? Probably not much.  Perhaps for the same reasons for those countries that we are challenging?  If we have not cared enough to take action, what right do we have to blame others?

Come to think of it.  If the victims are family, close friends, or someone we have a strong bond with, we will certainly more strongly compelled to act, even at great cost or risk to ourselves.  So the degree of connection between us is a strong determinant of our motivation to help each other.  

That turns our to be one of the objectives of international service-learning as we practice it.  Take Rwanda as an example.  Since we started our project here, hundreds of students and staff from PolyU have been to Rwanda.  Many have developed strong bonds with the people of the country.  They/we have certainly shared our experiences with our colleagues, friends, family.  PolyU have recruited a number of students from Rwanda.  Some of them have already graduated, and some of them are actually working for us, on our projects in their own country at the moment as I write.  More will certainly come this way.  Some Rwandan applicants have said that they have heard of our service-learning projects in Rwanda and would like to participate in them.  In a tangible way, we have brought Rwandans and HongKongers closer to each other.  For some of them anyway.   Beyond Rwanda, we have also been working on Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, South Africa, …

The effect as a whole may still be small considering the vastness of the world and its problems.  But the impact on the individuals involved can be quite significant and even transformational. Many have been back to Rwanda multiple times.  At least one has been there 16 times!  And the hope is that more will join in that effort, and others like it.  

Why Rwanda?

We have been asked many times why we come to Rwanda.  That is, why do PolyU take our students to such a far away places to do service-learning projects?  Spending so much time and effect, and money.  

In 2013 we came to Rwanda with about a dozen students and a couple of teachers.  In 2024, there will be 120+ from PolyU, 40+ from outside PolyU, and 100+ from Rwanda participating in Habitat Green 2024 in Rwanda.  Why do we invest so much in Rwanda?

The simple answer is that here we can do innovative projects with great impact much appreciated by the community, with great benefits for our students.  But why does Rwanda allow us to do that?  That takes a little more time to explain.  

To start with, Rwanda remains one of the poorest country in the world, with large areas of the country without running water or electricity.  Hence there is tremendous need, making it relatively easy to make a big impact with a modest effort.  We still have to work hard, be bold and innovative. But there is good prospect of making a strong impact, which makes one motivated to do more.  The result is a virtuous cycle.  

Secondly, we have found an extremely hard-working and effective partner non-government organisation. They have identified investment in child education as a key strategy for poverty alleviation, and have developed very effective self-help groups as a mechanism for organisation.  They have a big team of field workers covering the whole country, and have very good relations with the government at multiple levels.  Hence they are excellent partners for service-learning.  Over the past decade, mutual respect and trust have developed between us, forming the foundation of a strong relationship. The result is another aspect of a virtuous cycle.  

Thirdly, they have suffered from extreme evil in the form of genocide and civil war, but have chosen to focus on reconciliation rather than revenge as a response to the evil, much of it based on the Christian faith.  In the mean time, the country is developing rapidly, based on education, science and rule of law. The country is one of the cleanest in the world, not just in the city streets where it is visible to all, but also in the countryside where few people visit.  HeI have nce, there is much that our students can learn from.  What we offer is technology with a heart.  What we learn is the value of strong character.  

Fourthly,  Rwanda offers something exotic, so radically different from Hong Kong that is quite exciting for staff as well as students.  Rwandans are so dark that we look pale in comparison.  Their language, culture, history and environment are so utterly dissimilar to ours that it is scary for some, but stimulating for others.  What is undeniable is that it offers tremendous learning opportunities for those who can handle it.  

I believe I have been to Rwanda 16 times so far, since the first time in 2013.  All because of service-learning.  With good reason. I believe the same, or something similar, applies to hundreds of students and staff from PolyU, and so many of our partners.  

 

Habitat Green 2024

The moment of truth is coming.  Our project(s) for Rwanda for summer 2024 is getting underway.  An advance team will be on the ground in a matter of hours.  I will be there on Sunday.  The rest of the team will arrive in batches.   The site this year is about 50 kilometres south east of Kigali.   The team will be staying at two guest houses run by Catholic nuns near Kabuga, to the east of Kigali.  From Kabuga to the project site it is mainly unpaved dirt roads, one of the challenges in even getting to the site.  

Two teams, one led by Computing and another by Electrical and Electronic Engineering, will form the core installing solar panels.  They will be joined by a smaller team comprising of students from university partners in the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN), a team of PolyU staff, and a team of secondary school students and teachers.  

A team led by Fashion and Textiles will be helping local village tailors to integrate modern techniques with traditional skills and patterns, to produce new designs.  

We will be joined by the staff of our local partner the African Evangelical Enterprise Rwanda, and students from the vocational school Center for Champions.  

Overall, there will be 120+ from PolyU, 40+ from outside PolyU, and 100+ from Rwanda participating in Habitat Green 2024 in Rwanda.  For a total of 260+. 

The advance mapping team has already produced a map of the 400+ houses involved in the project. They have already been allocated to project teams and colour coded for easier identification.  From the elevation lines it can be easily seen that some of the houses are situated on steep slopes and will be challenging to get to.  But these are precisely those households who are in greatest need of help.  So we will do our best to get to them and install solar panels for them. 

It will be challenging but also exciting, ultimately fulfilling, hopefully.  Please pray for success and safety of the team. 

 

Troubled Peoples 2024

On July 1st, I started a prayer for peoples who seem in one serious trouble or the other. 

Palestinians displaced internally in Gaza due to the Invasion by Israel’s army. 

Ukranians under attack from Russia’s army. 

Sudaneses caught in their civil war between two military factions.  

Syrian refugees internally displaced as well as dispersed to so many other countries. 

Yemenis suffering under their own civil war.  

Women in Afghanistan under the oppressive reign of the Taliban. 

Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh and other countries. 

Tibetans exiled into India and so many other countries. 

Uyghurs who feel oppressed. 

HongKongers exiled to United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, … 

Women in Iran who feel oppressed by their own government. 

Blacks in USA who feel continued oppression by Whites. 

Kurds fighting for their own country. 

Somalians threatened by continued insurgencies in a widely-perceived “failed” state. 

Nigerians threatened by continued wide-spread kidnapping and other forms of violence. 

Citizens in Democratic Republic of Congo suffering under continued military conflicts. 

People in Asmara and Tigray in northern Ethiopia who are practically in a civil war.  

North Koreans who feel they are living in a gigantic prison.

…

I found that I still have not finished the list at the end of July 2nd, while the list does not even begin to include those who are otherwise suffering from abject poverty, serious illness, …, and so many other forms of exploitation and oppression. 

Many people are in trouble.  Yet most of us are not aware of them.  Perhaps do not even care, or feel that is somebody-else’s business.  And that includes so many of us Christians.  I feel that God does care, and how can we not?