Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Rwanda training

The Spring term has just started.  And the team that will travel to Rwanda in July has already started their classes.  Through out Spring, they will learn the basic concepts of service-learning, the importance of (lack of) energy, green energy in particular, the technology behind solar panels and installation of a simple electrical power system with LED lights and phone charger, the cultural and economic situation in Rwanda, …  And then the team will travel to Rwanda in July, to spend 2 weeks there, installing solar panels. 


From 2021 to 2024, our teams had been installing solar panels around Rwamagana, in the east of Rwanda, towards the direction of Tanzania.  This year, we are moving to Huye, in the south of Rwanda, near the border with Burundi.  In November, I went there with a small advance team to check out the potential sites, meet with our local partner, government officials, checkout the routes and distances, potential accommodation, eateries, hospitals, purchase of supplies, etc.  


Huye is more hilly than Rwamagana, a bit like Gikomero in the north of Gazabo, where we worked before moving to Rwamagana.  Some of the houses have tin roofs like those common in Gikomero and Rwamagana.  There are also some with more traditional tiled roofs. These require a different method of installation of the solar panels on the roof.  These are some of the adjustments that we have to make, whenever we move to a new site.  Hence the importance of advance site visits and planning.   



We use a game to help our students learn about the countryside in Rwanda.  It is a kind of board game where students have to match a number of residents to where they live on the map.  All the information involved in the game: the people, the layout, the roads, the terrain, the type of houses, vegetation, animals, occupation, level of poverty, etc., are all based on our own experiences and made to be as realistic as possible.  Physically we cannot travel to Rwanda until July.  But we want to get the students as familiar with the situation over there as possible.  


Closer to the project dates, a mapping team will have to go to Rwanda to find all the 400 houses, with help from the local villagers and government officials, geo-locate them on a digital map  This digital map of the village will be very important for planning, job assignment and other purposes.  This will also be the first ever accurate digital map of the village, ever.  



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