Umuganda Meeting

I apologize for the complete lack of pictures but I still really wanted to share.

After Umuganda was over, we wrapped up the work day with a community meeting.  Of course, I was expecting this would be in a school or somewhere inside with chairs but instead we went to a school yard and everyone settled themselves in grass under a big tree.

The mayor of Nyamata and other government officials led the meeting.  It is worth noting that they might refuse to sign something official for you if they never see you participate in Umuganda. After congratulating the community on how many people came out, they started talking about newly arrived Rwandan refugees fromTanzania.  They have lived their whole lives in Tanzania after their families fled during the violence in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s but now were forced back to Rwanda.  A lot of these people know little about Rwanda and don’t even know where their families were originally from.

They’ve been living in rented residences but it is very expensive for the government and they need to have permanent homes.  He solicited help from the community, saying even a single bag of concrete will help the homes get built.  The people at this meeting were from every income level too but he asked for any help at all.  This idea transitioned flawlessly into the mayor reminding people to be building edifices out of concrete instead of mud.  He only half joked that if anyone builds a mud unit, they’d better cover it with a tent.  He pledged to demolish it if he sees it.

The meeting next proceeded to nutrition where they went over good nutrition habits and the importance of nutrition.  I unfortunately can’t give you much more information than that because my Kinyarwanda kinda sucks and I was getting all my information from my friend next to me.  But he also talked about how there were not good rains this year so crops are not doing well and people will need to be strong if they are hungry.  This seemed kind of hopeless and too accepting of a bad situation, but I guess people don’t have very much choice.

Near the end of the meeting things got a little more sensational.  A man who had just left jail for theft was invited to come to the front, take the megaphone and apologize to the crowd and promise his life of crime was over.  One person in the crowd suggested he tell them the names of his partners but that idea was quickly squashed considering it might make people angry.  I was a bit relieved by that decision with all the machetes in the crowd for Umuganda.  Then another man came up and said he’d been robbed just last night and the thief was part of the trio that robbed him.  Right then and there it was decided the thief is no longer welcome in Nyamata and officials would escort him home to get his belongings and make sure he leaves that day.  Not exactly innocent until proven guilty, eh?  On the other hand, the public nature of the issue would definitely discourage people from committing similar crimes.