*other CWB team members also built the house……
Before today I can’t really say I’ve heard of Umuganda and I dare say not many of you reading this have either? What is it? To put it simply it’s a day when the community comes together to help somebody who is in need and in this case it was for a chap who was disabled but had nowhere to live. So at 9am sharp about 120 people gathered to build him a house. Why not, pretty normal right? Imagine this happening back in the UK, it just wouldn’t. Not unless it was the basis for a tv programme!
After grabbing bricks and dragging them 60/70 metres and getting filthy straight away, the organisers thought it best to split us into two lines, one line passing wet cement/solid stuff/goodness knows what to each other, while the others passed the bricks (of varying sizes to each other). After about an hour we got all the resources to the right place and the house was finished in no time. Although there’ll be some sore CWB members tomorrow.
After a well needed clean and feed we were back out and ready to teach the first sessions of the trip. Led by Emmy, our Ambassador in Musanze, the team including four first time volunteers got their first action of the tour! A gentle introduction into CWB life on the road with a session with around 50 secondary schools children, getting some cricket played and some vital ABCT messages.
Unfortunately the day was then cut short by rain (typical days cricket in the north) and sessions rearranged for later in the week. Nevertheless a really meaningful day for the team. I’ve never seen anything like what happened this morning before on a CWB trip and found it really amazing how to community dig together for a friend in need. A really touching day.
Let’s see what tomorrow holds..
Danny
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