So. A thousands words, eh?

Burning hot sun. White teeth. Rice and beans. Eucalyptus. Birds of prey. Kigali. Brochettes of salted goat-meat. Pink baby-feet. Mandazi with cold Coca Cola. Les soeur catholic de Simbi. Two avocados per day. Lava rocks. Grenzeloos enthusiasm. Papaya. Soil erosion. Sunbirds. Round children’s bellies. Maximum levels of curiosity. Grey-cheeked mangabey. Horrible smelling breathes. Jacaranda. Cold food. Stones stuck in my sandals. Bright twinkling stars. Non-scared birds, all around. School uniforms. Very dirty feet. Beautiful boys. Stinky crowded minibuses. Tufted eagle. Big smiles. Genocide. Beans with rice. Walk, walk, walk, walk, and yes, lets walk a little more. Magical marshland, at night; the sounds of (bull-) frogs, crickets, the numerous fireflies and stars... Pineapple juice. Sweetest shakes of the smallest hands. Moto taxis. Red feet. Cute smiles. Ruhengeri. Yelling pastors. Cassava. Kingfishers. Shorts, flip flops, short sleeves. Good coffee. Mighty thunder storms. Horrible acting in African television soaps. Mountain gorillas. Salty peanuts and beer (Primus, Skol, Mutzig, Amstel). Friendly smiles. Getting soaked to the bone by pouring tropical rains. White NGO Toyota pick-ups. Lantana montana. Lake Kivu. Hundreds of black kites. Lac Bulela. Broken toilet. Kinyarwanda. Cold bucket showers. Blue monkeys. Longest church services in the world. Mango…! Thousands, and thousands of suicidal termites. Blackest eyes. Sweat. Creating your own toys. Paper bags. Internet cafes. Two names, for each town or city. Kestrels. Volcanoes. MTN airtime. Long, winding, climbing, and falling roads. Uncomplicated breast-feeding. Rice with beans. A continuously pink nose. Thousands of Rwandan Francs. White bread with salty margarine. Staring guys. Black and white crows. Premier League. Safari ants. Bike taxis. Married flirting man. Beautiful and impressive cloud formations. “We’re gonna dance for the Lord!” Doing laundry by hand. Steep, breath-taking, hillsides. Brown legs. Non-scared birds everywhere. French. Tree tomato. Unbelievable good (male) dancers. Butare. Beans. Landrovers with white people. Sweetest children. Passion fruits. Hand-woven baskets. Endemics. Blond arm-hear. Fufu with beans. 1994. African Harrier Hawk. Huge moths. Loads of time. “Komera mzungu!”. Beans, rice. Mosquito nets. Tiny paths leading everywhere. Litres of hot milk with some tea and a lot of sugar. Dirty dust. HIV Aids. A quite dry rain season. No toilet paper. Bananas. Moto taxis. 500-year old trees. Malaria. Utter darkness. Ibis. Power cuts (‘No fire’). Gisenyi. Quartz. Huge hospitality. Welcome to the land of a thousand hills!

Blijft leuk..

Kigali by night.

Beans + volcano.

Sakina.

Some portrets.

Alive, and screaming :)

Research subject

With only one-third of my fieldwork left, I still need to explain the scientific reason for my trip to Africa; most of you must be curious. Well, in short, I am here to assess the availability of livestock feed resources in Umurera village. There are three categories of farmers – poor, poorer, poorest – and my research focuses on 3 households for each of the categories. Main activities are: 1. To measure the feed amount (per plant species) for livestock (which means a goat for the poorest, cattle for the other farmers), and 2. To measure the total land size of each of the farmers. The latter to be able to estimate the possible production numbers in case field edges are used for fodder production. The main idea is to figure out whether it is, or will, be possible for the poorest farmers to keep a cow, which would improve their situation through the production of milk and manure.

Umurera village, and Lac Bulela