Gardens for Health.

We have been very, very fortunate here in ARC Rwanda to connect with a small but vibrant NGO called Gardens for Health International.

GHI works with people living with HIV/AIDS here in Rwanda, helping them learn about nutrition and how to grow the vegetables that they need in order to improve their health. You can learn more about GHI on their website, www.gardensforhealth.org.

In the refugee camps, GHI's wonderful trainers are helping some of our Income Generation Program groups to develop demonstration gardens to show other refugees how to grow fresh vegetables in very small spaces, either for home consumption or for sale at the market.

Members of our Nyabiheke Camp group pictured here completed their Phase I training earlier this month, and starting this week they will be planting gardens using the bio-intensive agriculture techniques that they studied in the training.

The trainers told us that this is the most engaged and enthusiastic group that they have ever trained, and I'm not surprised. If you ask the refugees what they did in Congo before fleeing their homes, about 90 percent of them will tell you that it was something related to agriculture. Through this training they are learning more about an activity that they already understand, and they appreciate the value of good agricultural practice.

The garden plots that are available in and around the camp are tiny compared to the vastness of the Congo, but the seeds of knowledge planted here can flourish anywhere.

A Time to Mourn.

Today we sadly mourn the death of our wonderful colleague, Louise Bodji, who has been the Income Generation Program Coordinator in Nyabiheke Camp since the program started in 2006.

Louise died yesterday in a hospital in Kigali after a brief illness.

Everyone who worked with Louise B. knew her as a kind, gentle and compassionate soul whose dedication to her work and all of the refugees was nothing short of extraordinary.

I took this photo last year, in the camp, as Louise and I observed a meeting of one of our self-managed savings groups. Louise and her team were justifiably proud of the fact that although Nyabiheke had the smallest population of any of the camps, they had the most savings groups, the largest number of members, and the largest amount of money saved.

But the smile that you see here is one of genuine warmth and affection for the people she served.

Merci, Louise, et bon repos. We will miss you.

Peace Island

Finally back in Rwanda, and back to work, but we were able to take some time out last Sunday for a boat trip and picnic at Amahoro Island in Lake Kivu. Amahoro means "peace" in Kinyarwanda.

The lake was as lovely as I have seen it in the many times that I have been to Kibuye, but this was my first time to go out on the water.

The outing was organized by the ARC Kibuye staff to welcome our new volunteer, Robin Weil. She's the other white woman in the photos. She arrived last week from her home in Eugene, Oregon to work with us here in the Income Generation Program in Kiziba Camp for six months.

We're very happy to have her and it looks as if she is happy to be here, too!