By Jessi Moore
Today we left at 6:00 a.m. to head to Musanze and meet three agricultural cooperatives. The car ride was around an hour and half to get there. We finally made it and the first group we met taught us all about their banking. They taught us about buying shares and loans and how they hold people accountable for the amount of money spent and took. It was a little hard for me to understand but at the same time I was very intrigued by how they were doing things and how smoothly each thing worked. After we learned more we signed a visitor book, which was cool, and were on our way.
While we were heading to the next co-op I was talking about how cool it would be to ride a motorbike. We made it to the next co-op after a wonderful bathroom stop. This co-op focused on corn mainly but also made beautiful baskets that many people know about from Rwanda. They were so very welcoming and it warmed my heart to see how much love they had for us strangers. After we came out of the corn maze, Karen started whispering to my mom and then to Edward and next thing I knew I was on a motorbike. To say I was excited was an understatement!! Even though they told the driver to go slow and careful it was still a blast and I immediately told my mom that I wanted one. The motorbike drove me to where the baskets were while the car took the rest of the team. We ended up giving everyone in the thirty member co-op a bright yellow t-shirt and visor. It was very cool to see how they all matched and how excited these woman were. We took lots of photos and my heart was overjoyed to see all their smiles. We bought many bowls and other cool items from there and were heading out again on the way to our last co-op. I again got to go on the motor bike.
The last co-op welcomed us with joyful singing and clapping! And many kids smiling to see us. We sat on a bench and introduced ourselves as we did in every co-op. We then started dancing and all of the team members ended up dancing with them. Last year I did not like dancing with them because it was different and it made me uncomfortable but this year I loved every minute dancing with them. After we finished dancing they told us all about what they did and showed us their new equipment which was just amazing. They just got the equipment to make corn into flour which makes so much more money which is very helpful to them. It was cool to see this equipment out in a very non-mechanical place. God has really blessed that co-op and it was so cool to see how they showed all the love to Him.
While they were talking after I saw a boy with a superman shirt and I had a superman shirt on so I ran over to say hi and show him. Karen ran over to take a picture and a couple minutes later my mom took one of us also. They were so generous with the corn they gave us as a gift. We took it and thanked them and were on our way to see volcanoes, a waterfall, and then home. We first stopped to see the volcanoes and ended up giving corn to the group of kids that saw us and ran over. They were very happy to have the corn. After getting back in the car we were on our way to the waterfall that we went to last year. It was just as beautiful as last year. I went farther towards the actual water and the kids started screaming and my mom and I thought that they were yelling because they were worried that I will fall in. I thought it was very cute and sweet how they were worried about me. We took lots of pictures and were on our way home. We didn’t stop and made it back to the guest house and we all just fell on the couches exhausted from the day. We had dinner, devos, and bed. We were all very tired from our long day and needed sleep for tomorrow’s work at Faith Village.