a week in the life of me!

Hi!

I thought in light of the fact that my time here is almost over, it might be a good time for me to do a bit of a fun post to give you some more insight into what has been my life here. Let's look at what a week in my life typically looks like :)

So during the week (before graduation - see previous post), I spent Monday - Thursdays at the "DuHope house", as we call it, just being present with the women and the staff, giving feedback, and generally bugging people for English translation of conversations taking place around me.

Wednesdays and Fridays were staff meeting days. I particularly enjoyed the Friday meetings as this was a time to regroup with all the DuHope staff, including the social workers, and hear about how the women were doing at home, their families, their health, etc. This time became a very important support for our staff as it was quite therapeutic in nature (thanks to Rwanda's best ever counsellor, Therese, who we call "Mama") :) A lot of the topics that came up in these meetings are the things we will be addressing as we try to perfect our program.

I have been so grateful for the community I have outside of DuHope here too.

On Monday nights, I usually help out at YoungLife here at the international school. I was never involved in YL in the States, but it's been so much fun to be a part of here and I am so impressed by my friends' leading of this group. It's a great space for kids to come and have fun and socialise when they may not have many other opportunities to do so here.

Tuesday nights a women's Bible study meets at our house and we have a really fun group of women from all over the world.

On Wednesdays is a little institution known as "Wednesday Night Buds" where a group of us youngens get together for a meal and a movie. For me, as someone who is a mix of both introvert and extrovert, this weekly social event has been really helpful and enjoyable.

Sundays are another fun social day. I have been attending Christ's Church Rwanda, which is an American-run church in my neighbourhood, but has a large (maybe even majority) African congregation. This is another fun multi-cultural/multi-national experience - a mix of English and Kinyarwanda worship songs lead by some beautifully talented young Rwandans. Every Sunday after church, a group of us head to a local restaurant for lunch.

The rest of my time is spent either playing games with friends, shopping at the market, or just watching a movie.. pretty regular stuff.

I'm so grateful for the safe space I have to just relax at my house with great housemates who understand that sometimes I need to just lock myself in my room and hide from the world, but also great friends who I can be social with when I need to escape sitting in my room hiding from the world :D

This has been my life for the past 3 and a half months, and in 3 weeks I'll be leaving what has become so familiar and will need to try to readjust back into my life in Australia, which was still kind of new even when I left. This is met with some anxiety, but I am also excited to see friends and family back home (for someone who moves as much as I do, I'm really not very good at transitions...)

Thanks again for reading. Now enjoy some snapshots from around Kigali/Rwanda :) (check out my Facebook if you'd like to see more)

dirt roads are a little tricky to drive on, but unavoidable

but there are also many lovely paved roads :)

Rwanda produces a huge amount of bananas and banana leaf/fibre products. These trees are everywhere!

the lovely front yard of our compound featuring Diego the dachshund who thinks he is a guard dog..

the city market where everything must be carried on your head!

never unusual to see people perched on top of trucks driving around

one of the many modern buildings in the city centre

need a mattress?

Rwanda is famous for it's coffee, and I am grateful for it's coffee..! (even with UHT milk..)

brown water in our magical filter making it safe to drink 

in one of my first posts I mentioned some of the many mansions around Kigali..

I didn't take this photo, but just to show some of the contrast there is in housing here

leaving the city is always a favourite - Lake Kivu in Kibuye in the Western province

and you can even find some wildlife out on a safari! 

DuHope Graduation

Hi friends and supporters,

It's been a while since I've communicated via this blog. I think I've been putting off writing this one because of the complexity both of the situation and the fact that I'm still processing how I feel about it. There have been some changes here, and there are both positives and negatives to these changes, hence the confusion.

Basically, we have decided that the women who were initially coming to the DuHope jewellery and counseling program should be graduated from the program, and we will be taking a hiatus from that aspect of our work for the month of December.

Let me touch on the positives of this first: we held a graduation party on Friday and the women had an absolutely great time. They dressed up, had their hair and makeup done, and we presented them with certificates. Each time a woman's name was called to stand up and receive her certificate, all the other women cheered and clapped for her excitedly. There was dancing and food and all around it was a great time. Some of the women shared about the things they had learned and what they were going to take with them from the program - it was so encouraging to hear how they feel they have grown and what they strive to do differently in their lives. Is it guaranteed they're all going to leave prostitution? No. But they are motivated in a way they haven't been before. They learned so much about relationships and family and forgiveness - overall, I think it has been an extremely positive experience for them, and I am extremely happy about that.

One reason we have decided to take a pause is so that we can look at some of the things that didn't go "according to plan" in the first class of DuHope (to be honest, we kind of jumped into this passionately and were figuring out a lot of the logistics as we went..). So that means that my last month here will be spent working out some of those "kinks" and really perfecting the program. I am going to be focusing a lot on our intake and orientation process, which was basically non-existent the first time around; it was basically "show up". We even discovered some of the women aren't in prostitution but have been living in poverty and wanted to make some money. And as much as we are sympathetic to their situation, we have to be selective due to the nature/purpose of the program.

Another positive is that the women have decided they want to form their own cooperative, or business, making and selling jewellery using the skills they have learnt. This is a huge victory for us, as that was really the point of the program - to give these women the skills and motivation they need to be self-sufficient and working in another industry. We are excited to see how this turns out and will be keeping in contact with them for support.

I am feeling very sad about not seeing these women anymore. Even though we could not communicate much due to the language barrier, I grew fond of them (and their children). It is hard to see them go, but I am trying to cling to the hope that they have left different than when they first came in. And I am excited about the work I will get to do during this next month and am reminding myself that it will only lead to better serving the next class that comes in in January.

We are also spending a lot of energy on fundraising. We jumped into this program with what money we had raised, unaware of what it would actually take to run the program. So that is also a part of our month of planning and perfecting. If you are interested in supporting us please visit www.belayglobal.org/hope

This was unexpected, and for a while felt like a failure. I was scared to communicate this knowing how many people had been supporting me both spiritually/emotionally and financially. It was hard to not feel like I had let down the people who had sent me on this trip, which is probably another reason why I haven't written this sooner. But, I am trying not to let those kind of feelings and ideas get into my head too much and realise that the work I do for the next month is just as important and worthwhile, if not more so.

Thank you for reading and please, as always, feel free to ask questions and comment.

And if you are someone who prays, please keep praying for us as a team, for myself, and for the women who we have said goodbye to.

You are appreciated.

Bronte

I learned that in Rwanda you are supposed to write out details of what the certificate represents. 

DuHope Class 1!

branching out

Hi!

Just a little update on how things are going on here at DuHope in Kigali!

As I have said before, we have seen so much progress in our counseling department. I had asked you to pray for someone named "L", and although we have not yet come to a conclusion about what we are going to do to address her situation, she came in the following week saying she felt a weight off her shoulders because she had been able to share her story with others. She will often come to me during the day and say to me quietly over my shoulder, "Today, I am happy". I tell her if she is happy, then I am happy. It goes to show you how much impact this community, fellowship, and a safe environment for sharing can have. Nothing in her situation has changed, yet she feels hope just knowing there are people hearing her and caring about her.

I cannot say enough good things about our counsellor. She also did a session on relaxation, which included her encouraging the women to do things they enjoy: dancing, singing, laughing with others. As an example, she had the women share what their favourite animal is and then asked them to imitate the noise that animal makes - this was something that seems so trivial and silly, but it was an example of how sometimes they can just let go and to show how good laughing can feel!

We have unfortunately lost our creative designer for the jewellery workshop as she has gone to attend university classes. We have others who are able to help with women with what to make, how to make it, etc., but one day we decided to let them have a turn at designing some things themselves - I think they did a pretty good job, don't you?!

We have come to the place where we want to start expanding the products the women are making. There are some that are just not as advanced in the skills used to make the jewellery. For example, a woman I will call "E" who is a bit older and has trouble seeing the small beads; she will often only finish one piece with help from the others, while they themselves complete at least 3 in the same period of time. She said she was thinking that she would probably have to stop coming to the program. I asked the translator to tell her that we wanted her to stay and that we would find something else for her to do. We have been brainstorming and talking with some other organisations and friends over here who may be able to sell some different types of products. Our hope is that no one will feel they need to leave or won't make enough money just because they have a different skill set than others. 

With that being said, we have launched our first computer, English, and business training class in cooperation with another organisation (Esperance Education Institute). We have started with 7 women who will be trained 4 days a week for 12 weeks using Rosetta Stone software on the computers. I'm excited to see how it goes and to expand the opportunities for these women. However, these things do cost money, so if you would be willing to contribute or to sponsor a woman to complete the program please click here. 

Please continue to pray for us, if you are a pray-er :) Please also consider donating to the general program fund here, or to my personal fundraising here.

Thank you, as always.  

Much love.

Bronte. 

small successes continue!

Hi all,

I am trying my best to be better at updating this blog, but I admit I am struggling! Life has become so "normal" here that I struggle to figure out how to communicate it back to you folk.

Another of my struggles in communication is maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of the women in the program. So, I'll do my best to let you know what's happening, but please forgive me for my inability to go into a great deal of detail. If you would like to hear more and are wanting to be a prayer supporter, please feel free to contact me and I am happy to provide you with that in a less public forum.

As I mentioned to you, we recently hired a counsellor. And let me tell you - I think she is the absolute best! Her English is pretty good, but she mostly speaks in Kinyarwanda so I don't always know what she's saying, but there is something about the vibe she gives off that just gives me such comfort. She is an older woman which I think is beautiful because she can be a sort of maternal, caring figure for the women. She tells me how much she loves being a counsellor, and I love having her. She has been working with the women on some basics and foundations for counseling, as counseling doesn't really exist in Rwandan culture much. As they continue to get comfortable and get to know each other, she will eventually transition to doing some one-on-one counseling.

Now, as I mentioned, counseling is not usually a part of Rwandan culture, however we are seeing the women really responding to the group sessions. We know that trust is being built we are beginning to hear some more about the difficulty of the women's lives. As heart breaking as it has been to hear, it is a sign that we are creating a safe space where they feel they can share. They settle conflicts and they encourage one another. I am loving the way they are banding together as a group of friends and colleagues. If you have committed to praying for this work, please keep one girl in particular in your prayers at the moment who I will call "L". Her situation has shown me my own limitations in that I do not know the laws and regulations here in Rwanda well, but that has been a great opportunity for our social workers and peer support worker to do research and take it as a learning opportunity, while also working for the best outcome for "L".


And now: I was sent some questions as suggestions for what to include in this blog, so I figured maybe I could take one or two each post to answer. The first question is:

"What are some of the similarities between African, Australian, and American daily life?"

So, Kigali is a city - with traffic, restaurants, and even some skyscrapers (taller than any in Gosford probably!) so, connectivity to the world is the same - I have WiFi at work and at home, and I can use my iPhone out and about.
A similarity to New York/American life is something called "hellofood" which is like Seamless (for you New Yorkers) - it's a food delivery service that delivers for a lot of the restaurants in town for just 1000 Rwandan francs (about $2 AUD/$1.40 USD) we can have anything from chips and hamburgers, pizza, or Mexican burritos delivered to our home by a guy on a motorcycle.
Social life is generally the same - we get together to watch movies, play board games, go to concerts (I went to an outdoor hip hop concert on Thursday night which was great fun!), and go out for meals.

Thank you, as always, for reading. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments, and if you are interested in being part of a closer-knit prayer team where I can share a little more detail, please contact me.

& please consider giving to us here or here.

Much love.

Bronte. 

work so far

Hi all,

I am 3 weeks + 1 day into my time here in Rwanda and I think I probably owe you all a bit of an update about the whole reason why I even came here in the first place! It's taken a little bit of time to get into a routine and figure out what it's all going to look like, but today after a staff meeting I am feeling that I am in a good place to explain it to you :)

So, I'm assuming you all know about the work I am doing here (if not, please read here or here or ask me!)

The program has now been running for close to 2 months and we have seen some encouraging results. As I wrote about briefly in my previous post, the women have a very strong work ethic. This is a positive thing, but also something we need to manage as sometimes they would prefer to work than to participate in the other programs we have for them (counseling, Bible study, health education, etc).

To explain to you a little bit more about my role in this big beautiful project: I am working in a team of about 9 or so Rwandan women. We have a program coordinator, a business coach/director, a financial/administrator, a counsellor, two social workers, a peer support person, and two people working on the creative/jewellery side of things. I have been able to participate in staff meetings where we discuss the ins and outs of running this program, which I have really been enjoying. We all bounce ideas off each other and are able to come up with solutions that we think will produce the best results for the women. My specific responsibility, though, is to work with the social workers. Their role is to be a point person for the women outside of our work space by completing home visits. We have found that there are things the women will tell to the social workers in a one-on-one private setting that they would not otherwise share in a group setting. The social workers will then feedback to the rest of the team at our weekly staff meetings so that we can address any issues that may be occurring. I am not able to participate in this myself as I do not speak the local language (Kinyarwanda), so I will be overseeing the work that the social workers do and training them to use the educational knowledge that they have.

We are already beginning to see the trust that has been built between the women and all of us involved, but there is still progress to be made in those relationships, and also in the relationships between the women. If you are someone who likes to pray, you could pray for continued trust to be built, and also for the women to bond and grow close to one another so that they can also be a support to one another.

I'll leave it at that for now - there is so much more that I could share, and I will do so as the time goes on :)

As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

And if you have not already, please consider donating to our program here or here - it is greatly, greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU!

Bronte

small victories!

Our first batch of jewellery is on it's way to America! The women have been learning so quickly and seeming to have fun making the jewellery. They come early and stay late; I am loving their strong work ethic (and their smiles and giggles even though I don't know what they're laughing about due to the language barrier!) We have already found out that the women are working less at night as their income begins to be replaced by the work they do with us. I am feeling encouraged by this victory! Please continue to pray and check out www.youcaring.com/bronte-hughes-400863 if you haven't already - the more money I raise, the more money can be poured back into this program! 

Thank you!

one week in Kigali!

I have been in Rwanda for one week and 3 hours. So I felt I owed you all an update.

Things here are going well (for those who read my blog last time around you will know the first few days/weeks were brutal, so this is BIG!) Coming back to a place I am familiar with, and being surrounded by familiar faces makes a huge difference.

I figured I would wait a little longer to tell you the details of my work, as it is still all unfolding a bit. Instead, I thought I would try to answer the "What is it like there?" question that I have been asked quite a bit. It is impossible to completely and accurately describe a place without you being able to see it and experience it yourself, but I will try!

Kigali is a juxtaposition of both modern day luxury and the more "simple" things in life. There are restaurants, hotels, spas/salons, a golf course, huge mansions, and expensive cars. But at the same time, our power goes out usually once per day, our water sometimes stops running, and many of the roads are red clay/dirt. There are also families who live in homes which are made of mud bricks and do not have running water. There is so much contrast.

Kigali is quite safe, however there are issues with theft. Most homes are surrounded by walls with a locked gate at the front, some with guards employed to keep the property protected. We have a guard at our home who is a lovely man and also helps out around the property doing maintenance.

We also employ a lovely lady who helps to take care of our home a few days a week with cleaning and some cooking. This is a strange concept to those of us who grew up in the West, but in Rwanda it is expected that those who have the means to do so, hire domestic workers in their home as a way to create jobs and income for people.

In terms of food, we have access to most things. There are many restaurants here in Kigali, as well as a market and supermarkets. We eat well and so I am grateful for the exercise class my friend runs..

For transportation, sometimes we drive in my housemates car (I even had a turn of driving today and didn't get in a crash so yay!). Traffic in Kigali is crazy and road rules are "loose", shall we say. If not driving, I take a moto - which is when you flag down a guy on a motorbike and hop on the back and pay him to take you to where you need to go. It is good fun :)

That's about all I can think of right now, but PLEASE feel free to ask questions and give me suggestions on what you might like to see on this blog. Last time around I feel that maybe I used it more for my own coping mechanism, but this time I feel like it will be used more to communicate with all of you lovely supporters and friends - so please be in touch with me about what you would like to read!

Thanks!

Bronte

a big "thank you"

Hi,

I just wanted to take some time to give a little shout out to all of you who have been supporting me as I get ready to leave in less than 3 days!

Some of you have supported financially, which is incredible and I literally could not do what I am doing without you, so thank you. It is not an easy thing for a lot of people in our society to part with their finances - you are all wonderful.

Others with your kind words of encouragement - one of my "love languages" is words, so please believe me when I say these go a long way. The fact that you believe I can do this work means a lot more than you realise, so thank you.

And to the community of people I have here in Australia: for someone who has only been around for a few months, you have never made me feel like "the new girl". I have felt entirely welcomed and embraced by the Narara Valley Baptist family, and that sense of family and community is giving me more strength and confidence than I think you realise. Thank you for not only welcoming me in, but for supporting me in prayer - for that experience this evening I am truly thankful. Please know how wonderful you all are, and how much I appreciate you.

I cannot name every single person, but if you're reading this, you are included in those I want to thank. Your reading this means you care for me and for this next chapter in my life.

"Thank you" doesn't even do enough to express how grateful I am for you all.

- Bronte.