Day 12 - Kungabu Cooperative

July 21, 2018

(Apologies for the hiatus in posting - a mixture of poor internet connection and a long journey back home!)

We spent our last day in Cyangugu with the fantastic fish farmers of the Kungabu Cooperative.

Our first stop was in the center of town, where the co-op's famous fish food-making machine is kept. For those of you familiar with this story, you'll remember that thanks to the fundraising efforts of Betsy Kain and Sadie Leventhal, we raised $14,000 to have a fish food machine built in China, shipped overseas to Tanzania, and trucked across to Rwanda. The machine is composed of 4 separate parts: grinder, mixer, extruder, and dryer. They are housed together in a large space along with sacks of ingredients (soy, millet, sorghum, baitfish, vitamins, etc.) and finished fish feed. An impressive set-up to say the least!

We then continued on to the fish farm itself, passing through bright green fields of tea plantation Our arrival kicked off with a delightful, dusty dance-fest in the middle of the road, before we headed down the path to the ponds.

Kungabu's 16 large Tilapia ponds were dug by hand in 2009, thanks to start-up funds granted by Betsy Kain's Goats for Life organization. Almost 10 years later, the continuous hardwork of Kungabu has paid off ten-fold. Their beautiful ponds are full of big, fat, delicious fish, providing the co-op with a sustainable income. The market demand for fish is so high, Kungabu can barely keep up!

We watched in wonder as the fisherman maneuvered a massive net and hauled in a harvest of fish for us. Surrounded by smiling children, we danced together in celebration and headed back up the hill to visit the co-op's new hatchery (a gift from the Rwandan government) and meet with the leadership.

A handful of our college students were able to make it home to greet us, and we happily presented them with the letters from their sponsors. We were then given beautiful Rwandan shirts by the community. Our visit came to and end with a delicious feast of fried Tilapia, potatoes, bananas, and refreshing Fanta.

Afterwards, we took a little drive to visit the house of one of the community members, where we met Biscuit, a beautiful black pregnant cow (due in a week!) who is the grown calf of Soul, one of the original cows donated to Kungabu. Named for our good friend Ed Diamond's band SoulBiscuit, these cows provided the community with manure for farming, milk for children, and babies for rearing!

Heading back to the hotel, we stopped to enjoy the serene sunset over Lake Kivu.

Tomorrow, we begin our long journey back to Kigali, where we will enjoy the last two days of this extraordinary trip.