Technology Consulting in Rwanda

We had a final presentation to the village management and officially finished our projects in the village! We're very glad to see everybody were happy with new systems. In the term end ceremony, they surprisingly awarded me as a family member of the village and I was sooooo glad and almost crying :)

- I presented a new visitor management system.

- Travis presented a new firm management system.

- The village management surprisingly awarded me as an official family member of the village. I was so happy!

Finally! I joined the most popular, expensive, exciting, and unforgettable tour in Rwanda; Gorilla tracking. Gorillas survive in only two countries on the earth - Uganda and Rwanda. After 3-hour hiking, we finally found the gorilla named Susa family. The time with gorillas was so peaceful and fantastic moment!

- Briefing session with the captain Oliver

- Gorilla! Gorilla!! Gorilla!!!

- The best 2-shot ever in my life :)

We started using new systems for both visitor and farm management on July 23rd after training sessions with key members. We keep supporting visitor coordinators and farm managers to get used with new systems for the next few weeks.

- I did a CommCare app training with the security team

- Travis did an Excel spreadsheet training with the farm manager, Augustin.

I haven’t introduced this nice city until week 8! Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda and really beautiful, clean, and safe city. There are a lot of nice restaurants and shopping stores. Motorbikes (moto taxis) are very convenient for both residents and tourist to move around the city. 

Kigali is so-called “The Land of A Thousand Hills”.

The Kigali Tower is the tallest building in the city.

The convention center and Radisson hotel are located at the center of the city.

Night view.

Last weekend, summer internship members visited the Akagera National Park for safari. It is located at East side of Rwanda and it took 1-hour drive from the village.

- Registration at the visitor center in the park.

- Zebras 

- Giraffes 

- There are some picnic areas where we can get off a car and walk around! It was fun to take a photo with a giraffe. :)

For farm management, we started a training session with a village staff. He was really smart and learned a pivot table so quickly. For visitor management, we started the existing visitors' data migration from Google sheet to Salesforce. After spending time on training session next one or two weeks, we can start using Salesforce in production. Good progress!

Summer internship members visited Lake Bisoke for hiking. Even we faced a critical issue (tour company forgot to book a tour!?), we enjoyed a tour and hard hiking.

Photo with the tour friends during the hike.

Hiking was very tough and much harder than what I expected.

After 2.5 hours of trekking, we finally reached the top of the mountain and found crater Lake Bisoke.

Nice group photo with all members of the tour.

We’re luckily invited by the fellow members to the long weekend trip to Lake Kivu which is located at southwest of Rwanda. We hired a car and it took almost 8 hours from Kigali to Cyangugu which is the border town with DRC; the Democratic Republic of Congo.

1. Nyungwe Forest National Park

We joined the canopy walk tour which is 40 minutes trekking in the forest. It was a perfect sunny day to hike the forest and the view from the narrow bridge was amazing!

There were so many monkeys in the forest. Our driver kindly stopped the car beside a monkey.

2. Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu is really huge and works as a border between DRC and Rwanda. We rented a small boat and spent two hours on the lake. (we swam in the lake!!) The lake view was really beautiful and peaceful.

In week 3, we visited CMU Africa in Kigali and met with Professor Michel Bezy to discuss our projects and seek his advice. The meeting went well and we had a fruitful discussion with Michel. After the meeting, we had a lunch with CMU Africa students. I was really excited to see our CMU members all over the world!

This is the Telecom House where CMU Africa campus is located. CMU Africa is currently building a new campus and plan to move there shortly.

CMU Africa - "Educating the next tech leaders in Africa”.

Took a photo with Travis at the entrance of campus.

Based on a couple of brainstorming sessions, we have identified the current process and problems for visitor management and farm management in the village. These problems are caused by a lack of a consolidated database, reporting functions, and analytic skills. We proposed to implement new systems (Salesforce.com, CommCare apps, and Excel spreadsheet) to solve these problems and improve the visitor and farm management processes in the village. Fortunately, all village directors liked our ideas and allowed us to move to next steps which are design and development of new systems. We will spend next couple of weeks for system developments.

I would like to introduce our life in the ASYV. Everything in the village is new to me but I am really comfortable with them.

1. Foods

For breakfast, I always buy a piece of bread in a canteen. At the beginning of the first week, I also bought a Rwandan peanut butter and it is amazingly delicious and perfectly matches with bread. This picture is a donut which is also nice for breakfast as well as a snack after lunch.

Lunch and dinner are served at the dining hall where all staffs, teachers, and students eat their foods. Both lunch and dinner are typically combinations of white rice, beans with sauce, potatoes, and bananas. To me, all of these foods are very common because Japanese always eat rice every meal and like beans, potatoes, and bananas as well.

2. Exercises

In the village, there are a couple of exercise programs that students participate. One of them is running and stretching exercise on every Saturday morning which is called “Muchaka Muchaka”.

3. The Village Time

The biggest event in the village is the Village Time which is held every Friday night. Students get together at the theatre hall and show their wonderful talents such as singing, dancing, speeches, and fashion shows!! What a fantastic event it is!!

After spending almost 24 hours since I left my home in Pittsburgh, I finally arrived at Kigali airport in Rwanda in the evening on June 5th. I will stay and work for Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) next 10 weeks.

In the morning of June 6th, we moved from Kigali to the village. All people in the village, management directors, fellows, and students kindly and friendly welcomed us.

The village is amazingly beautiful and well organized. I look forward to working with IT team and enjoying my brand new life with students in the village.