Rwanda Trip 2009-First flowers: purple Dianthus grows in Rwanda
By Will Stewart

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

I awoke refreshed in Rwanda on Feb. 23 after 28 hours of travel to the sounds of birds warbling outside my window and the youth choir practicing downstairs.

First I handed out supplies I had brought: a new printer for the school, scarves for widows at the Runda community, 35 bags of new flower seeds for trials, 500 pens, sales flyers and advertising materials for sales promotions, a 12- by 50-foot piece of plastic to build a small propagation hothouse, books and teaching materials on flower growing, flower wraps and sleeves for bouquets and a soil-testing probe. The rest of the day we did investigative work, visiting five small shops selling flowers in Kigali and asking about pricing, suppliers and sales. The shops were all selling the same flowers. They normally receive two shipments a week from suppliers in western Rwanda. Weddings and funerals account for most sales.

The next morning, in Kabuga, we saw the results of our first visit four months earlier. Several widows from the local community proudly showed us a small patch of vivid purple dianthus ready for harvest. All the effort, time and travel had been worth it. I think it was also a moment when the Solace staff came to believe the project would work. It was a great feeling to harvest the first five bunches of flowers.

A small nursery had been built as planned, and many of the seedlings were ready for transplanting into the field. Over the next few days we prepared beds, added chicken manure and transplanted sunflowers, more dianthus, statice, stock, marigolds and several other varieties. We built a small propagation house over the snapdragons just in time, we hoped, to rescue them from the elements.

Despite many challenges, Solace Farms took that giant leap of faith required of any new venture. We are on our way to developing a viable business for this community that we hope will support widows, survivors and their families.

In Rwanda as a country a great deal of progress is being made. The government tolerates no corruption and is working hard to stabilize the region. The capital, Kigali, will have a new airport and a new rail link from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The country's goal is to become a financial, service and transport hub for central Africa by 2020. With a stable political environment, these goals are achievable. The "dark continent" is awake and the lights are being turned on despite the tragic news we hear all the time.