Little by little our small Kivumu is really turning into a first-class Rwandan attraction. After the clinic, the elementary and the trade school, and the imminent beginning of work of the high school, this overpopulated village dispersed on the slopes of several hills can boast about having also obtained – a bibliocontainer! You see, a few days ago, after a long journey on the roads of Tanzania and Rwanda, two trucks arrived in the centre of Kivumu. One of them was carrying a huge crane, while the other truck was actually a flatbed trailer for transport of heavy loads and on it was a huge container full of various things gathered for us by our dear friends from Calgary and other parts of the province of Alberta in Canada.

Over a thousand packages clustered in the belly of the sea container, generously donated to us by a Canadian-Croat from Edmonton, Mr. Ivan Vukovic. Inside there were all kinds of things – school chairs and desks, computers, books, tools for the school, bookshelves, bolts and boxes of fabric, also wheelchairs, crutches, gauzes, sheets, and various aids for the examination of the sick.

We will forever appreciate the effort that our great friend Valerie Kae Ken and her fellow volunteers put into the preparation, organisation and equipping the container. How can we possibly forget that the loading of the container began at - for us incredible – minus twenty degrees Celsius!? How can we not appreciate and let everyone know, that this charity action lasted for a full three months at a time of the greatest Canadian cold!?

The containers were so filled with necessary things that there was no chance of squeezing in even one single tiny ball of snow. So we can hardly explain to our children what snow is... However, a lot of space in that 12.5 metre long container was occupied by books... a huge “pile” of books where, I hope, somewhere there may be something about snow as well.

The arrival of the container attracted the attention of so many people; some even offered us money to sell it; but we have plans to use it in the best possible manner. For the time being we most like the idea of continuing our mission to enrich the knowledge of the local children through various media. So the container shall become – a bibliocontainer! We will arrange a library inside, and equip computers for an internet cafe. Truth be told, electricity has still not reached our village, and the coaxial cables are nowhere near Kivumu, but – what do we care? We are prepared for new challenges. Who knows? Perhaps even one of our local boys educated in our school from these books which have arrived in the container from Canada will start an initiative to build windmills on top of local hills and begin exporting electricity into other parts of Rwanda.

Translated by: bitno hr.
Edited by: Valerie K. Ken

List of Donors, Contributors and Volunteers