The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost
Read Robert Frost Poem

Colette was supposed to have left for the DR Congo in mid April and she had planned on staying for 8
weeks as there was a lot of work to do, but with the way things are in the world right now, this has had to be postponed.  Colette was invited to attend a seminar organized by the Africa Leadership Coaching Network which is a ministry of the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission (AIMM). AIMM works in partnership with the Mennonite Church of Congo to develop leadership through spiritual transformation. This was the third module of a series of seminars entitled, "Building Transformative Communities in the Congo.” The seminar was scheduled to take place in Mukedi, where a soccer rematch between the youth of Kandale and the youth of Mukedi was to have taken place. 

There was also the REVE Kandale general assembly to elect a new coordinator. This meeting has been postponed as well as all the other gatherings.

Please click on the link below to read our new Annual Report-2019 here:
Read RKF Annual Report-2019 

Colette has been coordinating the collection of a variety of materials to bring with her including 300 reusable hygiene kits from Days for Girls, for the young women in Kandale. These kits provide them a sense of confidence in their daily lives. She would also be bringing soccer jerseys donated by Kick for Nick in preparation for this year’s match with the athletes in Mukedi. Reading glasses of various magnifications are highly sought after by the readers in the community, especially the church leadership who struggle to read the bible for their sermons. Even several kalimbas or gibinji (in Kipende), are to be included, in order to foster the musical sensibilities of the young musicians in the village.

Colette had many goals for her visit. Among them was to pick up 250 chairs designed and built by the renowned Jesuits Vocational School in Kikwit, 220 km north of Kandale. These chairs, purchased with funds from the U.S. Embassy in DRC, have been constructed with an armrest work area for students to take notes. Two engineers were to join her on her visit to Kandale. One engineer would be evaluating the grounds in anticipation of laying the foundation for the seven new classrooms that will soon be under construction. The second engineer would be starting to train the young people as masons, carpenters, and welders in preparation for the labor that would be needed to construct the new classrooms. This training is part of REVE Kandale's local capacity building program. Twenty young girls and boys will be trained.

Also on her agenda was to repair the light in the maternity center. At present, the panels are not operational due to technical problems, but Dr. Klontz has pledged to replace them once travel permits.

Very recently Colette has been in communication with a young man, Newton Kazongo Nyingu, from Kandale, who has just finished his studies in Kikwit but decided to return to Kandale and work as part of the REVE Kandale team on the ground in charge of the Library, IT and Communication. We are already getting daily images and updates of the activities in Kandale. The return of Newton is a big win in our effort to reduce the rural exodus and keep Kandale’s families strong and the community vibrant.

In the spring we plant...

Or rather in the case of Equatorial Africa and Kandale specifically, it is approaching the end of the rainy season and Robert Minzadi has been busy preparing the nursery. He has continued his work through organizing the local community and teaching them how to plant and care for saplings that will be introduced through out the community. Women who volunteered for this project have been given a garden plot within the nursery and seeds to grow vegetables that would not succeed outside of the nursery.

Les Souvenirs de Kandale - I am saddened to announce that Papa Jacques Mashinyi Kipoy, a member of REVE Kandale team on the ground, died suddenly this month in Kandale. He was a champion of tree planting and environmental protection, one of REVE Kandale program areas. His compound in Kandale is full of all sorts of local fruit trees that he has planted over the years. Papa Mashinyi who was also an elder in church, was responsible for the youth ministry. We mourn his loss and thank God for the time He has allowed all of us to meet Papa Mashinyi and for the contribution Papa Mashinyi made to heal his community in Kandale by planting trees and leading the REVE Kandale's campaign against bushfire and abusive logging of trees. RIP mon Papa.

A New Perspective

It is a perspective from 300 miles out in space. This past fall Google Earth captured new images of
Kandale and the photos demonstrate all the changes on the ground just in the past two years. To better view what is happening on the ground, go to:

https://earth.google.com/web/@-6.04633159,19.34565527,792.54766027a,702.1720014d,35y,0h,0t,0r

All the new structures are identified in the map below:

A. The first block of classrooms built for the primary school. 

B. 12 acres of fruit trees and medicinal trees. 

C. The Multi-Purpose Building which houses the Sewing Program, the Library, a National Examinations space, and REVE Kandale Office space. The building is also used for community meetings. In October, 2019, two 5,000 liter poly tanks were installed at the multi-purpose building as part of our rainwater catchment system.

D. The church. 

E. The CARITAS Idiofa, World Bank funded primary school classrooms, office buildings and latrines. 

F. The Hospital and Maternity Facility, (where Mama Charlotte works). 

G. The two newly rehabilitated girls’ dormitories are located south of the Multi Purpose Building.

In the projected map for 2020, just above, the site of the new classrooms has been indicated in light blue: the four classrooms will be built just north of the present primary classrooms and the three classrooms will be in between. Hopefully when the Google Earth satellite updates the images of Kandale, these structures will be completed and brimming with enthusiastic students.

The other light blue rectangle toward the bottom, is where Robert Minzadi has begun work on a 60m X 25m nursery with the help of the local REVE Kandale team and members of Kandale community. The site that the nursery is being built on has been protected against bushfires and general agriculture for the past 10 years as part of the REVE Kandale environmental protection campaign, and as a result the soil has become very fertile. Local women, participating in the project, have been given seeds and are being trained as to how to plant a successful garden. The women will be able to keep the vegetables that they grow and in addition, part of the harvest will be given to REVE Kandale to share with the elderly and vulnerable members of the community. Once the soil is established, new funds will be designated for the purchase of saplings to supplement the present orchard including coconut palms, historic orange and mango trees, and the trees that brings caterpillars.

Absent from the map above are the two former high schools, 1 and 2 in the red squares. (1) collapsed in 2017 and (2) during Colette’s last visit in October 2019. Both came down in a serious thunderstorm.

For this Communiqué we are very excited to introduce Konda Nyigisa Louis. He is the gentle giant of all that is good with REVE Kandale. Konda studied with the Jesuits and as Prefet for Kandale, he set an excellent example for the many young people under his care. Colette describes him as a very poised and even-tempered man who never gets upset, very important qualities when working with bureaucracies. Konda is a passionate reader and the main impetus behind creating the library. When Colette was growing up in Kandale, books were in short supply. In school she had to copy word by word from the only textbook the teacher had, but Konda brought books to their imagination. Every summer they looked forward to having Konda visit from Kikwit . He would tell glowing stories about the books he had read and the fascinating things that were happening in places like Paris, Oslo, and New York. One story could last a month because Konda adapted the story to their own life in Kandale, and the children’s imaginations would travel to all these places, on a train, on a plane or maybe spend the night in a hotel next to a bandit. 

Konda was the first coordinator of many of the projects that have taken place in Kandale. He has been the original team leader for the 20 REVE Kandale staff members and the brains behind all the project logistics. He was instrumental in building the first six classes in Kandale. In addition, he travelled to Kikwit and Kinshasa to coordinate the purchase and transport of the poly tanks and the materials needed for the installation. More recently he coordinated the transport of the cement from outside Gungu to Kandale when the truck broke down. Not bad for a man who will be 69 this fall. Konda is an invaluable member of REVE Kandale and our progress is a testament to his graciousness and his tenacity.

and now introducing a new feature: Colette's Corner

Sunday February 16th, Colette and Greg were invited by Roland Frenck to spend the morning with Reverend Neill Morgan and the Parish members of Darnestown Presbyterian Church, which has supported RKF since 2017. After an initial meeting and presentation to the Mission Ministry Team, Colette and Greg were invited to attend the worship wherein they were given a very generous check of $3,000. After the ceremony Colette and Greg met the many members of the congregation who had contributed to the building of the schools. Colette sends many many thanks to Roland Frenck, Jan Summers, the Rev. Neill Morgan and DPC congregation as a whole for the opportunity to share a wonderful morning together and for extending your love, your hospitality and your generosity to her and the community in Congo. The $3000 from DPC will buy 200 additional bags of cement on top of the 450 we have already purchased toward building of the seven new classrooms.

Colette will be travelling to Congo at the end of April to Congo, to take part in a Seminar organized by the Africa Leadership Coaching Network and to oversee the work in Kandale.

A Light in Kandale

In the spring of 2018 solar panels were installed in Kandale by Dr. Karl Klontz and David Whitford, who traveled to Congo with several REVE Kandale Foundation board members. Karl shipped the solar panels ahead of time to the capital Kinshasa. He and David, his neighbor from Bethesda, Md., bought batteries for the panels in Kinshasa and installed them at the newly built multi-purpose education center, and at the hospital maternity ward. This was part of their personal commitment to communities in need of electricity. Karl has done similar installations in six developing countries.

The solar panels provide power for lights to the multipurpose building that houses the library and the sewing program and provides a place for teachers and students to prepare lessons in the evening. Most importantly, they provide light in the evenings to the maternity center. Mama Mahele Charlotte Kakesa, or Mama Charlotte, has been the midwife in the Kandale community for over 10 years. Just in the past year there have been about 60 births with many of them occurring in the night. By her own testimony the single light bulb in the delivery room has significantly improved her ability to safely attend to expectant mothers in labor. As news of the light has spread, women have come from a hundred kilometers away to give birth under Mama Charlotte’s care. Prior to the light, a C-section was unthinkable, but nonetheless unavoidable, and had to be performed with only the light from a candle or burning twigs. Mama Charlotte is now able to attend to all of the births with the complete confidence that she is in charge of the sensitive needs of her patients. Such a simple improvement can make all the difference in the lives of the expecting mothers and their newborn children.

Watch an interview with Kandale midwife, Mama Charlotte here: vimeo.com/387146203

and another clip about the installation of the solar panels were installed and the first birth at the Infirmary under the new light. (2:10-3:05) vimeo.com/307474662

As the Communiqué continues to tell the story of Kandale, it is very important to introduce the members of Kandale and to celebrate their contribution to the work being done for the benefit of the community. This issue is dedicated to the hard work of Mama Charlotte Kakesa. Mama Charlotte came to Kandale from the town of Gungu ten years ago. She trained as a midwife and received her certificate at the missionary school in Kalonda in the former province of Kasai Occidental. She is also known for her beautiful singing voice as the leader of the Women’s Choir. Her reputation as a midwife extends far beyond the Kandale community. As a result of her tireless work at the 27ème CMCo Kandale, the Infirmary is regarded with great respect.

Two other important developments relate to the serious flooding during Christmas week. December is usually the time when peanuts are harvested and dried. Peanuts are regarded as an important cash crop for farmers in Kandale and often farmers will pay for their children’s tuition with peanuts due to their high value. Unfortunately due to the constant rain, it has been next to impossible to dry out the crop, resulting in most of the crop rotting. This means that during the spring planting season, women will have to buy seed peanuts elsewhere to plant the new crop. The constant rain has also had a significant impact on brick production, as the clay is too wet to combine with the cement and sand. However, the cement has not been affected by the rain due to proper storage. Many fishponds adjacent to the Kwilu River, which runs alongside Kandale, were destroyed as well.

On a positive note, Robert Kalaki Minzadi, a member of the Kandale community who is currently living in Kinshasa and specializes in tree planting, has recently visited Kandale. He conducted an evaluation of the tree-planting project that REVE Kandale started in 2010. He is interested in working with the members of the Kandale community and advising them on how to optimize the planting of native species and set up a tree nursery. While his visit was only a preliminary overview, he has many positive ideas, which include growing orange trees, coconut trees, and a variety of mango trees that no longer exist in Kandale. He plans to create small garden plots in the nursery for women to plant onions, tomatoes, and vegetables. Robert is a professional agronomist who has been hired by various organizations, including Hans Seidel Projet Ntsio and presently PIREDD MAI-NDOMBE. The Kandale community is very excited about the future possibilities.

Happy New Year!!!

As we look toward 2020, we want to look back, and acknowledge that life in Kandale is changing, for the better.

The Kwilu River valley is a land of promise

with a thriving community.

The change can be seen in all aspects of village life, but it is most evident in the lives of the children

in the new school buildings

and classrooms,

bringing the promise of a future

and real hope.

Thank you for making all of this possible. We look forward to your continued support as the REVE Kandale Foundation moves forward on our Campaign for 2020. 

We wish you a joyous and prosperous New Year.

Colette’s Return to Kandale

NIne weeks ago on October 1st Colette returned to the village of Kandale for her annual trip to observe the progress of the many ongoing projects. This particular visit was coordinated with a representative engineer of ‘Water Mission’, Enock Kiraire, from the Uganda Country Office. Water was one of the top priorities during the community projects meeting in Kandale with RKF board members in 2018. RKF Co-founders Colette and Greg travelled to Charleston, SC in August this year to consult with Water Mission and to determine the possibility of installing a solar pumping system that will provide clean water to the community of Kandale.

During Mr. Kiraire’s visit he was able to investigate the Kwilu River and three springs to better evaluate the possibility of drilling a well and installing a water pump. His preliminary findings indicated that a fresh water pumping system would include two 16,000-liter tanks with year round availability as opposed to our present two 5,000-liter tanks with only a seasonal capacity. Mr. Kiraire and Colette presented the final proposal during a community meeting. The idea is to develop a system in two phases that would require two pump stations due to Kandale's high elevation. Community members are presently paying roughly 5 cents per demijohn or 25 liters for runoff water that is not potable for drinking. According to Mr. Kiraire's tests, the water quality in Kandale is of a very good quality and will not require filtration, but chlorine purification is necessary to ensure the water is suitable for drinking. The community is very supportive of this idea. Presently a second visit is in the planning to gather additional data to develop the necessary design and actual budget for the project. The estimated cost may be up to $50-55,000 with community members paying a nominal fee for clean water.

In addition, Colette has been in consultations with two other engineers, Frederick Kaniema from Kinshasa and Jean-Paulin Mesa from Kikwit as well as the head of Gufwa-Gubila High School in Kandale, Njimbo Mukala Kasembe. They discussed the recent collapse of the high school, featured in the previous Communiqué. The government sponsored Caritas school rooms have been completed and there was a great deal of discussion about how to distribute the primary school students to the new Caritas classes and how to make room for the high school students that lost their classrooms. The collapsed high school had been built some 40 years ago with primarily local materials: mud bricks, raffia framing and a corrugated metal sheet roof. It is remarkable that it has weathered the elements this long. The loss of this structure has had a domino effect on the remaining classrooms requiring some subjects to double and triple up and to even hold classes out of doors under makeshift palm fronds. To further confound the space issue, the government has declared free education to all primary school students. This decree is to be applauded, yet no funding has been provided for teachers salaries or material fees to accommodate the new increase in student enrollment.

As the REVE Kandale Foundation moves forward with the construction of seven new classrooms. Colette presented to the engineer in charge the desire to hire and train local individuals to help with the new construction. A variety of other topics were discussed with the community during her visit including the creation of separate living quarters for the matrons who monitor the girls dormitory and the importance of continuing to plant indigenous trees in the ‘wild’ areas.

The images that Colette brought back to the REVE Kandale board members were incredible. They are rich with stories of perseverance, dignity, progress and community. It is evident, that even with the loss of the old high school, positive and tangible change continues and the people of Kandale are responding with a genuine appreciation for the improvement in their daily lives.

SCHOOL COLLAPSE UNDERSCORES NEED FOR MODERN CLASSROOMS!

An Appeal for Funds

It was the nightmare we all feared.

The heavy October rain weakened the mud-brick walls of Institut Gufwa-Gubila, one of the two secondary schools serving the children of the Greater Kandale area. The walls gave way, causing the roofs of two classrooms blocks to collapse, rendering the buildings unsafe and unusable.

Fortunately, the collapse occurred during the evening, and no one was injured.

But the events of Oct. 4 underscore the need for safer, more modern, and well-constructed classrooms in Kandale.

Our campaign to build seven new classrooms by the start of the 2020-2021 school year has become all the more urgent with the latest disaster. Our aim is to raise $75,000 for this phase of school construction and related programs.

REVE Kandale founder Colette Ramm was on a visit to Kandale when the disaster struck. “The residents of Kandale are resilient, but we need your help now more than ever,” she said.

You can donate by going directly to our website at https://www.revekandale.org/donate, or visit our GoFundMe site at https://www.gofundme.com/f/building-schools-building-dreams.

Institut Gufwa-Gubila dates to the 1970s and had been built through the perseverance of Kandale residents, who were determined to have a secondary school (watch this video). But without any assistance to speak of, the only affordable building materials were mud bricks, which weaken over time. In retrospect, it is a wonder the buildings lasted as long as they did. Below students are busily collecting materials for a temporary classroom. They are gathering clay and sand from the nearby hills and sticks from the surrounding thickets. photos by Colette Ramm 10/08/2019

With your assistance we have a new brick-making machine in place and have about one-third of the cement we will need to complete seven new classrooms with stronger, reinforced concrete. We still need to find funding for the remainder of the cement, roofing sheets, and other building materials.

As it stands, the students of Institut Gufwa-Gubila have moved into a six-classroom block built in 2011 by REVE Kandale that had housed part of the primary school. The displaced primary school students have relocated to the other primary school block as a temporary solution. Desks in that school block that had been shared by two students are now used by three or four. Due to the lack of space one of the classes has to meet outside. It’s clear the students want to learn. Let us please give them a chance.

We hope we have earned your trust -- as we have with one of our longtime donors who explains in this video Why We Give why his church gives to REVE Kandale – and that you work with us to expand the village circle and raise the children of Kandale. Our work together will continue to bring hope to Kandale and meet urgent educational needs.

Help us build schools. Help us build dreams.

It takes a few villages!

In 2017 the REVE Kandale Foundation focused on purchasing a brick-making machine to begin work on
several structures in Kandale including four classrooms and a multi-purpose building. These structures have been completed as of 2018 and the work is now underway to build the next series of classrooms in 2020. In anticipation of this work, funds were dedicated to purchase 450 bags of cement in the regional capital of Kikwit while the price was low. The REVE Kandale Foundation will need 750 bags in total to complete the new classrooms. While the transport of the poly tanks from Kinshasa was a logistical feat, the transport of cement from Kikwit, roughly six hours away on dirt roads, demanded a very different endeavor.

Due to the weight of the cement, the truck broke down outside of Gungu just before the Kwilu River bridge some 50 kilometers from Kandale. Papa Phillipe, who is 72, was accompanying the truck, had to walk several kilometers to Gungu to get phone coverage in order to alert the truck owner in Kikwit to send help. Four days later the truck was successfully repaired and Papa Phillipe was picked up in Gungu early in the morning. As the truck was crossing the small bridge near Nzemba village, the bridge gave way and the front wheels fell into the water. Papa Phillipe rushed to Kandale on a motorcycle to inform the village. Louis Konda, another volunteer, went out to the disabled truck and mobilized the people in nearby villages to help unload the cement and pull the truck out of the water. The cement needed to be stored under a tarp as the rainy season had begun. After three days a tractor was procured and the cement was transported to Kandale in several loads with each load taking about two hours. The good news is that no one was hurt, the truck has not been permanently damaged and the cement is now dry and awaiting the start of construction.

In more good news, the poly tanks have been installed and connected to the roof of the new multi-purpose building via a gutter.

In late August the first rain of the season filled both tanks. There was a long queue for water and the volunteers had to limit the amount of water individuals could take. Access to this water is already having an important impact on the community as the children will not be making the arduous trek for water twice a day down the treacherous ravine.

The REVE Kandale Foundation welcomes our newest Board Member, Chris Fowles.

Chris Fowles, RKF New Board Member

Chris Fowles has over 30 years community-level economic development work experience in sub-Saharan Africa. After graduating from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a major in French, Chris served a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo teaching English as a foreign language to secondary school students. In the 1980s she served as Director of Education and later Programming and Training Director for the Peace Corps program in the Democratic Republic of Congo, She also served as Peace Corps Country Director in Burundi.

In 1986, Chris joined the U.S. African Development Foundation and served in many leadership roles with extensive travel to more than 30 African countries. These include, Managing Director, overseeing a $20 million grant program and staff both in D.C. and 20 country programs across Africa. Chris retired in 2017 and lives in her family home in rural Massachusetts.

Sewing a New Future

In October of 2018, your gift to the Reve Kandale Foundation allowed us to purchase 40 new sewing machines and tables in the capital of Kinshasa. Four RKF board members and two volunteers, Dr. Karl Klontz and David Whitford, transported the machines and solar panels to the newly built multi-purpose education building. The machines were assembled by Lycee Gina Gisanga teachers and experts from nearby Gungu. The trainers then conducted two days of intensive training on how to use and care for the machines.

This contribution has made a dramatic improvement in the lives of the girls who are participating in this program. The sewing program was started in 1972 with two old sewing machines that were in need of constant repair. The girls would proudly carry their sewing machines on their heads to school everyday, yet very few students ever mastered the technical skills required to pass the national exam due to a lack of hands on experience with the machines as well as a constant shortage of glue, scissors, needles, threads etc.

These photos demonstrate a vibrant classroom filled with the joy of learning. The students are busy making school uniforms, children’s clothes, and dresses for church and special events. The class is so successful that the rosters and dormitories are filled to capacity with young girls who are eager to participate in this growing program. For many of these girls it is not simply the promise of an income, but a way of life that provides independence, self-sufficiency, and the time to make rational life decisions about their future. 

As life in Kandale improves, with solar panels on two buildings, two poly tanks for water storage, six new classrooms, 40 sewing machines, one multi-purpose education building, the Reve Kandale Foundation remains committed to improving the lives of the people of Kandale and as the needs of the community grow, it is our plan to rise to those challenges. As always we thank you for your continued support and we look forward to keeping you posted on all the exciting changes.

Give to Reve Kandale Foundation

Providing Kandale with safe water supply

One of our initiatives for 2019 — to provide Kandale with a safe water supply — has reached a big milestone. We have purchased two polytanks, and they have arrived safely in Kandale thanks to the hard work of Prefet Mwatha, Papa Philippe and Chief Donatien Katoko.

The polytanks were purchased in Kinshasa and are being loaded onto taxis to ferry them to Colette's mother's house, before sending them on to Kandale. All the materials needed for the installation are poking out the back of the tank.

The tanks have been loaded on to 4X4 trucks for the long 750 km journey over poorly paved and dirt roads. Beneath the tanks are welded cages to support the tanks once they are in place. Henri and Chief Donatien Katoko stand with the tanks like proud parents. They left early in the morning to facilitate the journey.

The tanks have arrived after an arduous two-day journey from Kinshasa to Kikwit and then on to Kandale. The gutters are in place on the new multi-purpose education building and await hook up to start storing water before the end of the rainy season.

The tanks have been installed. We are now on our way to realizing our long-term goal of safe water. The presence of the tanks means the children of Kandale will have to make fewer trips down a steep and dangerous ravine to fetch water at the spring and can instead focus their energies on their school work. The next step will be to install a pumping system to bring water directly from the spring to Kandale. None of this would be possible without your support.

Kisalu ya mbote! (Good work!)

Colette - The making of REVE my Dream

Kandale Trip with Enoch Kashitu as a baby - 1995

In 1995, I traveled back to Kandale, seven years after Greg and I went there with his parents for our wedding in the church in which I grew-up.

The trip was prompted by the outbreak of the Ebola virus in my hometown of Kikwit, where my mother and some of my “long-sleeve” relatives resided. At the time, there were no phones, and getting news from my mother in Kikwit was like waiting for the results of a blood test where you never knew what the news would be. So, when I managed to travel home and saw my mother again, it was like the return of the prodigal son, except that no fattened calf was slaughtered.

I taught fifth grade in Kandale, after graduating from high school. This is where I met my husband Greg, a former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Kandale. We had been living in the United States, and this was my first trip back since our church wedding in 1988.  So, I was anxious to see everyone.

The day we arrived, it poured all night as though God had forgotten to turn off some faucets in heaven. The power of the rain, heavy wind, and lightning made every soul jump out of bed.  

Children playing on the destroyed HS building

When dawn broke the destruction was shocking.  Both the entire Kandale primary school and one of the main high school buildings built with twigs and dirt were flattened to the ground like hair in a storm. The beautiful mangoes that hung low on trees growing around the mission -- daring children to touch them -- had been ripped apart and lay on the ground.

I snapped some photos of a group of children in the distance cheerfully collecting as many mangoes as their little hands could hold.

Before I could take another shot of the kids, a loud cry from Kandale hospital stabbed my heart, and my mind wandered away from the happy scene of children playing. A young girl of 11 from a faraway village had just lost her mother in childbirth. The sight of the girl crying, her mother lying lifeless on the ground, was heartbreaking.

I walked away from there with my heart still sobbing and proceeded to the school parent-teachers meeting, which was to decide how to fix the classrooms destroyed by the storm. I had barely taken my seat, when one of the teachers shared his bright idea. We should not hire women teachers, he shouted. Why not? I screamed breaking all protocols as observer in the meeting.  They cannot climb on the roof to fix their own classrooms; male teachers must do it for them, he answered gently. Despite his gentle answer, it was quite upsetting that he would advise such extreme measures against the three female teachers.  Then, I realized that female or not, these were mostly teachers in their retiring age who had no business contemplating climbing anything, especially wet roofs. But in Congo, the government had no retirement plans for teachers.

I left a couple of days later as my vacation came to an end. It felt as though my memories of Kandale, and the challenges people faced to access basic education and healthcare, were diluted by my life in the United States.

The trip back to Kandale was an eye opener. It changed my life, almost like the burning bush that turned Moses into the man who would lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan. For the next few years my mind became preoccupied with the plight of the people of Kandale. I began to rally the entire Kandale community at home and in the diaspora. The people of Kandale were clear what they needed: better classrooms for their children and tree planting to bring the forest closer to home.

In 2010, we created the Réhabilitation de l'Espace Vert et des Ecoles Kandale (REVE Kandale), a charitable organization working in the Democratic Republic of Congo to promote education, environment and empowerment of girls and women. In English, it translates into Rehabilitation of Green Spaces and Schools. And “reve” translates into “dream.”

We have made a lot of progress over the past few years, and I am confident that in the years to come we will make that dream a reality.