The struggles of growth

On the struggles of a growing nation – are we making progress?

In 2011, the government of Rwanda made an ambitious commitment of 2 million hectares to The Bonn Challenge. While significant progress has been made in achieving this goal, the commitment faces the risk of not being able to demonstrate progress or impact if a flexible and customizable monitoring system isn’t availed.

Where did the trees go?

On the struggles of monitoring seedling survival

A couple weeks ago I found myself assigned to the role of professional photographer as my team and I navigated through the eastern and northern provinces of Rwanda. We were meeting up with our field leads to test a monitoring strategy. The strategy aims to capture tree seedling survival rates and was at the stage which required a field test. This field visit was not directly related to my project but provided key insight into the reforestation projects IUCN is supporting in Rwanda and gave me some indication of the monitoring challenges faced by the field staff internal and external to IUCN.

Whoa, you must be a pro!

In this week’s post I present my project’s context and a few reflections on my work here in Rwanda. In my next post, I am excited to reflect on some of the agroforestry and forestry interventions IUCN is undertaking here in Rwanda. I don’t have that many photos which are directly relevant to my project, but I did include a few pictures from my retreat to Lake Kivu last weekend. 🙂 Oh and there’s a short blurb about my serendipitous path to becoming a (partial) marathon runner.

From the land of 10,000 lakes to the land of 1,000 hills

Rwanda is nothing like I imagined it to be. While planning my capstone project with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), very few people I knew had much experience in this country, or the region, and I knew better than to try to anticipate a lot. For me traveling abroad brings endless new experiences where I am faced with my limitations while also recognizing the occasional gift of being a foreigner. Being here in Rwanda creates situations and experiences where I really have no context and no pre-existing experiences that seem relevant in the moment. As a result I am forced to guess or fake it as I go along – keenly aware that I probably won’t do anything too egregious and that things will get easier with time. Studying and working abroad is, in a sense, a perpetual equilibrium breaker – an endless opportunity for the kind of disequilibrium that maybe, hopefully, one day, leads to wisdom. I like to think that these experiences will make me a better student, better leader, and a better citizen. But more on this later.