Let’s start this with a question: Although I, in truth, thought that the oncoming bus did come awfully close to the MotoTaxi I was riding on the back of, was it really necessary for my driver to cross himself as we sped around the next turn?

I guess you get what you pay for, and, at a cost fifty cents to ride on the back of a motorcycle driven by a stranger through the streets of downtown Kigali, a little prayer may not be a bad thing.

That ride happened at the end of a well-traveled day that took me out to Nyarugenge district to visit the new “Cooperative Ingenzi K-Light” store. This is the name on the sign over the door of the storefront that the women of our Beacon Program moved into on Tuesday, February 2, 2010.

Although smaller than the previous store, this space offers a lot more than the last one did.  We are now on a main street very close to a bus stop. There are other businesses along the same strip of building and foot traffic is increased. I think that some of the customers may have just stopped in to see the “Big Mzungu” as I am affectionately referred to, but whatever drives the customers to the store, right?

The Beacon women have been successful at selling used clothes and shoes, along with the K-Light. From the records I was shown, they have already sold out a large quantity of children’s clothing that they had previously obtained, and are down to only five or six pair of shoes and a stack of men’s shorts. The store is pretty sparse, but should soon be filled up with new inventory.

With new inventory and a new storefront the next step is better marketing, and the location has a lot of potential for that. We discussed painting a K-Light on the wall next to the door, building a rack for K-Lights to sit in the sun on the walkway during the day, and then have them light up the inside of the store all night, and even signs to announce new inventory that can hang over the door. We brainstormed on this and then decided we would wait until our new friends come in March.

The ladies and I are excited about the business interns that will be coming from the U.S. to help us not only with the marketing, but with budgeting, planning and customer service. This is such a great opportunity for all of us, and we appreciate being part of these business student projects from the University of Michigan and Grand Valley State University.

I will have more information on our progress soon. As things happen I will keep you up to date, and I understand you will also be able to follow the exploits of our interns as they join our team both at home and in Rwanda. I hope I haven’t shied our guests away from using the MotoTaxis. They truly are a great way to get around Kigali. They just need to get rid of those big buses.  –Andy

What are we going to do on this trip? More than we had planned on. First and foremost is to get the Beacon Program pilot project off the ground. At this point in time, we have five cooperatives of women with 7-11 women in each cooperative. Most have been given basic business training in sales, budgeting, accounting, etc. We are ready to grant each of the cooperatives their 36 K-Lights, but we are held up on the registrations with the government (we stipulate the the cooperatives be registered so that the women have ownership of their business and complete control of their profits). So, we will check on the progress of this and hopefully form more cooperatives while we are in Rwanda.

We will also be focused on future trips. Inspections of sites for possible solar installs and Wall of Words library set-ups are high on our priority lists. We are hopeful that we will have plenty of sites lined up and will be able to start fundraising with exact goals in mind.

We also need to finish the Shyara School. This is the school that we set up with a solar system and library last year. There was a problem with the shipment of the actual lights last year, so now we can get back out there and light up the school.

Overall, we are excited about the possibilities of this upcoming trip. Everyone who is going adds so much to the group. I know we are going to accomplish what we have set up, as well as many other things that we don’t even know about yet. That’s the way it always happens…

Andrew Williams, President