Welcome to the blog of Blue Marble Dreams, the non-profit venture of Blue Marble Ice Cream.
Here you can learn more about our mission to use ice cream to inspire joy and spur economic growth. You can also follow the progress of Inzozi Nziza, our pilot project in Rwanda.
Even though it was a rainy and chilly morning in Butare, the entire staff of Inzozi Nziza and cooperative members joined together for our monthly tradition of umuganda. Now the shop is not only decorated for Christmas, but also, it’s sparkling clean!
Mediatrice enjoys mopping the floors.
Alphonsine gets the windows nice and clean so that the snowflakes look great!
Even the snowman gets a nice cleaning!
It’s always great to see our whole group get together, and after working hard all morning, we joined together for a delicious meal!
Last week we decorated at the shop, and now, Inzozi Nziza is ready for Christmas! Here are some of the decorations:
We even have a Christmas tree:
Stockings were hung by the counter with care; one for each staff member!
Even the refrigerator dressed up:
Although there will be no snow in Rwanda this holiday season, our windows will have snow flakes, and even a snowman.
We hope you can stop by the shop and enjoy some of our Christmas spirit!
We would like to congratulate one of our wonderful employees on getting married. Valentine has been working at the shop for one year and married her fiance, Albert, last weekend. The wedding was very beautiful and composed of three parts. The first, was the dowry ceremony, or traditional wedding. This was held in the backyard of Valentine’s house. There were many speeches, traditional Rwandan dance by both male and female dancers, and drumming.
Valentine looked beautiful in her gold dress!
Louise and Alphonsine, two shop employees, took part in the traditional ceremony.
The second part was a catholic mass located at the church very close to Valentine’s house. For this, Valentine changed into a white wedding dress. Her sister, pictured here in a beautiful blue dress, was her maid of honor and was constantly fixing her dress to keep it looking perfect.
The wedding party walking over to the church to continue the ceremony.
Valentine and her new husband Albert during the catholic mass.
Finally, the third part of the ceremony is the reception. Here there was soda, banana beer, and an impressive cake display. The newlyweds cut the cake, and we all enjoyed watching more dancing and drumming. Valentine and Albert even joined in with the dancing; they were great! This is also the part of the wedding where guests present gifts to the new couple.
At the reception, the new couple cuts their wedding cake.
Eugenie and Louise join me for the reception. They look great and are happy to be able to celebrate with Valentine and Albert!
As we left the wedding and said goodnight, the sky looked gorgeous.
Today was another successful shop umuganda. Both employees of the shop and members of the cooperative came together to clean the shop and, of course, enjoy a delicious meal! Thanks to everyone’s hard work the shop looks great! Here are some pictures from our day:
Even on this cloudy day, everyone came out to clean the shop together.
Valentine smiles as she cleans! You can also see the beautiful view from the porch of our shop in front of her.
After a long day of cleaning, everyone gathers together for a delicious meal.
Inzozi Nziza would like to welcome a new staff member to our team: Mediatrice!
Mediatrice in her beautiful ibitenge.
Mediatrice, like all of our employees, is part of Ingoma Nysha, the drumming group that helped found the shop. She is a mother of four beautiful children. The youngest of which is Cedric, who was a frequent visitor of our English class with the women drummers.
Baby Cedric enjoying some bread as he joins us for English class.
Everyone at Inzozi Nziza is excited to have Mediatrice join our community!
Mediatrice looks great in her new uniform!
Although Halloween is not a popular or well known holiday in Rwanda, at Inzozi Nziza we brought a little bit of Halloween spirit to Butare.
A few days before Halloween, we decorated the shop with orange ribbon, little pumpkins, and information for the customers to learn about the mostly American holiday.
And of course, no Halloween is complete without Trick or Treat bags!
Valentine and Alphonsine enjoy their Trick or Treat bags and read about Halloween.
Happy Halloween from Inzozi Nziza
Although we haven’t written in a while, here are some updates from Blue Marble Dreams: I, Laura, am back in Butare working with the women at Inzozi Nziza. Thanks to many generous donations, I was able to bring over with me some supplies from the US and some great new t-shirts for the women to wear as uniforms! We would like to thank everyone who was involved in making this happen!
The women look great in their new uniforms!
Inzozi Nziza now has a new facebook page- http://www.facebook.com/inzoznzizaicecream. Want to follow more of the day to day happenings at the shop? Be sure to “like” out page!
Also, besides helping around the shop, I am also involved in English classes for the women drummers who are part of the cooperative that helped found and own the shop. Twice a week, after their drumming rehearsals, I go by and teach an English class. Here are some photos from our lesson today:
The women draw clocks to practice asking each other “What time is it?”.
The rest of their classmates wait while they draw.
We often have many little visitors at our classes!
I look forward to updating the blog on the happenings at Inzozi Nziza! Stay tuned!
Check out the women in Butare’s new aprons and hats!
Each morning after some initial cleaning, the women put on their uniforms and get ready for the day. The women’s hats are made of the beautiful fabrics that are common in Rwanda- or ibitenge in Kinyarwanda.
Leocadie adjusts her hat.
Chantal checks her hat in a mirror.
When we are all ready, we place a sign out by the road so that everyone who passes by knows we are open.
Alphonsine and Leocadie are ready for customers.
With the shop already being a popular place for National University students to take their dates at night, Valentine’s day was an extra special occasion. We also decided to do our shop umaganda to clean and prepare the shop.
We began by decorating the shop with paper hearts and fresh cut pink and red flowers.
We also made special valentine’s day treats like these heart shape cookies with pink icing.
After all of the cleaning was done, the women dressed up for Valentine’s day.
Alphonsine sets up our shop umaganda family meal!
Blue Marble Dreams 