Koko: One Rwandan Dog's Story

Koko loves it when you talk to him!

Hello my Dear Friends and Family,

I am asking for help.  And you will know if it feels right to step forward.

 As some of you know I rescued a puppy here in Rwanda back in July.  His name is Komera, a Kinyarwanda word which means “Be Strong”, but everyone calls him Koko. This is Koko’s story.

During my initial Peace Corps training I lived in Rwamagana with a Rwandan family.  They live in a gated, private compound enclosed by a high block wall.  In one corner of the block wall, down low, by the ground, is a hole for water drainage.

One night while lying in bed trying to settle into sleep, I could hear a puppy wailing his little heart out.  This went on for three full nights and finally stopped.  A few days later while walking around my neighborhood with some of my Peace Corps friends, I saw a puppy watching us.  When I tried to pet the little guy he ran away and down into a hole someone had dug into the ground and had stuffed with newspapers.  I realized this was his home.  I also realized this was the puppy I had been hearing cry for two nights.  He was about 5 weeks old, too young to be away from mother and litter mates.  I worried about him, but had to walk away. 

One day, a week or so later, when I came home from a full day of Peace Corps training, the family umukozi (an umukozi is a person who cooks and cleans for the family, usually they are young, anywhere between 14 to 26 years old, and are orphaned) began chattering to me excitedly in a mixture of Kinyarwanda and English.  I could tell Beneficience (the umukozi) wanted me to come and look at something. I followed him over to the corner of the yard where the drainage hole was in the wall that surrounded the family grounds.   There was a little puppy hovering close to where Beneficience did his cooking.  It was the same puppy I had seen a week or so ago.  It had found its way into my family’s yard, through that little hole in the wall! I tried to pet him and he scurried away through the hole.

He visited us two more times.  Each time it was around the time I came home from training. During his first to visits he scurried away when I tried to pet him.  However, on his third visit something was terribly wrong. 

Beneficience greeted me in agitation, “April, Mama bad, Papa bad, come, come, imbwa , imbwa (dog is imbwa in Kinyarwanda).”   I found the puppy laying on his side, lethargic, and breathing rapidly.  He did not budge when I picked him up.  My heart was breaking for him. This little guy came to us when he was at his rock bottom.

Koko came to us when he was at his rock bottom.

I want to take a moment here to explain Mama and Papa’s responses. Beneficience felt that Mama and Papa were bad because they would not help the puppy.  But they are not bad.  There is a history about dogs related to the genocide that I will not tell for now.  Let’s just say that more than likely, their choice to not help a puppy is wrapped up in emotional memories. However, they have a large extended family of children that they support and care for that are not their biological children. Now I am one of them.  They treat me as one of their family. They are amazing people.  But I was about to cause some angst in the family just by being me.  I would not leave the puppy’s side. I informed Mama I would be sleeping outside with the puppy.

Beneficience found me a box to put the little guy in and I made a bed for him out of my Peace Corps T-shirt and one of my skirts.  Then I began making phone calls.  Many people’s hands were in this but in the end arrangements were made for the puppy to be taken by car to Kigali where my friends, Brian and Amber, took him under their loving wings.  However, that was not to happen until the next morning. So I bundled up preparing for a long night. 

Koko warm inside the house and in his little bed.  
So much better than a hole in the ground!

Mama and Papa could not stand the thought of me sleeping outside.  So after Papa and the rest of the family were tucked in bed Mama came outside to inform me that I would come inside to bed and that I was to bring Koko into my room with me.  I could tell that Mama was secretly delighted about this.  So Koko and I had a nice warm place to sleep for the night.

Before going to bed inside the house, Koko received many stroke and lots love.  Three of the younger children gathered around intrigued.  I showed them how to pet him. At some point Koko began to respond to this attention and became more alert.  He sat up in his box.  I asked Beneficience to bring some igitoke (a non-sweet banana that is cooked up like potatoes).  We mashed the igitoke up and watered it down so he could drink it.  The pup devoured it! Yaaah! He was getting his strength back.  Then we gave him water and he slurped it right up.  He went potty and then was ready to get back into his box.  He slept in his box by my bed with my hand on some part of his body all night long. 

Koko after one week with Brian and Amber.
A healthy puppy!

The next morning when I took him outside he happily waddled around the yard and he wanted to eat.  He was on the road to recovery.  He needed the food and water, but the first thing that revived him was the loving attention he received and all of those loving strokes and connection.  I believe his heart was breaking from loneliness and from living all alone in that dreary hole in the ground. 

Koko resting after a good run in the hills of Bubazi,
the community we live in.

The next morning the pup was taken by car to Kigali.  When my friend, Brian,  texted me to let me know that Koko had arrived safely, he asked me what I wanted to name him.  I knew immediately this pups name should be Komera, “Be Strong”.  Somehow this little guy found his way to those who could help him break out of the harsh environment dogs have here in Rwanda.   He found us through that little hole in that big wall.  He found me.  And he is my responsibility.  Brian and Amber agreed to foster Koko while I completed my Peace Corps training and until I was establish at my service site in the community of the Bubazi Health Center.

I have had Koko for a little over one month now.  He is loving, smart and well behaved.  But he is still a puppy and he requires a safe place to grow and mature.  This morning he ran out of the yard, as puppies will do, and I was running after him.  A man took a swing at Koko with a shovel. When people swing a tool here, it is wide and hard.  Thank goodness Koko was running so the shovel just clipped his rear end.  In that moment I knew I needed to send Koko home to the US. 

I have an enormous amount of work to do here in Rwanda.  My days will be long and I do not have a safe place to contain Koko.  I am looking for a safe loving home for him for the next two years.  I am asking for help in this.  So if your heart draws you to this task please let me now.  Koko and I will be eternally grateful to you!