Spent all day today measuring children and counting up their measurements. I love being around the children, expecially the little ones – some of them are so small and sweet! I'm quite enjoying the challenge of helping Tracy with PE lessons too…though we're running out of games to teach them – any suggestions welcome! I resorted to Sleeping Lions this week just to stop them leaping about saying "Teacher, teach us new game!" Can't remember if I told you or not, but the school meal is always rice and beans…and on a Friday you get random meat!! It's a big hit with the children, but I can't say I really understand why!
Still, at least it wasn't intestines! Rachael did actually cook us all intestines last week…it's a traditional part of Agatogo – a dish involving vegetables, ground-nut sauce and goats meat (I think). She is a really good cook and the dish was really tasty…the problem was I wasn't sure what these little rubbery bits were…and I tried a bit of one and couldn't chew through it…then someone informed me that it was most likely to be intestines…and despite the rest being absolutely delicious I just couldn’t stomach the offal. Then I thought I found a hoof…and the hysteria that ensued meant I didn't eat an awful lot more!! Actually that is the first time there has been anything suspicious about any of the food here – on the whole it is very good. Justine (the cook at Tubakunde house) is a cooking student and a fantastic cook who has delighted us with an array of Rwandan cooking – all of it really nice! So, as yet I haven't lost all the weight the travel nurse said I would!!
By the way, the reason there are still no pictures on this blog is that my laptop has died. It has been sent home with the others to hopefully get fixed and come back with another party of workers from York in February, but it will be difficult to post pictures until then I fear!
Friday, 26 January 2007
Murabeho! (Goodbye)
Jean and Howard, Margaret and Yvonne went off to Cyangugu this morning, so we won't see them again now. They fly back to England next week. So it's been a pretty emotional morning for everyone – particularly for Tracy and Yvonne – goodbye has to be one of the hardest things to say, and its always worse when its your family! I'm quite glad I got the saying goodbye bit over with at the beginning of this month, and now I can just look forward to the hello. Reading back over the end of my previous entry I feel it is necessary to say that whilst I already love the people over here very much, that is not to say that I don't miss all you folk back in England! My heart just keeps expanding to fit everyone in…in fact it's perhaps as bottomless as my stomach (and that is saying something!)…so there is room for you all, I promise.
Today I am at Sonrise school again. I have been backing some display work for Tracy, and when Pam gets back with the tape measure we are going to go and measure some more children for their uniforms.
Today I am at Sonrise school again. I have been backing some display work for Tracy, and when Pam gets back with the tape measure we are going to go and measure some more children for their uniforms.
Tuesday, 23 January 2007
2 Amazing Days!
I really need to tell you all about Friday and Saturday last week. Friday rates among my top three best days ever, and Saturday is probably somewhere up there too! On Friday we drove out to Kinigi, a village about half an hour away, a lot smaller and much poorer than Ruhengeri. Nathan was very keen for us to see how the poorer communities lived and once we had got permission from the local authority we drove down with a couple of representatives to spend time with some of the local people.
The owner of the first house we looked into wasn’t in, but was a member of the Twa community. This is the third and lesser known of the three Rwandan 'tribes' (Tutsies and Hutus being the ones you have probably heard of). There is probably only about 2% of the population Twa. Whilst Tutsies and Hutus are now not referred to and it would never be right to ask people whether they were one or the other, the Twa seem to be the equivalent of what we would call 'gypsies' (I suppose they are now meant to be called 'travellers') and I don't think they move around but they are noticeably smaller than the rest of the population. The house was tiny and a very very small space for anyone to be living in.
All the houses were made of sticks of wood with twine wrapped round it to hold it all together and mud packed into the gaps. They use varying roof materials – some metal, some plant matter and it keeps the rain from washing away the mud. The second house we visited we were welcomed into by the man who lived there with his wife and children. We were overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone was…if you turned up on someone's doorstep in England, there is no way they would ask eight of you in, let alone borrow stools from a neighbour's house so that you could all sit down! With Nathan translating, Howard prayed with all the people in the house that they be blessed and that the house be blessed, and said how privileged we were to be welcomed in. The house had written over the door something about being a house where the Lord resides so we knew they were Christian (and indeed for most people here Christianity is a big part of their lives.)
As we left the house and were heading back to the cars a whole stream of children came over the top of a hill – it must have been lunch time at the local schools or something because there were loads of them!! And they swarmed around us, getting thoroughly over excited when we used our few words of Kinyarwanda with them! It is so lovely that we could cause pleasure by showing an interest in the local language, rather than just because of the fact that we were white and therefore worth talking to. Nathan asked them if they would sing to us in Kinyarwanda – it was such a fantastic sound and a very moving experience. My thanking them 'Murakoze' induced another spontaneous round of applause - then of course they asked us if we would sing to them…so remembering that the children at Sonrise had known 'Give me oil in my lamp' I started to sing that one…hoping that Tracy would join in and by the chorus the children had too!
Shortly after we had left that particular bit of the village it started to rain and so by the time we got to the very steep muddy slope it was considerably more slippery than it would have been ten minutes earlier! By the time we made it to the top…certain members of our party needing more help than others (Nathan calls them the 'old ladies' – it is a term of respect!!) it was raining really heavily and so went straight into someone's house to shelter. Within a few minutes we had been joined by all and sundry – there were at least thirty of us sheltering in this house and the sound of the rain on the metal roof was immense. Talking to them was really out of the question because of the racket, but Nathan asked them if they would sing for us and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life so far. As you all probably know, one of the things I was looking forward to most about coming to Africa was experiencing African music…and this was certainly an experience I will never forget. One lady started up a rhythm using an old water container as a drum, and everyone in the house started singing – in harmony – the sound was amazing! The translation of the first song was apparently "We are really happy to have you in our house, you are welcome!" and then the next songs were Christian songs I think…though quite unlike anything in Hymns and Psalms!! They also started dancing and the music is so rhythmic and energetic…honestly, I was overwhelmed. One day I hope to have learnt enough Kinyarwanda to join in…we're also going to find someone to teach us the dances! Well, eventually the rain eased off enough for us to risk the slope back down…I think the low casualty count was a miracle!
We had taken small bags of soap and sugar with us to give to the people who had allowed us to poke around their houses, but we had been advised to leave them with the local authority as if we had started dishing them out we would have been swamped by people and things might have got out of control, so when we arrived back at the authority buildings some of the people we had seen had been gathered up and told to wait for us. We were all invited into the district officer's office and we handed over the stuff and gave them some to take back for their families. We left the rest with the district officer to distribute among the local people.
So that takes us on to Saturday – another amazing day, but in quite a different way. We went back to Kinige but this time to see the gorillas in the Virunga National Park. We had thought long and hard about the amount it cost to see them juxtaposed with the extreme poverty around us, but decided in the end that the money we were spending was going towards conserving the gorillas, which now only exist in two places (Rwanda and Uganda) and also supporting the tourism industry, which is really important for Rwanda. Tracy and I went on the medium length walk, and Margaret&T's mum went on the short walk, because Margaret has a dodgy ankle. As a result we both had very different experiences. We climbed up a mountain for at least an hour before we reached our gorillas, but when we got there they were all sat, probably no more than 2m away from us! There was one silverback – he was absolutely enormous, and he had collected himself five wives as he had journeyed from one mountain to another to set up his own tribe. Three of the wives had babies, and they were sooooo sweet! We sat with them for an hour, watching the babies play, and the adults grooming each other…and all the sorts of things you see on the television but never imagine doing in real life! They were just so big, and so unbothered by our presence there…I guess they get used to it, "Oh, its just the humans again…they'll be gone in an hour, we'll just humour them!" We were taken up by a guide and at least two men with guns…there to protect us from stampeding buffalo and the occasional risk of elephant attack. In fact we did actually see a buffalo through the trees at one point, but there was a very disappointing lack of stampeding going on! Half way up, the guide gave us the inside of a stem of a plant to eat – and its what the gorillas eat…it tasted like mangetout! Just before you actually get to the place where the gorillas are, and remember there have been trekkers out finding them, and following them all day and keeping the guide updated so he knew exactly where they were, we had to put all our bags and sticks (to help through the muddy jungle!) down and take only ourselves and our cameras through to the place where they were sat. As I said they carried on about their daily business without really paying much attention to us, although they did look us directly in the eyes a few times, just to prove they were in control. All the time we were there the guide and the guards made gorilla noises, which I assume meant "don't worry, we aren't a threat" but actually sounded like huffing and grunting and a sort of upside-down elephant noise…rather than an upward trumpet, it was a downward groaning sound… haven't you been missing my bizarre ways of describing things?!
Anyway, as I said the others had a different experience because their gorillas kept moving and they followed them around the jungle, so it meant their view wasn't quite as good, but that they got to see them swinging in the trees which we didn't. However, our babies were swinging round a stick which was poking out of the ground which was delightful to watch! Well, the hour they allowed us to spend with them went past very quickly, and I have taken so much film no-one will ever want to watch it…in fact maybe when I get home I'll play it on the television on a continual loop like a virtual jungle…it would be like living with Phil again! (sorry Phil, couldn't resist!)
Hopefully at some point I will put pictures of my house and the gorillas onto this site, but unfortunately my laptop has died…the screen suddenly went very very dark and won't lighten again, so I think I am going to be sending it home wih the folks who are leaving here tomorrow, and they will try to get it mended and send it back with the men that are coming out in February…fingers crossed! It may be possible to transfer them on to Pam's computer…but despite what everyone said about African time and there being plenty of it, I seem to be filling mine in the same way I did in England! But bear with me, when the others have gone home, things will begin to calm down a bit. Having said that, it has been wonderful having them all here to settle us in; it has made it so easy. I can't believe how quickly I have settled in, and I couldn't be looking forward to working with Pam more – we have really clicked. Nathan is also lovely. I think they were both quite worried about what I was going to be like, never having met me…six months is a long time to spend trying to work with someone you can't stand, but it turns out that we are all going to get on brilliantly, and probably have a lot of fun together! And you all know me well enough to know that I only need to be around lovely people to be happy whatever else is thrown at me! Of course, I already knew that Tracy was lovely, so things were already looking promising for a happy seven months!!
The owner of the first house we looked into wasn’t in, but was a member of the Twa community. This is the third and lesser known of the three Rwandan 'tribes' (Tutsies and Hutus being the ones you have probably heard of). There is probably only about 2% of the population Twa. Whilst Tutsies and Hutus are now not referred to and it would never be right to ask people whether they were one or the other, the Twa seem to be the equivalent of what we would call 'gypsies' (I suppose they are now meant to be called 'travellers') and I don't think they move around but they are noticeably smaller than the rest of the population. The house was tiny and a very very small space for anyone to be living in.
All the houses were made of sticks of wood with twine wrapped round it to hold it all together and mud packed into the gaps. They use varying roof materials – some metal, some plant matter and it keeps the rain from washing away the mud. The second house we visited we were welcomed into by the man who lived there with his wife and children. We were overwhelmed by how welcoming everyone was…if you turned up on someone's doorstep in England, there is no way they would ask eight of you in, let alone borrow stools from a neighbour's house so that you could all sit down! With Nathan translating, Howard prayed with all the people in the house that they be blessed and that the house be blessed, and said how privileged we were to be welcomed in. The house had written over the door something about being a house where the Lord resides so we knew they were Christian (and indeed for most people here Christianity is a big part of their lives.)
As we left the house and were heading back to the cars a whole stream of children came over the top of a hill – it must have been lunch time at the local schools or something because there were loads of them!! And they swarmed around us, getting thoroughly over excited when we used our few words of Kinyarwanda with them! It is so lovely that we could cause pleasure by showing an interest in the local language, rather than just because of the fact that we were white and therefore worth talking to. Nathan asked them if they would sing to us in Kinyarwanda – it was such a fantastic sound and a very moving experience. My thanking them 'Murakoze' induced another spontaneous round of applause - then of course they asked us if we would sing to them…so remembering that the children at Sonrise had known 'Give me oil in my lamp' I started to sing that one…hoping that Tracy would join in and by the chorus the children had too!
Shortly after we had left that particular bit of the village it started to rain and so by the time we got to the very steep muddy slope it was considerably more slippery than it would have been ten minutes earlier! By the time we made it to the top…certain members of our party needing more help than others (Nathan calls them the 'old ladies' – it is a term of respect!!) it was raining really heavily and so went straight into someone's house to shelter. Within a few minutes we had been joined by all and sundry – there were at least thirty of us sheltering in this house and the sound of the rain on the metal roof was immense. Talking to them was really out of the question because of the racket, but Nathan asked them if they would sing for us and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life so far. As you all probably know, one of the things I was looking forward to most about coming to Africa was experiencing African music…and this was certainly an experience I will never forget. One lady started up a rhythm using an old water container as a drum, and everyone in the house started singing – in harmony – the sound was amazing! The translation of the first song was apparently "We are really happy to have you in our house, you are welcome!" and then the next songs were Christian songs I think…though quite unlike anything in Hymns and Psalms!! They also started dancing and the music is so rhythmic and energetic…honestly, I was overwhelmed. One day I hope to have learnt enough Kinyarwanda to join in…we're also going to find someone to teach us the dances! Well, eventually the rain eased off enough for us to risk the slope back down…I think the low casualty count was a miracle!
We had taken small bags of soap and sugar with us to give to the people who had allowed us to poke around their houses, but we had been advised to leave them with the local authority as if we had started dishing them out we would have been swamped by people and things might have got out of control, so when we arrived back at the authority buildings some of the people we had seen had been gathered up and told to wait for us. We were all invited into the district officer's office and we handed over the stuff and gave them some to take back for their families. We left the rest with the district officer to distribute among the local people.
So that takes us on to Saturday – another amazing day, but in quite a different way. We went back to Kinige but this time to see the gorillas in the Virunga National Park. We had thought long and hard about the amount it cost to see them juxtaposed with the extreme poverty around us, but decided in the end that the money we were spending was going towards conserving the gorillas, which now only exist in two places (Rwanda and Uganda) and also supporting the tourism industry, which is really important for Rwanda. Tracy and I went on the medium length walk, and Margaret&T's mum went on the short walk, because Margaret has a dodgy ankle. As a result we both had very different experiences. We climbed up a mountain for at least an hour before we reached our gorillas, but when we got there they were all sat, probably no more than 2m away from us! There was one silverback – he was absolutely enormous, and he had collected himself five wives as he had journeyed from one mountain to another to set up his own tribe. Three of the wives had babies, and they were sooooo sweet! We sat with them for an hour, watching the babies play, and the adults grooming each other…and all the sorts of things you see on the television but never imagine doing in real life! They were just so big, and so unbothered by our presence there…I guess they get used to it, "Oh, its just the humans again…they'll be gone in an hour, we'll just humour them!" We were taken up by a guide and at least two men with guns…there to protect us from stampeding buffalo and the occasional risk of elephant attack. In fact we did actually see a buffalo through the trees at one point, but there was a very disappointing lack of stampeding going on! Half way up, the guide gave us the inside of a stem of a plant to eat – and its what the gorillas eat…it tasted like mangetout! Just before you actually get to the place where the gorillas are, and remember there have been trekkers out finding them, and following them all day and keeping the guide updated so he knew exactly where they were, we had to put all our bags and sticks (to help through the muddy jungle!) down and take only ourselves and our cameras through to the place where they were sat. As I said they carried on about their daily business without really paying much attention to us, although they did look us directly in the eyes a few times, just to prove they were in control. All the time we were there the guide and the guards made gorilla noises, which I assume meant "don't worry, we aren't a threat" but actually sounded like huffing and grunting and a sort of upside-down elephant noise…rather than an upward trumpet, it was a downward groaning sound… haven't you been missing my bizarre ways of describing things?!
Anyway, as I said the others had a different experience because their gorillas kept moving and they followed them around the jungle, so it meant their view wasn't quite as good, but that they got to see them swinging in the trees which we didn't. However, our babies were swinging round a stick which was poking out of the ground which was delightful to watch! Well, the hour they allowed us to spend with them went past very quickly, and I have taken so much film no-one will ever want to watch it…in fact maybe when I get home I'll play it on the television on a continual loop like a virtual jungle…it would be like living with Phil again! (sorry Phil, couldn't resist!)
Hopefully at some point I will put pictures of my house and the gorillas onto this site, but unfortunately my laptop has died…the screen suddenly went very very dark and won't lighten again, so I think I am going to be sending it home wih the folks who are leaving here tomorrow, and they will try to get it mended and send it back with the men that are coming out in February…fingers crossed! It may be possible to transfer them on to Pam's computer…but despite what everyone said about African time and there being plenty of it, I seem to be filling mine in the same way I did in England! But bear with me, when the others have gone home, things will begin to calm down a bit. Having said that, it has been wonderful having them all here to settle us in; it has made it so easy. I can't believe how quickly I have settled in, and I couldn't be looking forward to working with Pam more – we have really clicked. Nathan is also lovely. I think they were both quite worried about what I was going to be like, never having met me…six months is a long time to spend trying to work with someone you can't stand, but it turns out that we are all going to get on brilliantly, and probably have a lot of fun together! And you all know me well enough to know that I only need to be around lovely people to be happy whatever else is thrown at me! Of course, I already knew that Tracy was lovely, so things were already looking promising for a happy seven months!!
Wednesday, 17 January 2007
Picture!
I forgot - here is a picture of our house!!!! I may even show you around the inside at some point, but for now you can see it from the front gate! Oh, by the way, just while my picture is uploading I would like to make you aware that WE HAVE CHEESE! I didn't think there would be any cheese out here, but there is - it's a bit like edam and very nice and not even that expensive. So whilst shampoo costs 9000 Francs (£9 a bottle!!!), you can get a whole cheese for less than a third of the price and its a big round one that will last for ages (if I stop eating it....) Oh, for goodness sake, it's taking too long...I'll show you the house another day...I think the internet has slowed to a stop!
The unkillable spiders....
Mwirirwe! That's good afternoon! We are in our own house now -
it is much nicer than we were expecting. We have a double room each, a living
room that is probably larger than any I shall ever own for the rest of
my life, and hot running water! Yesterday I had a hot shower for the
first time in a week...but funnily enough I still don't feel the urge to
do more washing than is absolutely necessary (possibly because of the
colour of the inside of our bath...I think it was white once...) I have
been washing in the kitchen sink, because the bathroom one leaks all
over the floor and the hot tap is taped closed, but I realised this
morning that our guard can see straight through the kitchen door...and
that I probably shouldn't be standing in front of the window waving my
flannel about! Our guard...now he's another interesting person!
Doesn't speak any English at all and listens to his radio really loud
quite a lot of the time. I suppose it must be a pretty boring job
sitting around in someone's yard...but we try to keep him entertained.
The first night we moved in there was a HUGE and incredibly vicious
looking spider in my wardrobe...and we decided that we weren't quite
brave enough to hit it with a shoe (Tracy did try once but it moved
SOOOO fast we got freaked out!) It was a strange flat looking spider
and I'm not kidding - you have never seen a spider move so fast, it was
like a shadow flying past. Anyway, so not knowing whether it was
dangerous or not we didn't want to risk just shutting the door on it and
leaving it...I, in particular was not fond of the idea of finding it in
one of my items of clothing that I had already put in the wardrobe in
the morning! So, I decided as a last resort that we would have to get
the guard to remove it...so I went outside in the rain, beckoned the
poor man into the house...gesticulating wildly about our problem, took
him into my bedroom and handed him a shoe whilst pointing at the beast.
Well, again, I exaggerate not, he chased it round the wardrobe with a
bit of paper and it covered the entire length of the wardrobe and up and
down the door in the space of a second, and he finally removed it, with
the most bemused expression on his face. I suspect it wasn't the spider
that was causing him the bemusement but the strange 'muzungus' in their
pyjamas and coats making strange demands on his evening! Well, after all that I spent the night in Tracy's bed...neither of us were brave enough to face the beasts of the night alone!! But I have made the transition into my own bed now, and we have even killed a spider of our own...ok, Tracy killed it, but I must report it took at least six bashes and five minutes later we still caught it resurrecting itself and limping towards the kitchen!!! They must have some kind of exo-skeleton or something that makes them unkillable!!
We have a lovely girl called Rachael who is helping us out with the
washing and cleaning and so on (obviously there are no such things as
washing machines) - she has just finished her exams so she can't be more
than 16 or 18 and she knows Kinyarwanda, French and a VERY small amount
of English...so I probably should have swatted up on my French before I
came out after all! We have had some very interesting conversations
with Tracy and I floundering around with the French and her just looking
shy...possibly because I think I'm asking her to buy us teabags and in
fact I'm saying 'there's a camel on the roof'! Unfortunately we ended
up with tealeaves as opposed to teabags, but I suppose I should be
grateful it wasn't a camel!! Oh and we have the sweetest group of
children living nearby - they all run up when we arrive home and give us
hugs! Can you imagine me coming home and greeting the children on
Byland Avenue with handshakes and hugs?!!
Sorry, I digress...I'm meant to be telling you what I've been up to!
Sadly, there are no babies at Tubakunde House yet, because they haven't
finished doing it up...but as you may imagine when it comes to digging
3meter deep 'soak-away' pits (where the waste from sinks and showers
runs into...and...er...soaks away!) I am in my element! The men taught
me how to use what they translated as a hoe, but what I would describe
as a large wooden pick-axe style tool with a spade shaped bit on the end
at right angles to the wooden handle, which when swung wildly above
one's head and brought down with just the right amount of force breaks
up the soil! It was great fun...although apparently I should have made
more use of gravity...and not quite so much arm vigour. Still, I have
plenty of time to practise...and I still have to go and finish off the
hole - its still only 1.7m deep and needs to be about 3m! The problem
is...once I get back in it, I'm not entirely sure how I'll get out
again! I should confess that I haven't dug the entire thing myself - I
had considerable help from the men! However, Nathan (the business
manager for the project - a very lovely man who has been so good setting
up our house for us and everything and is really looking after us - and
is only the same age as me!) says that he will name the soak-away pit
after me once I have filled it with porous rocks!!! Shame no-one will
ever know its there once it's filled in! I have also learnt an awful
lot about septic tanks. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to get in the septic tank and
help clean it out, but hey, I've got to be left with some ambitions!! (Oh, addition to this message - wrote it a few days ago - I have now been allowed into the septic tank!!!!! I had to poke a piece of wire down the pipe that leads to the soak-away pit to see how far it went...and er... I smell a bit now! Probably also because I put my foot in a bit of bog on the way to Sue's house where I'm writing this!)
Today I have been in school helping Tracy to do a PE lesson...and
generally being her classroom assistant just to relieve first-day
stress. It has been lovely though - the children are gorgeous! They
are so friendly...and they all want to touch you - I think it's such a
novelty to touch a white person...its like they don't quite believe you
are real!! Walking back from the playing field after their PE lesson I
must have had at least five of them hanging off my arms and around my
waist, they are all so cuddly! They call me "Teacher Emma" - and of
course it doesn't take long for them all to know who you are...it'll
take me a lot longer to work out who they all are!
Still hoping that we'll have internet access in our house soon, so then I will be able to write more often and it won't be quite such a jumbled mess of information, but for now I ought to sign off as I'm being rather anti-social in someone else's house!
it is much nicer than we were expecting. We have a double room each, a living
room that is probably larger than any I shall ever own for the rest of
my life, and hot running water! Yesterday I had a hot shower for the
first time in a week...but funnily enough I still don't feel the urge to
do more washing than is absolutely necessary (possibly because of the
colour of the inside of our bath...I think it was white once...) I have
been washing in the kitchen sink, because the bathroom one leaks all
over the floor and the hot tap is taped closed, but I realised this
morning that our guard can see straight through the kitchen door...and
that I probably shouldn't be standing in front of the window waving my
flannel about! Our guard...now he's another interesting person!
Doesn't speak any English at all and listens to his radio really loud
quite a lot of the time. I suppose it must be a pretty boring job
sitting around in someone's yard...but we try to keep him entertained.
The first night we moved in there was a HUGE and incredibly vicious
looking spider in my wardrobe...and we decided that we weren't quite
brave enough to hit it with a shoe (Tracy did try once but it moved
SOOOO fast we got freaked out!) It was a strange flat looking spider
and I'm not kidding - you have never seen a spider move so fast, it was
like a shadow flying past. Anyway, so not knowing whether it was
dangerous or not we didn't want to risk just shutting the door on it and
leaving it...I, in particular was not fond of the idea of finding it in
one of my items of clothing that I had already put in the wardrobe in
the morning! So, I decided as a last resort that we would have to get
the guard to remove it...so I went outside in the rain, beckoned the
poor man into the house...gesticulating wildly about our problem, took
him into my bedroom and handed him a shoe whilst pointing at the beast.
Well, again, I exaggerate not, he chased it round the wardrobe with a
bit of paper and it covered the entire length of the wardrobe and up and
down the door in the space of a second, and he finally removed it, with
the most bemused expression on his face. I suspect it wasn't the spider
that was causing him the bemusement but the strange 'muzungus' in their
pyjamas and coats making strange demands on his evening! Well, after all that I spent the night in Tracy's bed...neither of us were brave enough to face the beasts of the night alone!! But I have made the transition into my own bed now, and we have even killed a spider of our own...ok, Tracy killed it, but I must report it took at least six bashes and five minutes later we still caught it resurrecting itself and limping towards the kitchen!!! They must have some kind of exo-skeleton or something that makes them unkillable!!
We have a lovely girl called Rachael who is helping us out with the
washing and cleaning and so on (obviously there are no such things as
washing machines) - she has just finished her exams so she can't be more
than 16 or 18 and she knows Kinyarwanda, French and a VERY small amount
of English...so I probably should have swatted up on my French before I
came out after all! We have had some very interesting conversations
with Tracy and I floundering around with the French and her just looking
shy...possibly because I think I'm asking her to buy us teabags and in
fact I'm saying 'there's a camel on the roof'! Unfortunately we ended
up with tealeaves as opposed to teabags, but I suppose I should be
grateful it wasn't a camel!! Oh and we have the sweetest group of
children living nearby - they all run up when we arrive home and give us
hugs! Can you imagine me coming home and greeting the children on
Byland Avenue with handshakes and hugs?!!
Sorry, I digress...I'm meant to be telling you what I've been up to!
Sadly, there are no babies at Tubakunde House yet, because they haven't
finished doing it up...but as you may imagine when it comes to digging
3meter deep 'soak-away' pits (where the waste from sinks and showers
runs into...and...er...soaks away!) I am in my element! The men taught
me how to use what they translated as a hoe, but what I would describe
as a large wooden pick-axe style tool with a spade shaped bit on the end
at right angles to the wooden handle, which when swung wildly above
one's head and brought down with just the right amount of force breaks
up the soil! It was great fun...although apparently I should have made
more use of gravity...and not quite so much arm vigour. Still, I have
plenty of time to practise...and I still have to go and finish off the
hole - its still only 1.7m deep and needs to be about 3m! The problem
is...once I get back in it, I'm not entirely sure how I'll get out
again! I should confess that I haven't dug the entire thing myself - I
had considerable help from the men! However, Nathan (the business
manager for the project - a very lovely man who has been so good setting
up our house for us and everything and is really looking after us - and
is only the same age as me!) says that he will name the soak-away pit
after me once I have filled it with porous rocks!!! Shame no-one will
ever know its there once it's filled in! I have also learnt an awful
lot about septic tanks. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to get in the septic tank and
help clean it out, but hey, I've got to be left with some ambitions!! (Oh, addition to this message - wrote it a few days ago - I have now been allowed into the septic tank!!!!! I had to poke a piece of wire down the pipe that leads to the soak-away pit to see how far it went...and er... I smell a bit now! Probably also because I put my foot in a bit of bog on the way to Sue's house where I'm writing this!)
Today I have been in school helping Tracy to do a PE lesson...and
generally being her classroom assistant just to relieve first-day
stress. It has been lovely though - the children are gorgeous! They
are so friendly...and they all want to touch you - I think it's such a
novelty to touch a white person...its like they don't quite believe you
are real!! Walking back from the playing field after their PE lesson I
must have had at least five of them hanging off my arms and around my
waist, they are all so cuddly! They call me "Teacher Emma" - and of
course it doesn't take long for them all to know who you are...it'll
take me a lot longer to work out who they all are!
Still hoping that we'll have internet access in our house soon, so then I will be able to write more often and it won't be quite such a jumbled mess of information, but for now I ought to sign off as I'm being rather anti-social in someone else's house!
Friday, 12 January 2007
Good afternoon vis'tors!
Sorry I haven't updated you for a while - we have been SOOO busy… haven't been in the house long enough to write anything!
Well, it turned out that I wasn't required to say a right lot when we met the Bishop, which was just as well because the conversation was very serious. We were struck by just how seriously Bishop John takes every decision that he has to make, and just how many decisions he is making for so many different groups of people. He is a friendly man but thinks very carefully through the implications of every decision for Rwanda as a whole.
After we had met the Bishop we went up to Sonrise School - where Tracy will be teaching - and Pam gave us a tour. The amazing thing was that because it was so near the beginning of term there weren't any teachers in the upper primary school classrooms and yet the children were all sat in their places quietly waiting. That would never happen in England! As we walked into each room, all the children stood up and greeted us, in English "Good afternoon vis'tors!" - the second i sound must be really hard to pronounce for them. Pam told them they could sit, and then went on to introduce each of us. When she told them that Tracy was a teacher from the UK coming to teach them for six months they spontaneously burst into applause and showed such excitement we were really touched. I got nearly as big a round of applause when Pam said I would be helping with Tubakunde. I think Tubakunde has quite a reputation in Ruhengeri already (Oh, incidently the 'g' sound in Ruhengeri is a soft one). There are some fifty names already on the list of people needing help when it opens. They are going to have to devise some kind of selection procedure which is going to be very hard when so many people are in need of support. Sorry, I digress. We saw inside the kitchens at Sonrise. Everything is cooked in a massive vat over a coal fire - there was a vat of bean stuff and a vat of rice and it would feed the whole school at lunch time. They also gave us some freshly baked bread which was delicious. Later in the afternoon we helped Pam and two men dismantle and move some bunk beds because the dormitaries needed shifting about a bit, and then waited for the children to finish classes at 4pm. They only had an hour before prep started and a lot of them were transporting buckets of water (which probably weighed nearly as much as they did in the case of the little ones) up a flight of steps in order to wash their clothes. I think a certain amount of washing is done for them but socks and so on they have to wash themselves. Once again, they just got on with the job with no-one instructing them or watching over them…though with some "muzungu"s distracting them! They were very shy but the ones who would talk to us actually spoke pretty good English. The rule in the school is that during lessons they must talk either French or English, though a lot of the teachers are French so I think they might be better at French.
One little girl told us that her name was Jennifer and I think she understood me when I told her my sister was called Jennifer, and she came and sat with us holding my hand for some time. She was very sweet. We asked them if they had any games they could teach us, and two of them did a hopping, clapping dance for us! So, we showed them the clapping game that English children play…and one of them tried it…the others were too shy. It's bizarre that anyone on the street will come up and talk to you, but the children in the school are a lot more shy. However, after singing to them in English (they joined in 'Give me oil in my lamp' and 'Kumbaya' because they knew them) for about twenty minutes, they finally started a song in Kinyarwanda after one little girl had very bravely done a solo. Unfortunately we had to leave just then so we never heard the end.Anyway, we're not quite up to date yet here, but I have to go to school now - we have to measure the children for uniforms today, while Tracy has an interview with the Headteacher. I will try to write some more as soon as I have time. We are moving into our new house later today!!
Well, it turned out that I wasn't required to say a right lot when we met the Bishop, which was just as well because the conversation was very serious. We were struck by just how seriously Bishop John takes every decision that he has to make, and just how many decisions he is making for so many different groups of people. He is a friendly man but thinks very carefully through the implications of every decision for Rwanda as a whole.
After we had met the Bishop we went up to Sonrise School - where Tracy will be teaching - and Pam gave us a tour. The amazing thing was that because it was so near the beginning of term there weren't any teachers in the upper primary school classrooms and yet the children were all sat in their places quietly waiting. That would never happen in England! As we walked into each room, all the children stood up and greeted us, in English "Good afternoon vis'tors!" - the second i sound must be really hard to pronounce for them. Pam told them they could sit, and then went on to introduce each of us. When she told them that Tracy was a teacher from the UK coming to teach them for six months they spontaneously burst into applause and showed such excitement we were really touched. I got nearly as big a round of applause when Pam said I would be helping with Tubakunde. I think Tubakunde has quite a reputation in Ruhengeri already (Oh, incidently the 'g' sound in Ruhengeri is a soft one). There are some fifty names already on the list of people needing help when it opens. They are going to have to devise some kind of selection procedure which is going to be very hard when so many people are in need of support. Sorry, I digress. We saw inside the kitchens at Sonrise. Everything is cooked in a massive vat over a coal fire - there was a vat of bean stuff and a vat of rice and it would feed the whole school at lunch time. They also gave us some freshly baked bread which was delicious. Later in the afternoon we helped Pam and two men dismantle and move some bunk beds because the dormitaries needed shifting about a bit, and then waited for the children to finish classes at 4pm. They only had an hour before prep started and a lot of them were transporting buckets of water (which probably weighed nearly as much as they did in the case of the little ones) up a flight of steps in order to wash their clothes. I think a certain amount of washing is done for them but socks and so on they have to wash themselves. Once again, they just got on with the job with no-one instructing them or watching over them…though with some "muzungu"s distracting them! They were very shy but the ones who would talk to us actually spoke pretty good English. The rule in the school is that during lessons they must talk either French or English, though a lot of the teachers are French so I think they might be better at French.
One little girl told us that her name was Jennifer and I think she understood me when I told her my sister was called Jennifer, and she came and sat with us holding my hand for some time. She was very sweet. We asked them if they had any games they could teach us, and two of them did a hopping, clapping dance for us! So, we showed them the clapping game that English children play…and one of them tried it…the others were too shy. It's bizarre that anyone on the street will come up and talk to you, but the children in the school are a lot more shy. However, after singing to them in English (they joined in 'Give me oil in my lamp' and 'Kumbaya' because they knew them) for about twenty minutes, they finally started a song in Kinyarwanda after one little girl had very bravely done a solo. Unfortunately we had to leave just then so we never heard the end.Anyway, we're not quite up to date yet here, but I have to go to school now - we have to measure the children for uniforms today, while Tracy has an interview with the Headteacher. I will try to write some more as soon as I have time. We are moving into our new house later today!!
Monday, 8 January 2007
Have you survived the night?
It was lovely to wake up this morning and actually be here - we saw so much yesterday that we didn't really take in, that if I hadn't seen it all again today I might not have believed it happened at all. First thing we were taken up to the Anglican cathedral - a few meters from Sue's house and in those few meters we were greeted so many times with 'Mwaramutse' - Kinyarwandan for good morning, but literally translated as 'Have you survived the night?' the only possible answer to which his yes! It is a pretty spectacular building…and an amazing contrast to the buildings surrounding it. It seats about 500people…and apparently Tracy and I will be expected to stand up and say hello in church on Sunday…only the service will be in Kinyarwandan so I'm not entirely sure how we're going to know when to do this!!
Then we went up to the Tubakunde building - where I think I will be spending most of my time. At the moment it is still very much a building site - there is a big wall being constructed round the outside, and a lot of work still to do inside the house, but you can see how wonderful it is going to be when it is done. However, I think I'm going to be spending more time tiling, hacking, painting, circular sawing (if they'll let me…) and fixing sceptic tanks than looking after babies at least for the next couple of months. I'm really quite excited about the fact that by the time I get back I may well know enough about building to build my own house…although I suspect that I won't be using a welding machine that is attached to a reel of wire which is shoved straight into the plug hole with no plug!
It was hotter today than yesterday - probably about 28degrees, but because we were in and out of buildings all day we didn't fry. Oh, and this afternoon we went to see the house we will be moving into as soon as they have finished painting it. It's amazing - far nicer than anything we expected - we have two huge bedrooms and a third off the kitchen, a lounge with more furniture than we will ever probably fill with visitors, an INSIDE toilet as well as the three outside ones, a larder(!) and a little kitchen with two electric hobs and a fridge. There is a hot water tank on the outside of the house…we don't actually know if it is going to work but it is promising. And perhaps most excitingly we have a guava tree in the yard!!!! As soon as we move in, I shall take some pictures to show you. We went to the market and bought bedding, cutlery and pans this afternoon, so we're already to move in when it is finished. Nathan is the 24 year old Rwandan who is the business manager for Tubakunde and he has been just wonderful. He sorted the house out for us, and took us shopping so that we weren't charged Muzungu (white person) prices. We are continually watched when we are walking around, but people are so friendly as well. We have met some lovely children who want to practise their English but only get as far as "Good morning, how are you!" And when we're driving in the car, they get so excited if we wave…beginning to feel a bit like the Queen with her royal wave!
Everything is so new, and so exciting, and I can't believe quite how happy I am to be here at the moment. Haven't had any pangs of homesickness so far and have no worries about how we'll get through the next six months…perhaps it’s the honeymoon period, but I genuinely think we have such a good support network from Pam and her various friends that we will be well looked after. We also met our 'house-girl' today. She is called Rachael and is probably about our age, and will be helping with cleaning etc and most importantly shopping so that we aren't sold things for twice the price. Rachael seems lovely, and comes with Pam's recommendation so I think she will be honest and look after us well. She speaks better French than English which means we will have to brush up our French - however, it will do us good! And we are determined to learn some more Kinyarwandan so that we can talk to all the people that seem so keen to meet us! For now I had better sign off and go to bed, we will be meeting Bishop John at 8.15 tomorrow morning!! We are extremely priviledged to be seeing him at all. He has only been here for the last couple of days, and goes off to the USA tomorrow and had a queue of people lined up to see him all day today. I'm not entirely sure what to say when I see him…but you know me, I'll think of something!
Then we went up to the Tubakunde building - where I think I will be spending most of my time. At the moment it is still very much a building site - there is a big wall being constructed round the outside, and a lot of work still to do inside the house, but you can see how wonderful it is going to be when it is done. However, I think I'm going to be spending more time tiling, hacking, painting, circular sawing (if they'll let me…) and fixing sceptic tanks than looking after babies at least for the next couple of months. I'm really quite excited about the fact that by the time I get back I may well know enough about building to build my own house…although I suspect that I won't be using a welding machine that is attached to a reel of wire which is shoved straight into the plug hole with no plug!
It was hotter today than yesterday - probably about 28degrees, but because we were in and out of buildings all day we didn't fry. Oh, and this afternoon we went to see the house we will be moving into as soon as they have finished painting it. It's amazing - far nicer than anything we expected - we have two huge bedrooms and a third off the kitchen, a lounge with more furniture than we will ever probably fill with visitors, an INSIDE toilet as well as the three outside ones, a larder(!) and a little kitchen with two electric hobs and a fridge. There is a hot water tank on the outside of the house…we don't actually know if it is going to work but it is promising. And perhaps most excitingly we have a guava tree in the yard!!!! As soon as we move in, I shall take some pictures to show you. We went to the market and bought bedding, cutlery and pans this afternoon, so we're already to move in when it is finished. Nathan is the 24 year old Rwandan who is the business manager for Tubakunde and he has been just wonderful. He sorted the house out for us, and took us shopping so that we weren't charged Muzungu (white person) prices. We are continually watched when we are walking around, but people are so friendly as well. We have met some lovely children who want to practise their English but only get as far as "Good morning, how are you!" And when we're driving in the car, they get so excited if we wave…beginning to feel a bit like the Queen with her royal wave!
Everything is so new, and so exciting, and I can't believe quite how happy I am to be here at the moment. Haven't had any pangs of homesickness so far and have no worries about how we'll get through the next six months…perhaps it’s the honeymoon period, but I genuinely think we have such a good support network from Pam and her various friends that we will be well looked after. We also met our 'house-girl' today. She is called Rachael and is probably about our age, and will be helping with cleaning etc and most importantly shopping so that we aren't sold things for twice the price. Rachael seems lovely, and comes with Pam's recommendation so I think she will be honest and look after us well. She speaks better French than English which means we will have to brush up our French - however, it will do us good! And we are determined to learn some more Kinyarwandan so that we can talk to all the people that seem so keen to meet us! For now I had better sign off and go to bed, we will be meeting Bishop John at 8.15 tomorrow morning!! We are extremely priviledged to be seeing him at all. He has only been here for the last couple of days, and goes off to the USA tomorrow and had a queue of people lined up to see him all day today. I'm not entirely sure what to say when I see him…but you know me, I'll think of something!
Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be snapped!
Muraho! That is Kinyarwandan for Hello! It is fantastic to have finally arrived…and we are already being made to feel so welcome here. I cannot open my eyes wide enough to take everything in! Yesterday we arrived at lunchtime and until this morning everything was so surreal. It is so difficult to describe, but anyone who has travelled for even a couple of hours knows that feeling of your body having arrived…and some part of your brain still being in the place you left. Having travelled so many miles and taken two days to do it, I wasn't entirely sure that any part of my brain was still in my head! We drove from Kigali (the capital) to Ruhengeri where we are living - it takes about an hour and a half to drive - and the scenery is incredible (though I'm planning on going to look at it again WITH my brain intact!) Rwanda is called the country of a 1000 hills…and I think that is an understatement. We are staying with Sue, a friend of Pam's (the lady setting up the Tubakunde project), and from her house we can see six volcanoes!! In the evening we went up to the Tubakunde house, stepped over the asbestos sections of roof (which are waiting to be removed from the premises…) and looked around the house…to begin with in the pitch black because the electricity had gone off, and then with the lights when it came back on! Apparently it only tends to go off for 15mins at a time, which is better than the hours we were predicting! Then we drove up to Sonrise school where Tracy will be working and saw a bit of the grounds…before the headteacher decided that he didn't want us traipsing about because we hadn't given him prior warning of our coming. In fact Pam hadn't expected him to be there at all, but because school started today there were lots of preparations going on. Still, I think we got away with it! Our bodies were so confused about what time of day it was, that by the time we got home we were so shattered we went to bed. It was 8pm Rwanda time…6pm England time!!
Skip this if you want to read about Rwanda…
Nairobi airport - now there was an experience! We spent the night in the methodist guest house which was great… and even had a swimming pool (had we not arrived at 9pm and left at 7.15am the next morning we may have used it!) Fred the taxi driver picked us up in the morning and we had been told we needed to be at the airport an hour before we flew. So, we left two hours to be safe. Our flight left at 9.45, the gates closed at 9.15 and at 9.07 we were still trying to get through passport control!! After queuing up for hours, we eventually got taken to the front of the queue because our flight was announced, and then at the last hurdle we were told we had to fill in a blue form…and had to go and fetch one…ending up at the back of another queue! We dashed up an escalator and along to gate 4 making it by 9.13 with TWO minutes to spare…the people we were meeting were just going through having given up on us! Anyway, we were lead down some steps onto the tarmac…where there was a plane which we headed towards, thankfully checking with someone on the way that it was going to Kigali…only to find out that it was in fact going to Zanzibar…and that our plane was a short hike past two other planes over the other side of the runway! Well, it was a far cry from Heathrow…pick a plane any plane! And when we got to the plane all our luggage was on the tarmac by the side of it, and we had to pick out our backpacks and put them onto a trolley to be loaded! So it was our responsibility if anything went wrong - perhaps a scheme Heathrow should consider putting into operation… The safety instructions on the plane were also hilarious - there was a whole list of things we might be worried about, ranging from the wings shaking, to strange noises from beneath our feet, to the sound of the engines being cut and a whole list of explanations about why we didn't, in fact, need to worry!
Saturday, 6 January 2007
Dubai airport
And thank goodness we're no longer in Heathrow airport...never been in such a manic airport in my life. Queues all down the M25 delayed our arrival, queues to check-in and you have never seen a queue like it for the security bit - we were practically back down the M25 to get to the back of that one...and dodging scary looking police with guns the size of...er...the queue down the M25! Well, we made it by some random miracle, and are now in Dubai airport where things are a lot calmer and I haven't yet seen a single queue! Not a lot of sleep to be had so far...but we have high hopes for Nairobi - by about 10pm after we have managed to make intelligent and inspiring conversation with a friend of a friend of a friend (that's you, Ian) who is coming to take us out for food (at the moment we are having trouble holding any kind of conversation!)
Oh, and the other really exciting thing I must tell you is that the aeroplane had a camera on the front and the bottom so we had views of outside!!! Except it was mostly dark... Oh, and the toilets in Dubai airport flush themselves when you stand up - which was also quite exciting! Well, I will bore you no longer with the excitement of toilets and instead go and find gate 26 for our ongoing flight. Currently four hours ahead of you...but going back a couple on the way to Nairobi - so this neverending day really has had far more hours than is strictly correct!
Oh, and the other really exciting thing I must tell you is that the aeroplane had a camera on the front and the bottom so we had views of outside!!! Except it was mostly dark... Oh, and the toilets in Dubai airport flush themselves when you stand up - which was also quite exciting! Well, I will bore you no longer with the excitement of toilets and instead go and find gate 26 for our ongoing flight. Currently four hours ahead of you...but going back a couple on the way to Nairobi - so this neverending day really has had far more hours than is strictly correct!
Thursday, 4 January 2007
Hair today, gone tomorrow!
Sorry...it was too much to resist! It's not often that that joke is so relevant! As you can see I now have a lot less hair than I did. I didn't realise when I posted that picture of myself earlier in the week how relevant the 'I won't look like this for much longer' comment was going to become...and how quickly! It is going to be so much more practical when I have no water to wash it in - my mother is a very talented hair dresser...and cunning enough to take 'a slight undecided grunt' to mean 'cut it all off' before there was any chance of changing my mind. I may not even need to pack a hair brush!! As you can probably also see from this picture I am fairly tired right now (it all comes of having nightmares about trying to save baby elephants - something I shall try to avoid tonight!) so I'm ready for a nice sleep on the plane tomorrow. We fly at 22.00 and will arrive in Dubai at 9am on Saturday, then sit in the airport for six hours (another potential sleeping moment!) then travel on to Nairobi, arriving around 7pm. There we will get Kenyan visas and will be met by Fred the taxi driver (no joke!) who will take us to the Methodist guest house in Nairobi for the night. I hear it's a great place to sleep...
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