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!!