NEWSFLASH!

Half an hour ago I was watching our dinner being slaughtered! In fact the reason that I am writing it half an hour later is that I've spent the last half an hour cleaning the blood off my clothes!!! The cheapest way of getting chicken here is to kill it yourself...so Justine bought a chicken, stood on its feet and its wings and then bent its neck over and cut it - just like that. It was actually all very quiet, until it struggled which is when I got splattered! And I can tell you, I wasn't standing close - that blood can cover a huge distance! I'm still not sure why it is better to do it the way she did it (especially as the knife wasn't particularly sharp) rather than doing it the way they showed on that 'Castaway' programme some time ago, where they hold it upside down by its legs and just pull its neck hard downwards to snap it...I'm sure that is kinder and less messy. Maybe I'll try it one day...

Oh, and next time she kills one, I'm determined to video it...

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday – what better excuse to get dressed up in traditional Rwandan clothes and go and spend three hours sitting in them in church?! Munyana Joy, pictured here with Amani Justus and Pam, took us shopping last week to buy the material and get it made up in the traditional way. Munyana and Justus are both off school at the moment for the Easter holidays, and Justus is staying with Pam as he quite often does in the holidays. Munyana is staying with her uncle, but has spent everyday with us – taking us to the market and teaching us how to dance! Next week they will go home to their families, who live on the way to Gisenyi, but they usually spend some time with their Musungu mother in the holidays first! Justus makes us laugh a lot because he is a typical sixteen year old, disappearing off for the day and when we ask him where he has been he always says “around”! He has friends in Ruhengeri so its nice for him to be able to stay more central and see them all.

Anyway, I digress…traditional clothes. Here are the three of us in our clothes:

And for those of you who have been so desperate to see the progress on my hair growth, here is a close up!!

And someone else requested a picture of Nathan, so here is one of the four of us standing outside the house of Mama Nathan.

We went here for a fantastic lunch after church. It was lovely to see all the Rulinda family again – Nathan is the seventh of nine children, so whilst he is the Head of the family he is certainly not the oldest. We have met al nine of them now…but please don’t ask me to recite the list! We know Emmanuel and Eben probably best as Eben helped us in Kigali to collect our passports, and Emmanuel is at school nearby so we see him quite a lot. We have also been to see Joyce at school and Charlotte is her twin. Peace is the older sister, and Stephen has been doing some painting at T-house. So that leaves Nelson, the oldest, who lives in Gisenyi and has the two small children, and Johnson who came with his wife and very sweet five month old baby - Joshua.

Wow, I am sitting outside on the outside porch step and I just heard a tremendously loud buzzing, and a bee the size of a small sparrow has just flown over the house! In the sky above my head there are at least three birds of prey circling – I think they are kites…though I’m not very good on African birds yet! And by my feet there is crawling a Nairobi fly…perhaps my least favourite of the wildlife around here! Oh, and then of course, there is Dachanger Clive…

COMPETITION RESULTS!

Well, I think it is time that the identity of Dachanger Clive is revealed! N0-one has guessed correctly, though Andrew definitely wins the prize for the most innovative suggestions! The two weeks are up, and during those two weeks there have been only three mornings that we haven’t been woken up by his bleating (and that was when we were in Cyangugu!) He is in fact a GOAT…and I have to admit quite a sweet one despite the infernal bleating that starts at 6am every morning when Jean-Pierre leaves the compound!

A couple of weeks ago Nathan rang me up and said “Guess what I have got here for you…” and we’ve never looked back since…though I quite often look ahead to the time when we leave and Dachanger’s fate is either to end up as the meat element in a dish of Akatogo or to prove himself useful enough to Tubakunde to be saved… I’m currently trying to train him to do the washing up, because I think it is his only chance of survival…if only his hooves were more dextrous!! I’ve also discovered this morning that he is quite fond of Mozart…when I started to play it on my computer whilst I have been outside writing this, he finally curled up in the sun and went to sleep!

He also has a penchant for bananas and an incredible ability to find his way into the house – he can even open the door handle with his hoof – regardless of its dexterity!! The other day he had trotted through the kitchen, found his way into the pantry and eaten all the bananas before we had even noticed he was in the house. Whilst he is the noisiest thing in the neighbourhood at 6am, he seems to have developed a stealth mode when he needs it which allows him to creep in unnoticed! Jean-Pierre, our guard, seems to really like him, which is surprising, since we discovered yesterday that they goat has chosen his bed as the ideal place to lie down to sleep at night. Someone was translating for us, and Jean-Pierre said “I really must find him somewhere to sleep that is not my bed!!” He also ate the rhubarb crumble that we gave to J-P the other day, while J-P was opening the gate, he raised himself up on the chair and got stuck-in, knocking the entire bowl on the floor as he did so! So, we have some way to go with the training, but he is getting quite good at coming when called….

Nairobi Fly!

I have to tell you about this insect. Its about the length of your little finger nail, but a quarter of the thickness and its red and black and quite distinctive. By the way, the one in the picture is dead and thus looks slightly deflated. I asked Justus to find me one to take a picture in and he brought this one in in his hand!! Its not malicious as such, but it inadvertantly does horrible horrible things to your skin. It doesn't bite, but if it sits on you, and you brush it off, you squash an acidic substance out of it which corrodes your skin - just like an acid burn. So many people seem to have got them, but on black skin it is difficult to see quite how horrible the effect is - but on Pam you can really see what a mess they make! You can see from these pictures, it is like a burn...but it starts small and then reacts and the area grows, and then it gets red raw and seems to dry out and peel whilst being intermittantly gungy. Pam has been in a lot of pain, and it has stopped her sleeping properly - its all pretty rotten for her! The first picture is what it looked like to start with, and the second is what it looks like now! Not nice at all! They gave us some anti-hystamine at the chemist, but yesterday we tried putting toothpaste on it, because thats what the children use at school, and it seemed to at least stop it hurting as much...until it dried...Pam didn't move her neck much at all yesterday actually! It is feeling better today though, she says.

It is also known as the Nairobi Eye because if you get one on your eye and brush it off...well, you can imagine it's not pleasant. Rachael, our house girl, couldn't come to work for a couple of days because her eye had swollen up so much!

Well, here's hoping that I never get one splatted on me anywhere! And don't worry, I'll let you know if I do! Perhaps I'll make a scrap book charting the progress of it, like Pam has...

Cyangugu

Well, while I’m keeping you in suspense about Dachanger Clive I think I’ll tell you about our little holiday last week. It is the first time that either of us has stopped work since we got here, so because the schools had broken up for Easter we decided to make the most of Tracy’s freedom and take a little trip down the country to Cyangugu (pronounced chang-goo-goo). When I say “little trip” I actually mean a two hour bus to Kigali, followed by a five hour bus down to Cyangugu! Fortunately the landscape kept us entertained and we even saw seven monkeys as we drove through the National Park near the end of the trip! And we were also entertained by a fantastic array of music, at top volume, so that whilst we were glad to have been given the front seats for the view and the legroom we were also deafened by our proximity to the speakers!

Anyway, we decided the journey had been well worth it, when we arrived at the Anglican Guest House and were shown to our room which overlooked a most impressive vista of Lake Kivu and beyond to the Congo the other side (see left). It took me a good few days to realise that this is in fact the same lake we have been swimming in at Gisenyi, and that it is massive and runs down the side of the country! For some reason it is much warmer by the time it gets to Cyangugu…though I can’t understand why…I suppose Cyangugu is much hotter than Ruhengeri – I think it is lower, and also seems to get less rain.

We were both exhausted when we got there, so the first proper (non-travelling) day we spent just lying in the sun outside our room, reading and admiring the view, and then going for a swim in the lake. This was quite a trek actually, because we had to go up the reception to collect a key for a massive gate which lead to a path down the hill and eventually to a jetty that you could swim off. It had been quite amusing the first day, because a boy was sent to show us how to get down to it, and also told to demonstrate how to swim!! We had explained to him that now we knew where it was, we had to go and fetch our swimming costumes, and by the time we got back he had somehow decided that we were asking for life jackets, and had managed to procure them for us! We explained that we could in fact swim, but he only seemed satisfied once I had jumped off the end of the jetty and swum half a length of the lake (well, not quite…it is immense!) It turned out that the most difficult bit was getting back out of the water – of course, two musungus swimming was of great interest, so we had a fair crowd of people around, all of whom were keen to help, but having watched Tracy having help to get out and scraping her leg up the wood as a result, I was far more keen to manage myself, and declined the outstretched arm dangling in my face!

On the second day, we walked along the road into the main town – there were beautiful lakeside views all the way along and when we got there it was like an old fishing village from a film. Everyone was hard at work, piling up coal and loading up boats. We walked further with an aim to get to the border, which we did – though we couldn’t cross it because we didn’t have our passports, not to mention the fact that an otherwise very nice man who was chatting with us, told us in no-uncertain terms that he wouldn’t let us cross because we wouldn’t be safe. So, we had coffee at the Hotel du Lac at about 10.30am, which quickly became lunch at about 11.30am – it was lovely sitting in the sun, looking at the lake, discussing our future plans (you’ll be unsurprised to learn that despite incalculable hours mulling, I am no further on with my future plans…though Rwanda is definitely a feature in them! Tracy, on the other hand, has a much clearer idea of what her future should entail…and it most certainly doesn’t involve marrying one of the many many Rwandan men that keep proposing to her – see entry entitled ‘Cattle Market’ to come.) In the evening we ate at the Guest House again, which in general served good food…although on this occasion I waited over two hours for some soup which arrived looking like someone had sneezed into a bowl… and sadly, tasting like it too. During the two hour wait we had taught the hotel manager to play cards…and it was only after several rounds of rummy that she asked had we not yet eaten…and we said we had ordered an hour and a half ago. She investigated for us and said the staff had been in a meeting…good timing we thought!!

On the third day we went on an incredibly long walk to the upper village, which was busier and less ‘quaint’ than the lower, and as a result slightly more daunting, but we pottered, ended up in a market where the smell of fish was overpowering, and then started a long hot descent down to the lower village where we had been the day before. The thought of lunch at the Hotel du Lac was the only think that kept me going, especially when the heavens opened and we were soaked by a very heavy downpour that lasted long enough to drench us from top to bottom. When we arrived at our old haunt, the hotel manager looked us up and down, and offered us a room to change in…which we declined, because as yet we are not in the habit of carrying around a change of clothes – though if the rainy season finally arrives we might have to think about it! Pam said that the rainy seasoned had arrived in Ruhengeri while we had been away, but since we have been back there hasn’t been any rain at all (not that I’m complaining!)

Our last day dawned early, if not so bright…at 5am! It was possibly the worst day of the month for me (my female friends should sympathise here…) and so not the best day for being crammed on a bus – on a back seat meant for four people with five squeezed onto it…for five hours!! There was a good half an hour - after we had all been thrown off by the police while they checked the boot for illegal monkey smuggling (we think…) and then all piled back in again - in which I only had one buttock in contact with the seat, and the other half way up the side of the bus, and my arm out of the window! Well, we made it to Kigali anyway, were met by Nathan’s brother Ebon who took us to collect our passports with renewed visas and then we mounted the bus for the last leg of the journey…I was also on my last legs by now. I should point out at this point that we had been and done a bit of shopping for Pam, and one of the items we had purchased was a lettuce in a particularly sturdy bag. I remember thinking when we bought it that it really was a ridiculously sturdy plastic bag for a lettuce, and that you could in fact keep live fish in it if necessary.

Anyway, so we were on the bus and I started to feel a bit faint, so I leant forward – I’ve never fainted in my life, so I wasn’t expecting to actually do it. Then, however, I started to feel sick…and vomiting is something that I have done in my life, and probably more times here than in the whole of the rest of my life put together! I woke up Tracy and told her to take the lettuce out of the bag, only to be asked, “You’re not seriously hungry enough to eat a lettuce leaf?” My reply filled the bag. It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience which I wish never to repeat! The bus made an unexpected stop at a toilet block where I have NEVER known them stop before…I have a feeling that news of the musungu with the bag that needed to be dropped off somewhere had reached the driver, though I can’t be sure – no-one said a word to me. Well, I was lucky enough to make it home with no further repeats, but I was very sick once I got home…which in one way was a relief, because it meant I had a bug rather than late-onset travel sickness…but in another way wasn’t because I had been so looking forward to getting home and seeing people, Pam especially, and they came round for dinner which I could not partake in. I was also confined to my bed the next day, while Tracy did all my PAing duties…she’s even tidied up all Pam’s Microsoft word files so I can’t find anything now! Ruthless efficiency wins the day…I should have got round to doing it when I had the chance!

Well, you’ll be glad to know that it only lasted 24hours and then I was right as rain – but none of you will be as glad as I was! Jill assures me that when I have lived here for twenty-five years I will have become immune to all these bugs (I very rarely get sick in England – even when I eat yoghurt that I have made myself in the airing cupboard and forgotten about for a couple of weeks so that it is almost cheese – so I cannot understand this sudden propensity to vomit!)

I have rambled on long enough, but I hope the pictures that I have punctuated the rambling with have helped you reach the end of this entry…I do promise to be shorter next time! Oh, and before you go, seeing as no-one has guessed correctly yet…here is another Dachanger Clive hint (but only a small one!):

A visitor!

You will never believe what happened this morning! I was woken by a tremendous noise which at first I thought was thunder, but then as it became a regular beating I realised it was something battering on the front gate. I leapt out of bed, and woke up Tracy…it was 6am and just starting to get light. Our first thought was that it was someone trying to get in, but apart from the fact that no-one has ever visited us at 6am before, the sound was just too loud to be being made by a human…unless he was attacking the gate with a battering ram! We found the keys and unlocked the front door, and went outside to see if we could make out what it was – we were going to call over the gate, we're always a bit wary of opening it when we can't see who is out there, especially if they sound as if they are armed with half a tree in each arm!

As we got nearer to the gate however, we could see where whatever it was had been hitting the gate with considerable force – there was a big dent and the metal was buckling. As we stood there the thing rammed into the gate again and the whole right-hand gate moved…we could see daylight between the two gates. At this point we retreated round the back of the house and I was seriously regretting not bringing my phone out with me…and in fact being outside in my pyjamas! I also wished I had brought the back door key out with me…now we had moved to the back of the house, we were too scared to go back round to the front door, in case whatever it was came in. Tracy had also grabbed hold of Dachanger Clive because he has a tendency to make a mad dash for the gate when it is open, and we weren't convince it was going to stay shut for much longer!

And we were right! Suddenly with an almighty crash the bolt gave way and the gate swung open…and standing in the gap was the most enormous elephant I have ever seen! I haven't even seen an elephant since I got here…let alone one this big! And there was no way we were going to be able to stop it marching into the garden. Once I had got over the relief of it not being an army of men with a big log come to throw us out of our house, it was really quite a magnificent sight. Now it had head-butted its way through the obstruction it moved pretty slowly and calmly (though I guess when you are that big its difficult to do otherwise). It walked nonchalantly into the garden and started to eat whatever it could lay its trunk on…which really wasn't an awful lot, seeing as Dachanger Clive has already devoured most of the garden! As it moved towards us, we moved around the back of the house and down the other side, and back round to the front, where we could get back inside the front door and lock it…just in case! On this occasion Dachanger was allowed inside the house – having spent all week trying to persuade him that this was not the case! At this point I rang Nathan to find out what on earth we were meant to do, while Tracy kept a close eye on our friend out the back! He said there really wasn't a lot we could do, except wait for it to leave – in the meantime he would call the local wildlife official, who would see about getting rid of it from the area. So we waited, and after a while, it seemed satisfied that it had eaten everything it fancied and trampled the stuff it didn't fancy…meanwhile I had got some fantastic video coverage – perhaps I'll see if I can get some onto this blog…not got high hopes though as computer has trouble recognising video camera. Then it wandered nonchalantly back out of the garden, like it had had every right to be there in the first place! And we were left wondering who was going to fix our gate! Now that is something I never predicted happening while we were here – apparently it isn't a regular occurrence by any means – Nathan says that this particular beast must have wandered down from the hills – maybe even from the Congo…he's only ever known it happen once before! We were obviously just…er…lucky!