Grasshoppers and corned beef hash...

Well, what a strange experience. In the same evening I was fed fried grasshopper and corned beef hash…and I have to say that it was a close-run contest to decide which was the most enjoyable. The grasshopper, once you got over the fact that you were munching almost an entire grasshopper including its head (but minus the wings) was really surprisingly tasty. They only appear at one time of year and only then for a couple of weeks and so you have to catch them (literally) before they get too old to taste good. There are two varieties – green and brown, but the brown one isn’t an old version of the green one and they all look the same once cooked. I watched Kazungu (the guard at T house) catching them the other day; he very deftly breaks their necks without their heads falling off! It is a difficult flavour to describe…though the same cannot be said for the corned beef hash, which is a very easy flavour to describe in just three words – like dog food! I think the main problem is the fact that once you have mashed the corned beef into the potato, the consistency and the appearance is remarkably close to that of dog food as well as the taste…it doesn’t stand a chance really! Give me a fried grasshopper any day.

The birthday fun continues…

This weekend I went for my traditional birthday swim – but it was not just any swim! I fulfilled one of my lifetime ambitions! On Saturday we headed down to Gisenyi and had lunch at our usual haunt (Serena Hotel…which may or may not be owned by the tennis player) and then went and picked up Nelson, Solange and the babies to take them to the beach. I played in the water with Mercy, we had found her a little swimming costume in one of the boxes at T-house, and she LOVES the water! After we had watched the sun set – and what a sunset! – we took Nelson et al. home.
Then we drove along a winding, unsurfaced road with a drop into the lake on the right hand side and the occasional doubtful-looking thin wooden bridge to cross for what seemed like miles in the dark until we finally reached tour accommodation for the night. It was a nunnery with rooms to rent out for 5,000frw a night (£5). Nelson had booked us two rooms, but we ended up sharing one, because we watched a film (well Tracy and I watched a film, while Pam snored through it – thank goodness we had the subtitles on for her!) and then went to sleep. We ate breakfast on a veranda overlooking the lake – it was a gorgeous view! Then I went for swim no.1 of the day – Pam was going to join me until she nearly lost her leg (and did lose her flip-flop momentarily) in some mud, and decided that the rocks were too treacherous to risk clambering on. I was allowed to drive back along the winding route, which seemed a lot less life-threatening in daylight, and the adventure to find the legendary hot springs began.

We set off down a road that we hoped might lead to the hot springs, and it turned out to be a lovely lakeside drive with beautiful scenery…though with a distinct lack of spring. We eventually reached a stop-sign, and two guards who didn’t have a clue what we were talking about when we asked about hot bubbling water, but were not keen on us going any further, so after an about-turn we set off merrily in the direction we had just come. We had no time pressures, and with David Cassidy (there he is again!) to keep us happy we didn’t mind the total diversion we had been on. We headed back into town and Pam’s determination that the hot springs would be obvious when we came across them grew less and less a determination, and more and more an inclination…until finally it was a vague hope…at which point we rang Sue (mainly to find out what the French for hot spring was – so that we could ask people for ‘les souffes chaud’ instead of having to do the bubbling/swimming action each time) and she gave us very sensible directions. We headed for the Brewery that we had driven through at least twice that morning, and asked someone there, who was able to direct us down a very steep slope and finally – there they were! It was incredible to see boiling water bubbling out of the ground with the steam rising off it…however Sue’s warning that we shouldn’t be surprised if it was more of a hot puddle than something we could swim in was very valid. In fact the water was far too hot for us to have got in it anyway, so we took lots of pictures of the various bubbling bits and then drove round the corner to go for a swim in the lake near to the springs.

We had to drive a little way mainly because we had been mobbed by staring Rwandans as is usual in places like this. We ended up putting a towel over the front windscreen and getting changed in the car, which thankfully has darkened windows…and even then there was still a woman who insisted on pressing her face right onto the window to try and see in…is a Muzungu naked such an exciting sight?! Anyway, we left everything locked in the car and secured the car keys to Pam’s bracelet and jumped into the lake. Tracy and I swam round to where the hot spring flowed into the lake and one of the men bathing there created a channel from the hot pool into the edge of the lake and it was like lying in a bath!! There were people washing there – and I don’t blame them, since most Rwandans shower in cold water usually. It was an amazing experience – and like I say, one of my lifetime ambitions to swim in a hot spring, ever since I learnt about the natural phenomenon in geography (probably the only thing I ever enjoyed about geography lessons!) We swam back round and Tracy stayed within sight of the car and I swam back round to the hot bit with Pam – I really didn’t want her to miss out on the chance since she had never done it before.

Well, after changing behind the towel in the car again, our next stop was lunch…and being so near the lake we decided to have fish…when it turned up hours later on the bone and smiling at us (thankfully with no eyes) we were hungry enough to eat it, but in Pam’s case certainly not to enjoy it! However, the lunchtime disappointment was more than made up for by the afternoon trip to the beach with Nancy (Nathan’s baby) and Christine (her Mum). Nelson came too, but we weren’t allowed to bring Mercy because she had got a bit shivery the day before when we had been in the water, and this had scared Solange. It was a shame really, because I spent the majority of my childhood shivering after swimming, getting warm again, and then jumping back in the water, but it is obviously not something they are used to here. Saturday was the first time that Mercy had ever been in the lake at all…and it looks like it might be the last for a while!

Well, we some lovely photos of Nancy on her first trip to the beach, and I drank a cappuccino that Jennie (sister) sent me in the post – I got all the parcels and cards that people sent the day after my birthday because the 16th happened to be a Wednesday which is Gacaca and so the post office wasn’t open – and I had my 3rd and final swim of the day before we departed for Musanze again. Despite the state of the car I was allowed to drive home (perfect end to a perfect weekend)…though the steering was dragging quite badly to the left (luckily most of the lethal drops were on the right!!) and we found out the next day that the suspension needed serious repairs! For the sake of my poor parents I ought to say that I’m exaggerating the danger actually…it turns out that I’m actually quite a safe driver!

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes to me on the blog or by email and especially to those who sent post – it is wonderful to receive post out here, and it has made my birthday last even longer than normal…I believe there are still a few cards on the way! I hope you have all made it to the end of this mammoth birthday account – and have enjoyed it as much as I did at the time!

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE!

And it was indeed joyeux! I have never celebrated my birthday in such style! I feel I need to take you through it from beginning to end...which means really that I start at 3am when I first woke up!! Or perhaps it would be even more appropriate to start at 11.58pm the night before when I was almost too excited to be asleep before the two minutes past midnight that I was born (of vital importance because if it got to 12.02 I would never have slept at all). I kept telling Pam to calm down and go to sleep - she was thoroughly over-excited and bouncing around the bed like a lunatic. She had stayed over so that she could be part of the excitement in the morning, but I almost had to knock her out to get her to go to sleep!

Whilst all this frivolity was going on, poor old Tracy was hiding quietly in her bedroom waiting for us to go to sleep so that she could decorate the house with banners and balloons that she had brought all the way from Tescos!! I really don’t know how she did it because we did not hear a thing! She even managed to get into my bedroom and put up balloons without me waking up – I could not believe it! I didn’t even notice the balloons when I went to the toilet at 3am, and thankfully I managed to get back to sleep again, for a couple of hours at least.

The first thing I did when I woke up (after Pam had sung ‘Happy Birthday’) was to open the birthday card that Hannah had given me before Christmas, carefully saved for six months! Then Tracy came and ate chocolate orange in bed with us – also carefully saved from Christmas!! At 7am Rachael arrived and made us all birthday omelettes while David Cassidy started ‘knocking at my brain’! (I’ve been warned that further mention of David Cassidy on this blog may well damage my reputation beyond repair…but you know, he was part of the birthday fun – what can I say?) We even waltzed around the living room to track 3 before the electricity went off! You’ll be glad to know it came back on in time for omelettes to be cooked before Tracy had to be at school.

Before I had even had time to get dressed there was a knocking at the gate, and (no the elephant had not returned!) Nathan and various sisters turned up to wish me a happy birthday (in my pyjamas) on their way to school! Then we went to school, arriving to a chorus of Happy Birthday from Flora and another matron, but we did what we needed to and went back to T House for lunch after Tracy’s lesson. We hadn’t planned to be at Sonrise at all, but it turned out to be a good thing that we went because Munyana came and handed me a whole pile of handwritten cards & papers from her and her friends with some lovely birthday messages! It seems to be the Rwandan way of wishing someone a happy birthday to say “May you grow to be toothless and to blow a hundred candles with your grandchildren”! Even Justus poked his head around the door and shyly wished me a Happy Birthday before disappearing…I was in the middle of parking the car so I couldn’t get out to talk to him! I was allowed to do all the driving that morning because it was my birthday and I love it!
This is my new birthday outfit from Tracy - we kept seeing this fantastic pink material with yellow fish on it in the market and she kept saying it was a bit bright really and that maybe I could buy it for a table cloth when we left...but then got it made up for me for my birthday! I love it...and there is enough material left to decorate my house with as well!

After lunch at T house we all piled into Sue’s car to drive to Kigali where we spent what seemed like an incredible amount of time searching for ‘gravy granules’…though I later discovered they were the kind of ‘gravy granules’ which have icing on the top, candles stuck in them and taste remarkably sweet!

We went and checked in at the Guest House in Kigali and had a rest (and a quick swig of martini…sorry classy aperitif…) before we got ready to go out for dinner. We were planning to go to a Chinese Restaurant which came highly recommended, but on arriving there we discovered that Wednesday was the only day it was shut…so we had a quick change of plan and ended up at Kazana Indian restaurant. Justin came (a Muzungu from the US who Pam has known a long time) as well as Eben, Peace (Nathan’s brother and sister who are local to Kigali) and Nathan. The Rwandan contingency turned up after round one of the food but I was really glad they came. Nathan and Peace are in the picture together, and Eben in the other one.

The highlight of the evening was the lights going off (which I thought was a power cut) and then about ten waiters coming in dancing and clapping and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ in English, French AND Swahili, presenting me with a cake (the ‘gravy granules’ in fact) and a silly hat and then disappearing off into the darkness again! It really was an experience to remember – one of the waiters was even dressed as Father Christmas – I was totally blown away by the whole thing!

Wow…I’ve just seen a jackdaw catch a grasshopper mid-flight in my back garden (more about grasshoppers later…)

So, we spent the night in the Guest House and then Sue departed to spend the day in Kigali and we got on the Virunga back to Musanze. Tracy had swapped a lesson so that she didn’t have to be at school until the afternoon which was perfect…until Pam was told she had a meeting with the Bishop which meant we had to get an early bus after all!

However, to conclude – I had an absolutely fantastic birthday…and that was just the 16th May…there is more to come!

THE WEDDING - PART 2!

Well, the second part of the wedding started in the cathedral, and to say we arrived late there was still PLENTY of the service still to sit through. Our first experience of the Bishop preaching…shame we couldn’t understand a word of it! Then we went to the guest house for the reception, which I was rather hoping was going to be a buffet-style milling event…no such luck! We were all sat in rows in a big hall, and we got there at about 1.30pm…sat down for about half an hour on the hard seats and with no sign of any of the protagonists, Pam and I got distracted by the babies outside the church and went to play with Joshua and Mercy. We scooted back to our seats before the entrance of the bridal party underneath an arch and down a red carpet…I think Ruth may even have smiled as she was walking along – she never smiled once through the church service. It’s very strange to see, but apparently the bride never smiles during the wedding ceremony in Rwanda. Sue tells me there are two reasons for this – one is that traditionally it wasn’t a particularly happy occasion for the bride, because she was being ripped from her family and often didn’t have much of a choice of husband so it was all a bit traumatic. The other reason is that she is not supposed to look as though she is looking forward to her wedding night!!

The next three hours proceeded with yet more speeches (I told you Rwandan’s were fond of talking!) interspersed with the bride and groom drinking ceremonially out of a giant pot of local brew with straws.

And then probably the highlight of the event - the cake! First of all they lit fireworks in the top of the cake, and then…you won’t believe this…I was quite incredulous, and Fred looked less than pleased (see picture!) and I don’t blame him. Just before the cake is cut, someone whips out a can of foam and sprays it all over the bride, groom, best man and matron of honour! And this happens in every wedding apparently! Though Sue tells me that sometimes it is ‘silly-string’…and thus easier to remove! Very bizarre! Then the bride serves cake to the groom’s family (which she did on one knee to much amusement from everyone) and the groom serves cake to the bride’s family (which he didn’t do on one knee!)

Then…joy of joys – they served us cake! It was a slice two centimetres by two centimetres, and was the first thing we had eaten since breakfast…it was now about 4.30pm! I have never been so glad to have requested one of Rachael (our housegirl)’s mammoth omelettes that morning. It involves 3eggs and onion and potato and was really the only thing that stopped me from dying that day! We kept thinking that they were going to serve food, and then people started talking again….this time they were pledging cows in various numbers. I was seriously considering standing up and offering our goat…the only thing that stopped me was that Nathan had warned me that it would be taken as offensive to pledge a goat – though we later discovered that if it was all we had then it would have been accepted gladly…eh! Missed opportunity!

In the end, we crept out…like four Bazungu (pl Muzungu!) can do anything inconspicuously! Especially when they are wearing traditional clothes and sandals. The problem was, that there really seemed to be no sign of any food coming, not even pleasant smells of cooking…and we knew that Tubakunde House was full of babies that had come to visit. Nelson and Solange were there with Mercy and Melissa, and Christine had brought Nancy who is still as gorgeous as she was last week (isn't she?) Nelson and Solange had been to the wedding first though, which was the main reason for their visit. It was so lovely to see babies inside T house, even if they weren’t orphaned babies being admitted…but it gave a real feel of what the place will be like when it opens next year.


The day ended with a trip to Muhabura to eat…though by the time we got there we were so tired that the entire chicken that Pam and I normally devour between us, almost devoured us entirely! (oh I should add that whilst they serve the entire chicken we neither of us eat the neck or the gizzards!)

Well, this is a long entry again – hope you are still with me, dear reader! I must go and prepare, I have less than two hours left until I reach a quarter of a century, and indeed the middle of my 3rd decade. Woohoo! The excitement is too much to bear…though I have to admit mainly for those around me. It would be good if I made it to my 25th year, but if I’m not careful I won’t!

Will our bottoms ever recover?

The Saturday before last started at the quite unearthly hour of 3.50am when we got up, to leave the house at 4.30am, to catch a bus that was supposed to be leaving the diocese at 5am sharp…but in fact left at a very Rwandan 5.50am. We were all too aware of the extra hour we could have spent in bed, but that's how things go! We then proceeded to drive for five hours (with one wee stop in a very dark long drop toilet, down which I nearly dropped more than I should have!) to a place called Mutara on the East side of Rwanda. We arrived about 11am at a marquee just off the road. And the event? A traditional wedding introduction that we had been invited to – a perfect opportunity to wear our traditional outfits again, and to really experience traditional Rwandan culture…on not-so-traditional Rwandan plastic furniture that was to be home to our backsides for the next five hours!

So, we arrived about 11am, and then went and got changed in a dark room in a house with no electricity. The lack of electricity wouldn't have been such a problem, if the family hadn't decided that the doors needed a fresh coat of paint, probably only hours before we arrived! It was nothing short of a miracle that my pink material remained pink… I can tell you! My only mistake really was dressing myself. I fastened the bottom half round my waist, then put the top half over my shoulder which Tracy knotted in the traditional way…then thinking I was ready, I picked up my backpack, promptly un-knotting the top half and then tried to leave the house, at which point I was mobbed by half a dozen people protesting at me in Kinyarwanda! I tried to explain that it was OK – I was going to retie the top half once I was outside in the light…but somebody translated that there was no way I was leaving the house, with a gap the length of Rwanda running from my hips to my feet where I hadn't done the skirt up, even nearly properly! So, I was redressed by a Rwandan woman who knew exactly what she was doing, overlapping the skirt which I had totally forgotten to do, and tying the top half so that even my bag couldn't destroy the knot!

Well, a Muzungu is always looked at, and pointed at…but one with underskirts showing would be too, too much! So after that narrow escape we were lead to our plastic seats and sat down thinking that it wouldn’t be long before the introduction started…we couldn’t have been more wrong! About two hours later when we had exhausted every “spot that guest” game with a particularly fine variation of “spot the old man with a stick” it finally began. It was at least another half an hour before the groom arrived and another hour and a half before we had any site of the bride!! In fact the first half of the wedding was dominated by the old men with sticks that we had had so much fun spotting! It turns out that Rwandans love to speak, especially the men – if there is an opportunity for a speech it is rarely missed! The beginning of the wedding introduction is an exchange between the old men with sticks on the groom’s side who are asking what the old men with sticks on the bride’s side will take in exchange for the bride. In this case they wanted cows…and that was EXACTLY what they got. Well, this is the only wedding I’ve ever been to attended by six long-horn cows…they played special cow-marching music and in came the cows, poked from behind and not looking terribly pleased about it! Then the groom was introduced, and went to sit at the front amongst the grass pots (which seem to be a big part of traditional culture – they don’t have anything in them but they are everywhere, stuck to walls, propped up on poles…blowing off in the wind when a storm blew up – sending the DJ running for shelter – dreadlocks and all!)

To cut an already too long story short and save you all the boredom that we experienced, the bride finally appeared about four hours into the ceremony and walked on with three other girls, who were apparently all called Ruth, and Fred (the groom) had to go and identify which Ruth he wanted. Then everyone cracked open a fanta (obviously a highly important part of the traditional Rwandan culture, seeing as crates of it featured highly throughout the ceremony and the bride and groom wandered off to get fed to much singing. And then…wait for it…we were fed – I don’t think I have ever been so hungry – it was about 6.30pm when we ate, and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast at 4.00am and the snacks I took on the bus…most of which had to be shared by the entire bus. However, they entertained us with their singing so I didn’t mind – it is amazing how these people just break into song in harmony, with rhythms being beaten out on the roof of the bus (a habit I have assumed, much to Pam’s annoyance when I scare the life out of her by hammering along to David Cassidy – now he’s also a new discovery!)

So, after a very long journey back on which we took it in turns to sleep on top of each other – Pam being infinitely more successful for some reason…I think she was so tired she managed to sleep for the entire journey regardless of whether she was on top of me, or vice versa. I’m afraid I was too aware of the fact that my bottom felt like it had been pounded by a herd of buffalo and didn’t fancy being sat on any longer to sleep much! There was of course a customary long-drop stop, though this was the most entertaining of the lot, because I was lead around the back of a building in the pitch black, a door was unlocked and then I was thrown in with only a torch to find the hole with…I was SO glad Tracy had come with me!

Well, I apologise for this mammoth entry. I’ll fill you in on the second part of the wedding in my next one…and I’m sorry to say that this week’s occasion was just as long as last weeks…and not even as interesting! I’ll try to condense it for you!

PS. 3 DAYS TO GO!

7 days to go!!!!!!!!!

Hi folks - very sorry for the immense amount of time that has lapsed since I last wrote. Special apology for those of you who have assumed that I have died...

In fact I haven't died, though I do have an interesting disfigurement on my face which Nathan thinks is ringworm...I just want to know where the worm is, though I shouldn't have asked because he said it was burrowing into my brain, but would eventually come through my skull! While I wait for this occurrence I will apply tea tree oil in the hope that it will go away! Even the Bishop had a good look at it yesterday, and I told him it was a bite... he then told Pam she wasn't looking after me...and I told him SHE hadn't bitten me! Not entirely sure if that was the sort of conversation I should have been having with the Bishop of Ruhengeri...but frankly I was just glad I hadn't head-butted him. Head-butting Bishops has become a bit of a habit of mine as I may have explained to you already!

Anyway, disfiguring features aside, I am sorry to have been so incredibly busy and leave all my devoted readers in the dark for nearly a month. I am in the process of writing another blog entry about a wedding introduction I went to last weekend which you will see at some point in the near future I hope but in the meantime there are plenty of baby pictures for you to be looking at!

Babies!

Last month Nathan told us something very exciting – that he has a baby! She was born on 23rd February. One Friday night Nathan told us and the following day, we went to Gisenyi where she lives with her mother, Christine, and Nelson and Solange (Nathan’s brother and sister-in-law) to visit her. Unfortunately Nathan couldn’t come with us because of a university convention he was to lead in Kigali, but the second time we went, he introduced us officially! She is an absolutely gorgeous baby, and still ever so small. She is called Rulinda Kanyana Nancy (after Pam’s Mum) I thought you might like to see a photo of her (she has Nathan’s eyes!):

And whilst I’m showing you baby photos – these are Nelson and Solange’s little girls – Mercy, the oldest, and Melissa.

Mercy is great fun to play with and absolutely loves the water. She learnt all our names when we were in the car and she was sat on my lap – she is much more talkative than when we last saw her. She has always known how to say “Pam” but it was so cute when she said “Emma”! And just to complete the collection, this is the other baby we were introduced to recently – he is Johnson's (Nathan’s brother) son, called Joshua:

So, you can see that despite there being a lack of babies at Tubakunde for the time being, there is certainly no lack of babies in the vicinity!