The Batwa

Yesterday was absolutely fantastic! For those of you who know your Rwandan history, you'll remember that there were not only the Tutsis and Hutus in the days of the genocide, but there is another tribe called the Batwa, or Twa. They are also known here as the pygmies...which seems a bit unfair since the ones we met didn't really seem that much smaller than average - and were still all taller than Pam! Pam's friend Justus (not the young one from the school, a different one!), had arranged for us to go out to the middle of nowhere about an hour from Gisenyi to meet with some Twa people, as he had told us their music was very special. However, the main problem was that the road was so bad that we would have to go on motorbikes! Now, for me this wasn't a problem at all - in fact I loved every minute of it - but Pam was absolutely terrified! She's only been on a moto once...and hugged the driver whilst screaming for him to go slowly all the way!! She was determined to come though, and as I had said to her, you can't be nervous for all that time, and she was surprised how easily she took to it - she even let go of the driver eventually!!

There were some incredible views on the way up to where these Batwa lived - I will try to put some pictures on when we get back to Ruhengeri, but we are still away at the moment. Also the pictures were taken off the back of my bike so they need sorting!! A moto is definitely the way to see this beautiful country... though I recommend sunglasses to stop the grit getting in your eyes (this morning I pulled a huge lump of grit out of one eye...it must have been there all night!) When we finally reached the place, we had a little walk and suddenly tucked in the hills we could see about six shiny metal roofs and we came to where a group of Twa were standing waiting for us. Then came the not so fun part of the day...after we had greeted them, they said that they would show us traditional music, dance and drama...but that we needed to pay them 50,000 Rwandan Franks (£50!!!) We had brought a small donation from each of us, but Justus said last time he came they had been given 15,000 FRw and were happy...this time it seemed they were going reluctant to perform anything for less than 50,000 FRw! After much discussion (see picture of not happy faces!!), which of course it was difficult for us to take part in, they agreed that we could give them the 10,000 we had on us, and transfer more to their bank account later. We agreed to put another 15,000 into their account...however, we have now discovered that to pay money into their account we'd have to go to the special bank in their village and since this is an hour away on a moto it's unlikely to happen!



So they finally agreed to do some singing and dancing and it was done with the usual energy and vibrance...but I have to say that I was surprised that it wasn't anything different to what everybody in Rwanda does...and they did two songs and then said they had finished!! Now, I don't know if they were cross with us for not giving them more money, or if they just didn't have the right people there (one of their arguments for getting 50,000 was that there were a lot of them, and I had asked if maybe a small number could perform for us, and Justus thinks that the musicians may not have come up from wherever else they live!) However, I asked if they could do one more, and Pam asked if they could do some drummng (which we had also been promised) but they said they had no drums, Pam then said couldn't they use a jerrican which is what we have seen before. So, they did do another couple of songs, and they seemed to dance with renewed vigour and enthusiasm after I joined in! There was a big crowd of people around us the whole time, and some of them were singing and about four of them were dancing at a time, as with the crowd round the space was limited, so really there wasn't 50,000 worth of people involved. It was brilliant to meet them and hear the songs, but I was a bit saddened by the fact that they were trying to turn themselves into a business...but hadn't thought through the fact that if they were asking so much money they would need to have prepared something with a bit more variety and made a bit more space because really it was just half an hours sing-song which would have been very enjoyable had it not been tainted by the money awkwardness.

Then, we set off back on the motos - we couldn't stay too long because it was going to get dark. We took a more direct but extremely bumpy route down which was taxing on the knees as it was hard not to slide forward into the driver! My bike also got a puncture half way down, so we had to stop at a local village where someone with a puncture repair kit pulled out the inner tube and fixed it just like a bicycle! Again on the way down the views were amazing, even when it was dark there were lit up villages down near the lake. Almost a perfect end to the day...apart from I arrived back before the others (my driver suddenly set off with an extreme burst of speed after his puncture was fixed) and when we got back, he refused to take any money from me, but wouldn't explain why. He said he was waiting to talk to my friend because his English wasn't good enough. So I stood there for about 15mins, and instead of going and sitting in the car, I had to wait for the others to come. When they finally arrived poor old Justus entered into another long debate about money. The drivers were saying that they hadn't realised how far it was when they agreed to do it for 5,000 FRw and that the wanted 7,000 or more even!! Justus had explained to them that it was a long way and they'd have to wait and bring us back, and last time he went up there it had cost him 4,000 FRw so we'd already added some for the increase in cost of petrol...and I'd already offered my man 6,000 which he wouldn't take. We LITERALLY didn't have any more money on us - in the end we said we'd give them everything we had which was about 6,000 each and a little more...and it was just getting silly. I offered my driver the money, said thank you very much in Kinyarwanda and walked off...I was tired and fed up with money debates by then. When we got back to the car, the guard who was outside guarding a restaurant who we'd asked to keep an eye on the car then also wanted some money. Luckily I'd kept a little back when we gave "everything" to the drivers...but not having any change he ended up getting 1,000 FRw - way over the odds. So one person was very happy that day! He was still beaming when we passed him again in the evening and greeted us all!