Christmas

 

Just a few days left in this truly beautiful country. I have had the opportunity, through M, to get to know and understand this country’s culture and people in a deeper way than I could have by just being a tourist. To see the efforts of Rwandans to build a better country, after the atrocities of 1994, have truly to be admired.

My only worries while I have been here have been travelling in the crazy mini buses that can pack 20 or more people into a 15 seater, the motor bike taxis which, although very efficient at getting you from A to B, give me cause for concern. And one particular memory - the look of the Silverback male leader of the gorilla family when his young offspring were inquisitive while we photographed their antics. With 250 kg of muscle, I wouldn’t fancy having to try self-defence.

 

Chris’s arrival into Rwanda was delayed by 10 hours – not because of snow and ice in the UK, but by fog in Kigali! After being diverted to Uganda’s Entebbe airport he did get to watch the sunrise over Lake Victoria and a complementary omelette. Meanwhile, I had set the alarm for 1am to get to the airport to meet him. At 3am I went back to my Kigali hotel empty handed. We eventually met up in time for a leisurely lunch at our rather luxurious hotel (having a bath and hot shower being the most important aspect for me). For three days we relaxed in the gardens and by the pool as well as exploring Rwanda’s capital city. The squash of people in Toyota taxi buses and freedom of motor bike taxis were experienced when going shopping, eating out and visiting places of interest, one of which included the informative and thoughtfully designed Kigali genocide memorial. We met some of my colleagues when we visited the VSO office and at different venues throughout Kigali. It was a whirlwind of new acquaintances and cultural experiences for him.

Life in M’s home village of Musambira is certainly different to Bolly life. As the only Muzungus in the village, you certainly attract attention. But it also has its similarities. Being friendly, talking to the shopkeepers, children and older people pays dividends and I was quickly accepted. In fact I introduced M to some villagers she hadn’t met herself.

 

 

 

Hers and Hetty’s home is posh compared with the adobe mud brick village houses (they have running water and electricity) with their supportive 33 year old landlord living next door. With a night guard and cleaner (umucoze), M has few domestic chores around the house to worry about. Shopping for food is the biggest challenge, although the weekly village market has a huge variety of very fresh fruit and vegetables, in fact, everything needed for sustainable living. But for those of us who are carnivores, finding meat other than live chickens is challenging. Milk and eggs are also highly valued and are as expensive as in the UK.

 

One unique experience we had was to spend a day with subsistence farming family arranged by the charitable organisation, Azizi Life www.azizilife.com/get-involved/experiences.

 

 

 

 We went to work and eat with the village women – cultivating, hoeing, using machetes to cut grass for their 2 cows, fetching water from the spring and preparing the lunch of cassava and vegetables. In the afternoon we learned how to prepare and weave sisal fibres into jewellery and baskets. It is all so vastly different to our lives in the western world, but so sustainable in Rwanda.

 

 

For three days, Chris came to work with me beginning with 30 minute motor bike taxi journeys along rough sandy roads to two of my sectors – Nyamiyaga and Nyarubaka. I had meetings arranged with the Sector Education Officers and their head teachers. Whilst I held my meetings about training in the schools for next term, Chris amused himself by watching building projects, meeting S Koreans who are working in Rwanda and generally being an item of amusement for the locals. He has begun to pick up a few Kinyarwanda words. Afterwards, we went on to my Kamonyi District education office for lunch in the canteen.

 

Our travels have taken us south to the university town of Butare, where we stayed overnight and met some of M’s other fellow volunteers for Primus beers and meal, followed by a very worthwhile morning at the country’s new national museum. The reconstructed traditional tribal house left us feeling that we could happily stay in one as a summerhouse in our garden. They would make excellent upmarket campsite accommodation, being made and furnished with wood and natural woven fibres.

Our next adventure was to travel by express bus two hours NW into the Virunga Volcano tropical area on the Congo border to see the mountain gorillas – an awesome experience which was the subject of my previous blog.

Before we left home for our final week away, we had a Christmas Day at my house, starting by decorating a 'tree', then opening presents.

 Afterwards Chris cooked our christmas dinner of samosas, potato curry and local vegetables, all washed down with red wine. During the evening we invited my landlord to share our christmas cake which had been made by my mother. it was a really special day, even though 6 days early.

Finally, we are now having chill out time over Christmas, at Lake Kivu. Another two hour express bus journey westwards, through the most beautiful and scenic mountain countryside, brought us to Kabuye.

 

 Lake Kivi is Africa’s fourth largest lake and could be a financial saviour for Rwanda, who, although one of the fastest developing African nations, still relies on some western aid. The lake bed has significant reserves of methane, some of which has already been extracted to produce electricity. But the potential is enormous with sufficient to export to neighbouring countries. The main Rwanda brewery also extracts it to produce their excellent Primus beer, which goes down rather well in this fantastic climate. Talking of climate, it is this which enables Rwanda to be pretty much self-sufficient in food needs as they grow crops on every square metre in the country known as ‘The land of a thousand hills’. Tea and coffee are the main exports. With people working by hand on their plots of land from dawn till dusk, the intensive cultivation on terraced slopes has to be seen to be believed. Everywhere in Rwanda is covered in vibrant green foliage of banana trees, pineapples, cassava, potatoes, beans of all types and other crops too numerous to mention.

 

 

We are staying in a blissfully quiet hotel with bungalow rooms at the lake’s edge. As I write, sitting with an early morning cup of tea on our little terrace, the water is lapping the shore and a myriad of song birds are flitting by. Chris is watching the fishing boats and assessing the potential for future water sport development. We are anticipating our breakfast of fresh mango and pineapple, omelettes and the excellent Rwandan coffee. Today we took a boat over the lake to Amahoro Island, also known as Peace Island, for even more tranquillity. There is a tiny bar which serves the local goat brochettes, but not much else.

 

Christmas here will be very different but very memorable for many reasons. I do not miss the hype and materialistic way of celebrating in the western world. In Rwanda I’ve seen a few Christmas trees, there will be a 2 day national holiday and a big emphasis on the Christian celebration on the eve of 24^th. Of course I will miss family and friends this year, but there will be other Christmases to be with you all. Chris will be home on 28^thand I'll see you all again in 2013.

Chris and I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas time and we send you all our very best wishes for a prosperous and healthy New Year.

 

Chris and mountain gorillas in Rwanda

 

Arriving in Rwanda was a incredibly exciting. Marg had tried to describe for me the colours, smells, cultural differences and Africa Time, but nothing could have prepared me for such a culture blast. Her stock phrase has been - is Chris ready for Africa and is Africa ready for Chris? 

 

Our decision to visit the mountain gorillas was, without doubt, one of those experiences which will be a lifelong memory. From the capital city Kigali, we took the Express bus for two hours (at £1.70 muchbetter value than our local home Bolly Bus) north towards the Ugandan border. The northern Rwandan town of Musanze was our base for two nights.  After an overnight stay at the Hotel Muhaburo, a 4X4 drive took us up to Virunga Volcanoes area.

 From the National Park base, where we watched local intore dancing, our guides took us on a further rougher 4X4 drive to the edge of the jungle. After an hour’s trek through bamboo and creeper vegetation with our guides using machettes to clear a path, and armed guards for protection, we came across a family of 15 wild mountain gorillas!

 

The gorilla population across the Uganda, Congo & Rwanda borders area has now grown to 700 since being protected after the 1994 genocide. In Rwanda, it has been 10 years since the last death of a gorilla by poachers.

 

 

 

 

The female adults were eating while the youngsters played tough and tumble. They seem comfortable with humans as close as 3 or 4 metres, providing you don’t touch the inquisitive young ones or stare directly into their eyes. Any untoward moves by the gorillas meant the guides quickly used their gorilla vocabulary to ward off approaching parents.

 

The Silverback male leader watched over his family with a protective pride. 

 

 

It is difficult to describe this truly awesome experience. But we hope the photos catch a flavour of an awesome hour we spent with this gorilla family.

 

 

Life can be tough with so much excitement in one day!

 

 

 

 

More experiences to follow……………

Market Day in Musambira

Friday is market day in Musambira. Market goers travel from far and wide, mostly on foot but sometimes by bicycle or moto, carrying their goods with them, usually on their heads. Amongst these are women with babies strapped to their backs, old people trudging along leaning heavily on their long sticks and children in uniform helping their parents before going on to school.

Musambira has a new covered market, like many villages in Rwanda, as part of the country’s rejuvenation. There are also co-operatives in some sectors to support local farmers to sell their produce for a fair price. This morning, as I wandered among the throngs of traders and shoppers, I could see there were distinct selling areas of the market square. As I approached the centre, I came across around fifty goats, and a few sheep, with banana leaf collars and leads waiting as a noisy bleating group for sale by their owners. One young man offered his young black kid for me to buy.

Next, along the narrow rutted street was the tailor’s shop with two treddle machinists sitting outside, deep in concentration as they worked. I took my two pieces of wall hanging fabric to be hemmed. Using basic kinyawanda skills, I negotiated a price of 400Rwf, about 40p. I would collect them on my way home.

Many clothes and fabric sellers were just setting up as rain began to fall from the leaden sky. Those not able to pay for a stall under the covered area had tarpaulins or plastic sheets to protect their goods on the ground. At tables in the market building were cereal and rice and local flour sellers, displaying their wares in conical heaps. I watched one woman grinding groundnuts in a wooden pestle pounding it with a long wooden mortar. Sitting on her stool, she worked rhythmically for long spells at a time. We had a few words in kinyawanda, using hand gestures to create a basic conversation about what she was doing. The local people seem to appreciate, and are often amused by, my attempts to learn their language. It was at that moment that I met Immaculate, one of the teachers from the local school. She and I greeted each other warmly and then wandered through the market together. She wanted to show me the best produce and helped me to barter for a good price. I bought onions, tomatoes, green peppers, celery, garlic, bananas and a pineapple from the myriad of fruit and vegetable choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on to the tools and household goods area, I bought a small traditional handmade hoe for 500 Rwf from a serious looking young man. This will be useful for cultivating our new garden which, as yet, has no flowers. I also got a small broom for 100Rwf (10p) which consists of a bundle of thin twigs tied at the bottom with a thin strip of rubber inner tube (everything is recycled here). It was then I spotted an old woman selling traditional clay cooking pots. I bought one for only 500Rwf (50p) to use as decoration the house. For the locals to see a ‘muzungo’ carrying home such an item caused a great deal of comment, such as do I know how to cook with it?

 

 

Bidding farewell to my teacher friend, I called at the hardware store to ask for thin wooden poles or bamboo canes on which to hang my net curtain and newly hemmed wall hangings. However, it was explained to me that I have to go to the village carpenter to have them made. The lady proprieter and her son recognised me from the week before when I had been to buy a spare mattress for our overnight guests. They greeted me warmly.

Wandering home with my purchases, I reflected on how village life for me in Musambira is a mixture of curiosity and warm friendliness. It’s similar in so many ways to life in Bollington.

Sharing Skills and Learning Lots

Making learning resources on rice sacks is easier and more fun than it looks.

 

How long does it take volunteers to prepare for a training day? It took two of us two days and a very untidy house.

 

This was my first teacher training in learner centred methodology

 

but the teachers at this remote school participated in all the activities with enthusiasm

 

Even I felt relaxed once it was underway.

 

 

The discussion groups brought out questions about how learner-centred activities could be applied to the subjects they teach

Making rice sack resources was engrossing once a method had been worked out

 

and a fun way to conclude a day of so much learning by us all

 

These two did a great double act to show others how to present their ideas to the group

The following week, we were teaching in another rural school where the head teacher recognised that children with disabilities should not only be allowed to come to school, but should have their needs catered for. Note the parents of those children had been invited to the session and were joining in. That was the most special part of the day.

 

A deaf signing teacher came with us that day to teach Eric's teacher, his mum and the whole class how they could communicate with him

 

Maths can be very perplexing, especially when you have never been given anything to count with before. Teachers are being encouraged to allow the children to use all their learning senses - visual, oral, auditory, tactile and kinasthetic. Children learn through multiple intelligences, not just listening to their teacher as they mostly do at present. They need to be activly involved in their own learning. This is the message throughout all the training.

 

 

 

 

Once again, a weekend gathering of some volunteers was a chance to share stories and challenges of the past week. This hotel in Butare also happened to serve some  very good burgers and chips. And Primus beer too.