return to cyanika

We had a wonderful two weeks in Uganda (more later) where food is plentiful and i practically lived on crayfish, freshly caught from Lake Bunyoni, where we were staying. Coming back to Cyanika has been difficult; it's easy to forget what curiosities we are here and also when you are sitting with electricity it's easy to say being without electricity is not so bad- the reality is harder.

It was nice to be back on top of our mountain, awy from the madness that is Kigali. We were excited to see how much the garden we had planted had grown( more from John later). Our neighbour was delighted to see us and leapt over the fence to embrace us.

One of the reasons we left Rwanda over Easter was because they were commemorating 15 years since the Genocide, which we felt was very much a private affair. We heard from friends who stayed here that the atmsphere was very very subdued and on our return we still felt an atmosphere, almost as if we were intruding. We really felt we shouldn't be there. When the pupils returned to school it was almost as if they were returning from another world, or had been locked away in some dark prison.

To compound our difficulties this week, the water went off for two days and it has been so cold in the mornings.

It's Saturday now and although we had to forgo the bacon, sausage, egg, black pudding etc that I dreamed about and instead shared a fresh pineapple, things are looking ok. John has just come back fom a long search for beer as our local kiosk was untypically closed. He was informed that this was because there has been a communal digging for skeletons and bones from severed body parts which will be buried in consecrated ground at midnight tonight followed by a special mass for the victims tomorrow. The genocide will NOT go away!

photo mix up!

I hope it will be obvious that I mixed up the labels of photos 3 and 4 on the last post! the third photo is our house, before we put in any personal touches and photo 4 is the local restaurant in Cyanika -its actually the place where they make the goat brochettes!

the first 3 months

We have just reached the end of our first 3 months in Rwanda and are in fact enjoying a well earned rest in Uganda. Owing to various problems with internet access (none) and total lack of electricity, we were unable to get the blog going up until now, but from now on it should be easy, we have bought a mobile internet modem and my school which has a generator for two and a half hours a night has found me a little cubby hole with a plug and a light where we can go and work.

It has been for us the most amazingly steep learning curve- steeper than we could ever have imagined! Everything is SO different and most of the things we take for granted are just not there. Probably the hardest thing to get used to has been the lack of electricity. Apart from the fact that you cant plug anything in so a fridge is not an option and you cant keep anything fresh or cool (and this is Africa) its the lack of light at night that took a lot of getting used to. It starts to go dark at about half past five and you start to panic if you havent cooked your meal outside on the kerosene stove because you are going to be doing it in the dark.

We have two kerosene stoves which are dirty and smelly and dont give much light and we have our wind up lanterns. Now we have acquired two little lights that take batteries and allow us to read at night. We go to bed at about nine and of course we get up early. You feel you need to make the most of all the light there is.

Many foodstuffs we take for granted are impossible to get here in Cyanika: meat,cheese, yogurt, fish, fresh milk, and luxury items totally out of the question! The local diet is very very healthy though . Some of the things readily and cheaply available are avocadoes, tomatoes, cabbages, beans, avocadoes, tomatoes, cabbages, beans, bananas, bananas, bananas, potatoes, chillis,dried fish, and many other lovely fruits and vegetables (i'll talk about the fruits another time) We supplement our diet with tins of sardines and pilchards and the occasional tin of tuna. We are learning all the time and finding ways of obtaining other things. We have had chicken twice and recently John managed to buy some fresh goat and we made a wonderful goat curry! goat is really very tender and doesnt taste "goaty" at all. We have a little place here in Cyanika (see photo) that serves goat brochettes either with plantain or wonderful roast potatoes so this is an occasional treat as long as you dont look too closely at the hygiene of the place!

We live at the top of a mountain with a view to die for looking over at the mountains that separate Rwanda from Burundi. There is no traffic all you hear is the sound of goats and birds and many, many children. The people are lovely and most of them live in abject poverty and yet have a wonderful dignity and grace. We walk for an hour to the nearest town and everyone is walking usually carrying the most amazing loads on their heads or pushing bicycles loaded with crates, sacks of charcoal or filthy jerricans full of sorghum beer.

We intend to write about all aspects of lfe in Rwanda in this blog- we havent even mentioned work yet, which we love, but will do soon.

WONDERFUL PEOPLE!

just a sample of the culturally, visually stunning world that is Rwanda!