is it fresh?

Some days in Cyanika just seem to evolve, in an unexpected kind of way. (well most days actually
Friday was suddenly a day off as all teachers in Rwanda were sitting an english exam -it only lasted half an hour but it took the whole day and i can just imagine the chaos! Although we had known for about 3 weeks about the exam, We only officially found out what was happening the night before and that was by ringing the headmaster after school.
At about 8am on friday, a woman rattled the gate, we thought she was selling mushrooms but it turned out to be chicken. John asked if it was fresh and as the chicken was clucking loudly, i assured him that it was. We never get chicken normally, they are too precious for their eggs and we have only ever had cock which is tasty but tough. We bought the chicken very cheaply thinking that goldfish man would dispatch it for us but he was on his way to Butare - yikes what to do! Then we decided to try Johns' lovely bicycle boy,Aragis who came and did the deed for a very small fee, surrounded by local children who have probably never had chicken and who looked on longingly. I remember from my childhood that killing and plucking a chicken involves a great deal of boiling water !It turned out that this was a very matronly bird and even tougher than a cock, so john ate the meat and i ate the soup it was cooked in and very tasty it was too!

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A RWANDAN (COUNTRY) VILLAGE with apologies to Thomas Grey

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

The bleating goats wind slowly o'er the lea

The villagers noisily homeward plod their way

And leave the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight

And all the air a solemn stillness holds

Save where a crying child pierces the blackening night

And muffled shouting from the hillside rolls.

wet weekend in Nyamasheke

On Saturday, we went to visit our friend Joe, who lives on the other side of the Nyungwe forest, on lake Kivu.

We set off down our mountain on foot as there were no motos around but half way down we managed to find bicycle boys who took us down on the back of their push bikes - exhilarating!

leg 2 of the journey- too exhilarating! A death defying bus journey round hairpin bends and up and down all the way and this time the road had deteriorated so much because of the rains, the driver had to swerve constantly from one side of the road to another to find a bit of road he could drive on. People are always sick on this journey, so i made sure i was at the back where i couldnt be hit by flying vomit! A man further up the bus spent nearly the whole journey with his head out of the window copiously vomiting;the first time he stuck his head out,the people behind him didnt have time to shut their windows in time to avoid being splattered. 2 and a half hours later we arrived at the crossroads where we then had to complete leg 3 - a 30 minute journey on the back of a moto.
Nyamasheke is in a stunning setting overlooking the lake and feels much more african many more banana plantations and much more space than where we are. There was a serious earthquake here last year and the church was completely destroyed. It has just been rebuilt.

The rain welcomed us soon after our arrival and the road was a sea of mud

on Sunday we had a nice long walk down to the lake - i was tempted to swim, but it is the 3rd deepest lake in the world and I like to see the bottom when I am swimming.

We had loads more rain later - the short rainy season has arrived.

Same journey in reverse on monday and i mustnt forget to mention that the forest is stunning, 100's of square kilometres of primeval rain forest and most of the time we are looking down onto the forest canopy. The first time we did this journey we saw loads of monkeys, but not this time; However, we will be returning there in a couple of weeks to stay overnight and do a couple of trails.

OU EST LA VACHE?

Saturday was going to be a quiet day in Cyanika. We had just finished a lazy breakfast of ryvita biscuits and tomatoes, when Phocas arrived with the news that la vache de l'ecole est tombée dans la toilette. This we had to see. A small crowd had already gathered and were looking sadly into what looked like a big hole but was actually a disused pit latrine, where the errant cow lay dead. These were toilets which belonged to an annex of the school which was abandoned some time ago and were totally overgrown and hidden from the poor unsuspecting animal, so in she went, 6 foot drop and lights out cow.

NOW the problem is how to extract 100 kilos of dead, prime Rwandan beef from a 6 foot hole with no technical help?(remember no electricity here!)

Eventually, after at least 100 people were consulted, it was decided to dig a tunnel into the pit and drag the carcass out. WOW it worked.

There were several weddings going on in the village that day and these go on for several hours. By the time the cow had been extracted, many of the wedding guests had escaped from the church and were finding the cow more interesting;

next problem what to do with the meat - no way of preserving it, it had to be chopped up and cooked straight away - boiled! The last laugh was on us - on sunday we were presented with a bucket of boiled beef! John tried a few strands and then we gave it along with an onion and a cabbage to our very poor neighbour and her very large family.

The pupils told me that the meat was disgusting because it was so badly cooked.

John has found a new and very pleasant way of going down the mountain - on the back of a bicycle! of course you have to walk up the odd hill but generally very relaxing.

some of my colleagues:1 Theonase the nasty

2 me in my white coat between concessa the curious and Guerison thegentle

3 Salvator the smooth and Aimable the likeable with Theonase

4 Pheneas the fun-loving, Guerison, Jerome the joker and Aimable.

note the wonderful staff room!

I dont know how bathroom lizard got here again but my little sink lizard has been murdered by creatures unknown!

THE REALITY

We are worried that we have been making life in Rwanda ( especially our part of Rwanda ), sound too romantic and idealised. Its not that we havent told the truth but we may have glossed over some of the more difficult aspects.
for example the reality of being without any source of power is the biggest problem for us. During the day its fine obviously but as soon as 6pm chimes on the church bell things just go down hill. We light the kerosene lamps - they stink and make your eyes sting and they give out hardly any light; We invested in lamps with batteries but they are so badly made (like everything in Rwanda) that they are falling to pieces all the time. You have to remember to take a light with you wherever you go and you do drop things and you do bump into things and the nights are so long! You go to bed at 9 and often wake up half way through the night praying for it to get light. and if anything happened to you on the mountain in the night in the dark what would you do ? you are trapped you just have to hope.
Then there is the reality of being a muzungu in Cyanika - you are from another world, you may as well be a monkey or a martian. People may be slightly more used to us now but they still come out of their houses to see us go by; Every morning half way to school, I have to run the gauntlet of all the men idling outside the kiosk waiting for something to turn up; they usually shout something which I ignore but i hate it. If people address me which they often do, I will reply but if they shout muzungu I ignore them but i still hate it.
We are now known as " muzungu kuruhu" which means the muzungu that doesnt give money!
It is embedded in the rwandan psyche that muzungu means money. Rwanda has always been a jewel in the aid- agencies' crown although not much of that aid money gets to Cyanika. so to rwandans all muzungus are dripping with money which should be given to them and no matter what we do here to help with our services they would still prefer our money.
Finally there is the reality of the limited food supply; we have eaten nearly all the ryvita bicuits and laughing cow cheese and tins of pate (for John) that we bought back with us so its back to avocadoes and beans. sometimes we just dont know what to cook, the other night all we had was a baked potato with a fried egg and tinned sardines (it was ok)
we are in Kigali this weekend, we came for VSO team building and family dinner, so we have been eating and drinking at their expense.
Muzungus who live in Kigali have no idea what life is really like for most rwandans.