ANYONE LIKE TO SPONSOR AN ORPHAN?

Owing to the very generous donations I received when I did my Cumbrian coastal walk (over £300), plus the slow but steady trickle of money we receive from selling akabanga, we have recently been able to commit to sponsoring 2 of the 16 orphans we met in Cyanika - Anastasie and Monique. Obviously, we would like to sponsor them all.

To sponsor one orphan means a commitment of £180 per year - its nothing to us is it? but it is a life changing sum for one of these young people. Tempted?

There are many orphans in Rwanda, not just as a direct result of the Genocide ( these orphans are now nearly 20 years old but also, indirectly, people continue to be denounced and arrested for crimes they may or may not have committed during the genocide. Usually the denunciations are made by refugees returning from Congo, with a grudge or just jealous that someone has been able to rebuild their life and have little foundation in truth.

Many, many children are orphaned as a result of Aids.

UP AND COMING EVENTS

I am very excited because on Thursday 24th, I am taking part in a charities fair, run by the RLNI in Arnside. ABANA will be selling earrings, akabanga and cards and hoping to get lots publicity in the local area.

 

Also, on 12th November, Sonia is holding "Camp Cinema" in Derby (Camp Cinema because you have to bring your own chair) all admission charges will be shared between the two charities ABANA and Education for All.  

This could become a regular event which is fantastic news  - the second one is being held on December 11th - Sonia's birthday.

 

if anyone reading this blog has any good ideas for raising money for ABANA, I would love to hear

return to rwanda

On 5th August, after a dream holiday in Zanzibar, we flew from Dar Es Salaam to Kigali. I felt very emotional as we landed - so many good memories flooded in and so many lovely faces.
The airport is now a veritable show piece for Rwanda, as is most of Kigali - once away from the capital however, nothing has changed, apart from lots of big, new road signs everywhere.

Two of my wonderful boys were waiting for us at the airport - Bosco and Valens. I saw their smiling faces as we came down the stairs and they were ecstatic to see me again - they really do look upon me as a mother.

At this point I must say something about the Rwandan form of greeting which is different to anything I have seen in my travels and says a great deal about the Rwandans themselves: meeting you for the first time, a Rwandan will shake your hand. As he gets to know you he will shake your hand but his left hand will be holding his elbow. As friendship develops, the handshake becomes an arm shake - the hand going further and further up your arm. On our return from holiday last time, our friends greeted us by putting both hands on the shoulders and touching head to head 3 times but this time - what a greeting we received from everyone - it was basically the same but the touching of heads could last several minutes, accompanied by vigorous squeezing and cries of joy, sometimes real crying. Finally, the greeter would let you go but always finish with one final handshake and a touching of  right elbow with left hand. of course we had to do it too. I love that greeting. Nico who was on his first visit to Rwanda happily dived in with the rest of us.

From the moment we landed in Kigali to the moment of leaving, we felt so special and so appreciated. We haven't sent lots of money to the people we are helping, but it has and is enabling them to look forward to the future and has given their families (if they have any)a reason to be proud.

Bosco, who is only 19, has just completed his second year at the School of Finance and Banking in Kigali, he is working so hard  and is a lovely young man - the perfect gentleman. We went to visit his family in Kitabi at the beginning of the Nyungwe forest, where the tea plantations are. This was an amazing journey, firstly in a crowded bus and then when the bus couldn't go any further, we rounded up 4 motor bikes and set off in convoy. After quite a long time we got off the bikes and walked up an incredibly steep hillside to where Bosco's sister Juliette lives. She was lying down outside her tiny mud brick house with her new baby Sabine. What a warm welcome they all gave us!

Here we learned that you must never say goodbye to your host inside his house - he must walk with you and see you off and in Juliette's case, the whole family including the new baby and all the neighbours, came all the way down the hill to where our motorbikes were waiting.
Then we went totally off road into the hills above the tea plantations to an isolated hill where Bosco's parents and the rest of his family live. Here we really were treated like royalty, they had waited so long to meet us. Before going into the house we had to greet all the neighbours who were so very, very poor - toddlers in rags carrying smaller babies in rags - it was heartrending.
When Bosco's parents greeted us, I thought his mum was never going to let me go! They are so grateful for what we are doing for Bosco and Rose who was back at school that day and we never got to see her. We were given food and sorghum beer which they make themselves.

One thing you notice when you fly over Rwanda is that every square inch of land is cultivated - such a tiny country with so many people to feed. The tea plantations have taken away valuable land and people here are very poor and outside their houses where they can cultivate a very small plot, they are only allowed to cultivate peas and Irish potatoes (I am not sure why) and that is what we had to eat - peas and potatoes with rice. They can only supplement their diet if they can afford to go to the market, which is so far away anyway.
What a wonderful visit we had.

We met up with Valerie who has just completed a catering course and proudly showed us her certificate, she now has a job in a hospital kitchen. She earns £30 a month and pays £15 rent.
In Gikongoro we met up with Marie Aimee who is now 17 and has 2 more years to do at school. I think she wanted to take Nico away with her.

We also met up with Theogene who is so grateful for our help and is now a primary school teacher, although on the very lowest pay - he will continue to need our help.
We travelled pretty much all over Rwanda via public transport (ouch)so we could show Nico as much of this wonderful country as possible. He thinks "Land of 10,000 Hills" would be more appropriate than -a 1,000 hills.
On our return to Kigali we had a visit from JM Vianney - he is the student who supplies us with akabanga. He is doing so well, he has just completed his second year at the Kigali institute of Education and also doing really well with his music, including performing and composing. It was lovely to see how confident he has become.

On our final full day in Rwanda we went with Bosco and Valens  to visit Valens' family - his mum, siblings and 2 little orphans who had also become part of the family and live in a little village on the outskirts of Kigali. What a wonderful reception we received there.

We are obviously very special to them. We were given food - this time beans, Irish potatoes and rice. Valens was almost beside himself with happiness and presented me with a beautiful length of material

and his mum gave me an "agaseke" basket she had of course woven herself (as did Bosco's mum. the baskets take about 6 weeks to make)

The family are so grateful for what we are doing for Valens. His mum has brought up 7 children on her own, father was killed in 1994 when Valens was three. He is an incredibly intelligent boy.
Returning to Rwanda was  physically and emotionally draining but an incredible experience: it was wonderful to see most of the young people we are helping and to be invited into their homes to see how they live - a very humbling experience.
It was wonderful to have Nico with us, many of the students felt they knew him already and he lightened up every situation.
I am even more determined to raise money to help as many young people as possible. We visited the school in Cyanika where I taught and presented father Valens, the head with a camera (donated by a very good friend) so he could take photos of students who need help. he is a lovely man, the students call him amahoro which means peace. The first thing Father Valens did was to bring the 16 orphans to us - they are the ones who really need help and I recognised one little girl, Anastasie, I taught her.

The school also needs help, there are so many things they need, including a girls' dormitory - at the moment they are sleeping in what should be classrooms.

I have lots more to share about our trip but "bohoro, bohoro".

The final stretch -St. Bees to Whitehaven

leaving St. Bees

Amazing walk today, over the cliffs to Whitehaven. Only 6.5 miles but it felt longer (it always does) as you were constantly going up, sometimes very steeply and then down just as steeply. Once we had rounded North head, Whitehaven lay twinkling enticingly in the sunshine, but we never seemed to get any nearer.

We saw colonies of guillemots, thousands of them squeezed together on the cliffs and many cormorants but sadly no puffins.

The whole walk has been beautiful (apart from some parts of Barrow and that awful view of Sellafield!) I couldn't have wished for better weather, if it had been raining, some parts would have been impassable.

I feel really good to have completed the walk and I hoped that by doing it I would raise a decent amount of money for ABANA. Some people, including the lovely owner of the Manor Inn Hotel in St. Bees have already made donations and some dear friends have already made donations via Charity Giving.
Just before I set out yesterday, I heard that Charity Giving has been forced to suspend activities because a lot of money is unaccounted for - I couldn't believe it! I have always received my donations to ABANA with no problems
If you made a donation via the fund raising page after the 12th of July, the amount should be returned to you immediately. If you made one before that date, the amount will be paid to ABANA.
So please, if the money you donated has been returned to you or if you were thinking of making a donation and haven't yet done so , please still donate via this official account: ABANA account number 33813371 sort code 20-69-85
Your small donation means so much.

Seascale to St. Bees

Todays walk should have been easy (along the coast) and short (8.5 miles)it started off beautifully, we were walking through the most beautiful wild flowers imaginable,

but when we got to the far side of the Sellafield perimeter fence where we should have carried on, we were forced to ta.ke a massive detour because Sellafield was carrying out some work. The detour was signposted once and we ended up waist high in cornfields, on top of cliffs and going through dangerous no entry areas. Amazingly, we eventually made it back to the coast and plodded on - the coast is beautiful but it is very hard work walking on stones - ouch! I brought many of the stones home with me so my bag became heavier and heavier.
How wonderful to finally arrive at St. Bees head and sit down with a refreshing drink. I think the walk must have been at least 12 miles in the end. When tomorrow is over, I will never suggest walking again!

Silecroft to Ravenglass. Ravenglass to Seascale

Yesterday was a very difficult day and in retrospect, I wouldn't like to have done it alone. So glad John came with me. Once we got to Bootle we had to walk all the way round the Esk estuary to get to Ravenglass and there were many gullies and ditches and places almost impossible to cross. Also, the way was badly marked and sometimes we couldn't believe we were expected to go that way! very beautiful though

very weary when we reached Ravenglass but still managed to appreciate a superb roman bath house, Ravenglass was an important roman fort.

Todays walk was shorter and much easier and mainly along the coast and we made good time. The weather of course was absolutely gorgeous.

We lived in Whitehaven for three and a half years and we know that this beautiful coast contains a down side - Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant and all the pollution that goes with it - it was one of the reasons why we left, it dominates everything.

Sellafield with Seascale in the foreground. 

days 3 and 4 Barrow to Millom

This was the first decent sign I saw - in Broughton in Furness, generally the route is VERY BADLY SIGNPOSTED, if at all and has resulted in me getting lost a couple of times.
Yesterday was the most difficult day of all. Getting out of Barrow was just as complicated as getting in and seemed to take forever! but  it was all worth it when I reached Roanhead which is absolutely beautiful.

The beach is lovely, with the Cumbrian hills in the background and there were some pools where natterjack toads breed; I saw lots of toadpoles - they should have been toadlets but like everything else this year they are behind.
The walk to Askam was superb. I was nearly in Kirby in Furness when things went a bit wrong and I ended up nearly stuck in the marshes and had to retrace my steps somewhat. I was exhausted by the time I met John. we stayed in a lovely B and B - the square café - really lovely people and felt fairly refreshed this morning for my walk to Millom.
I spent most of yesterday looking across the estuary at Millom, which seemed so close and most of today looking back at the other side and still not getting any closer. 
I am exhausted now and having a day off tomorrow to rest my poor feet.

 

Day 2 Ulverston to Barrow

Not quite as long a day today - only 14.5 miles but in the heat it was difficult to walk fast. Also, I walked for about 8 miles along the shingle beach and that really took its toll on the bottoms of my feet.
It was very beautiful walking on the beach, just me and the sea and the birds. I passed the Conishead priory now a Buddhist temple and a lovely, ancient little church dedicated to St. Cuthbert.
 This changed as I started my approach to Barrow: still on the coastal path with the sea and the tide fully in but on the other side- the offshore gas fields the onshore gas fields (I don't know what you call them), the power station, the slag heaps and the sewage works - not lovely.
I made good time though and reached the railway station about 3 pm.
Tomorrow I shall be staying over in Broughton in Furness, if I reach it!

If you haven't read this blog before, go back and read some of the posts from 2009, when we were living in Rwanda - it makes for fascinating reading, even for me. I seem to be a long way from that life now and not in a good way. I thought I would never go back to living a materialistic, wasteful western life after experiencing the way most Rwandans have to live - how quickly we forget!

walking for ABANA from Silverdale to Whitehaven day 1-

Set off at 7.30 this morning to walk to Silverdale station to catch the train to Kent's Bank - having already done the first part of the walk - across Morecambe Bay with Cedric Robinson a couple of weeks ago.Today's walk was 17.5 miles and it was sooo hot!
My first challenge was 3 fields all with cows and bullocks in and I am rather nervous around these creatures but they weren't really interested in me and all fields were passed without incident.
The walk went through fabulous countryside from start to finish - along country lanes, through forests, over moorlands, over rivers, up to the wonderful Bigland Tarn where we cooled our feet. At one point I came upon the Cartmel sticky toffee pudding factory - tempting!
I met up with Margaret (my sister) in Cark when I had been walking for 2 and a half hours. We plodded on together and reached Ulverston about 5 30 - very hard work but worth it.
Hope I am not too stiff to carry on tomorrow.