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".