Thoughts about Rwanda

Its exactly 2 weeks now since we left Rwanda and already it seems like a world away,although a piece of my heart will always remain in Cyanika. If you have been reading the blog regularly you will know about the terrible poverty that is everywhere in rural Rwanda and especially in the area where we lived. Progress is being made in Rwanda but it seems to be concentrated on Kigali, places like Cyanika remain forgotten and yet the villagers work so hard - they have to to survive!

You will also know about the plight of students who must pay for ther education - the equivalent of £40 a term and yet most families could never raise that amount of money and so many many children never go on to secondary education and for those that do, the students i was teaching, its touch and go whether their parents will find the money for next term and often they never finish their education. My lovely headmaster, calixte tries his best to keep the students at school for as long as possible but if it comes to exam time and they havent paid, they cant sit the exam. They are bright intelligent young people, desperate to get on in life and they know that it all depends on them finding enough money (a large amount for them, nothing for us)to get through.
At the end of this term, my school ran out of money and the students had to go home a week early because there was no money to feed them.

I just want to tell you about one or two of the students who became particularly dear to me:

JOHN DAMASCENE 21 is an orphan who spent his early years in a refugee camp in the Congo. He has been in orphanages and boarding schools all over Rwanda. He wants to become a musician.

JOHN MARIE VIANNEY17 - his mother left him and his 2 younger siblings when they were babies, now his father is in prison (denounced for genocide crimes)and he is bringing up his younger sister; He receives just enough money from the red cross to pay his fees but not enough to buy school materials. Unless he finds a sponsor he wont be able to go to university and he is very intelligent and a talented musician.

VALENS M 24 supporting himself and younger sister, very proud that he has his provisional driving licence and wants to become a moto driver but needs £45 to join the moto drivers' union before he can do anything

VALENS N 23, another brilliant student who wants to become a journalist.

JOHN BOSCO 16 a lovely boy and one of the youngest in year 10 but very bright, has so many plans but no money

and then of course there are the absolutely destitute families living near us and their starving children!

I have worked out that if i could raise £5,000 a year I could make a significant difference to these peoples lives. I am looking into starting a charity but you need a minimum of £5,000 to do that.

If any schools who read this blog would like to sponsor a student - one of the above or a younger child, or if any individual would like to make a donation, I can assure you that the money will go immediately to where it should. Callixte is my contact in Cyanika and he is one the nicest and most honest people I have ever met.

Akagera and the gorillas

AKAGERA

At 5.30 in the morning,just as a beautiful dawn was breaking over Kigali, we set off for Akagera national park;its very small by african park standards and until 1994 was almost twice as big but it is still an amazing experience. It took us just over an hour and a half to get there in the massive land cruiser (with 2 petrol tanks) that picked us up;( the sort of vehicle that we had always sneered at because they cost a fortune and were always full of muzungus) but once in the park it really came inti its own as we went completely off road, only such a vehicle could have managed the terrain and we really felt we were on safari as we stood with our heads out of the roof looking at giraffe, buffalo,; many different types of antelope, baboons, wart hogs - you name it.Unfortunately the zebras were on holiday in Tanzania that day! There were so many different kinds of birds and a real highlight were the hippos basking in lake Muhazi; we actually got out of the vehicle to look at these creatures - how amazing and to think that that they live on grass, cant really swim but spend all day in the water only coming out at night to feed. Who thought that one up!! There are elephants too in the park and lions and many other animals but they are very elusive. Poaching is still a big problem in the park as traditionally rwandans have always hunted some of thes animas for food and skins; We saw a picture of a hippo trap in the national museum.

On the return to Kigali our pwerful vehicle broke down. A million people tried to get it going again but to no avail so we were eventually rescued by two lovely men with a lot of bananas. They gave all four of us a lift back to our hotel in Kigali, they told us that it is a rwandan belief that if you see someone in trouble and you dont help them, your daughters will never find husbands.

GORILLAS!

The climax of our stay in Rwanda was definitely our visit to the mountain gorillas last week. Although it is hideously expensive it really is a once in a lifetime experience.It involved another early start; we were picked up from the "hotel" by a 4 by 4 and driven to the volcanoes national park HQ where guides were waiting to put us into one of seven groups of eight people. We were given a short briefing by Ignace, our guide as to how we should behave in the presence of the gorillas; no pointing, no touching, no showing you are afraid as this can make them aggressive. After a 40 minute drive to the lower slopes of the Virungas we then had a 3 hour climb, very steep and slippery in places, through very difficult, thick jungle. Ignace was in constant touch with the trackers who were tracking the movements of our group of gorillas, the Amohoro ( peace) group, a family of 16. At last we reached the trackers and had to leave all bags and sticks behind and minutes later we were in the midst of the gorilla family, all of whom were enjoying their mid morning nap. They soon woke up and we were able to observe them eating, playing, climbing and occasionally insisting upon their right of way on the narrow jungle trails and ever so gently pushing us aside if we were in their way. We saw mothers with small babies, juveniles, and young adults and the highlight was right at the end of the visit when Ubumwe, the massive silver back and leader of the group moved off and the rest of the group had to follow him. It was a breathtaking experience and we felt we were greatly priviliged to be allowed to spend an hour in the company of these noble creatures.Back down the mountain in the pouring rain, slipping and sliding all the way but totally elated and then just time for a bite to eat and a well earned primus before getting the bus (filthy as we were) back to Kigali.

leaving school

The last week at school was a very emotional one for me, I had to say goodbye to my beloved pupils, some of whom I had become very attached to. Seb and Kate being there made the week extra special; as they are the same age as most of the students, they were absolutely adored and made to feel very special (which they are) One evening, the students arranged a special demonstration of wonderful intore dancing and drumming just for us. We were all dragged up to dance with them - the rest of the school went wild! Seb was taken on stage to show his talents and all I will say is that he di'dnt disappoint them! Many speeches were made and I was made to feel that my presence in the school over the year had been greatly appreciated. I had to make a return speech and John gave a speech entirely in Kinyarwanda; the school loved it. what a night!!

Eventually,in the last few days it was time to take leave of my special students; the 5 or 6 I have taken under my wing and who have been coming to the house a couple of times a week to play guitar, sing or just chat. We intend to carry on helping these students in the future (more of this project later) We were so sad to say goodbye to them and they to us. Impromtu concerts were given, the house had never been so full of music and light!

Finally it was the turn of John Damascene who has been coming to visit for longer and more often than anyone. He is an orphan who spent the first 7 years of his life in a refugee camp in the Congo. Now he lives in an orphanage on lake Kivu and is sponsored to go to school in Cyanika. he plays the guitar so well, writes his own songs and knows congolese music. we decided to give him the guitar and when we said goodbye he hugged and hugged me and didnt want to let go. I felt all the love that he has never been able to give to anyone else and I wished i had done more for him: but we will carry on helping him.

Nyungwe

Last weekend we went to Nyungwe forest; it is the largest rain forest left in Africa which is amazing when you consider that Rwanda is so small. We had been through it a couple of times on the bus but this time we did it in style -our wonderful friends th Medical Missionaries of Mary lent us their four wheel drive jeep for the weekend plus Bosco their driver! We could stop wherever we wanted to admire views or look at animals. We stayed on lake Kivu where we ate lots of SAMBAZA - a wonderful tiny lake fish that you eat whole - hot and crispy mmm!

The first day we did a 10.5 kilometer walk with a guide, to an incredible waterfall. It is expensive to do the walk but so worth it. We started off walking through tea plantations and even before we entered the forest we saw blue monkeys; The forest is marvellous, magical, magestic, magnificent! you feel you have stepped back thousands of years. You are surrounded by strange and sometimes ancient trees and plants; The guide,David had told us not to touch any green plants in case they were hiding green vipers and then suddenly there was a green viper in all its green glory slithering across our path! its bite is poisonous but not fatal!

the waterfall was worth the very difficult trek down to and up from - so incredibly powerful and so alone, it was wonderful! There are many animals in the forest but they remain so well hidden or only come out at night that we were very lucky to see the large group of rare blue monkeys and colobus monkeys and also a blue turaco and many other birds. You can go on a special chimp treck but that is even more expensive.

The second day we went on a shorter walk, it had been raining very hard so going was treacherous. The guide told us to tuck our trousers into our socks because of the driver ants which attack anything that disturbs their activities, but because of the rain he didnt think they would be about - he was so wrong!! We spent at least 5 minutes pulling them all off. Again we were struck by the majesty and timelessness of the forest. The last elephant was killed in Nyungwe in 1999 and the plants that only they eat have become rampant and are choking other plants; there is a plan to reintroduce elephants into the forest, I hope they do it soon

football parts 1 and 2

Seb and Kate are with us now and life has suddenly become much more interesting in Cyanika; one of the first things seb wanted to do was play football with students from my school. They went down to the sports' field to see if Seb could get a game and we followed a little later to find them absolutely mobbed by primary school children ( they had chosen to go down to the field just as school finished!) Some of my students soon arrived and took Seb off to play. Practically the whole village was soon spectating with us and as it was also market day which takes place on a corner of the field, there was added spice to the proceedings.

Many people couldnt believe that Seb was real, someone asked if his hair was artificial, but as play proceeded everyone cheered each time Seb got the ball. Kate had problems watching the match because everyone was surrounding her and questioning her and wanting to marry her, or failing that she should bring them her first girl child when it was old enough to marry! A very exciting time was had by all and we walked back with a cast of thousands and a promise to play again soon.

Seb said it was the first time he had prayed with a team before a kick off!

Playing a second game proved to be more difficult because Rwandans will say that something is going to happen whether it is or not, but finally, with the help of Callixte our wonderful headmaster, another match was played; Seb has now become a local hero.

incident

We had a rather disturbing experience on friday when leaving cyanika to come to kigali to pick up seb and kate; we pushed it to the back of our minds in the euphoria of meeting them, but i dont think it should be forgotten.
We had arranged for the wonderful Aragis plus friend to come and pick us up on their bikes; Unfortunately john had told them to come at 7 instead of 10 (kinyarwandan time-telling is impossibly difficult!) anyway they came at 7 and I apologised profusely but they said they didnt mind and would return at 10; Valerie said they didnt want to wait where they usually waited because there was an UMUGANDA -community work where everyone has to take part; its always on the last saturday of every month and sometimes randomly on another day, the work can involve anything but it usually involves clearing a road or digging a ditch - its always back breaking work;
Aragis and friend returned at 10 and made us understand that they had hidden their bikes in the bush somewhere and went off to retrieve them. we jumped on the back and set off, but when we reached the kiosk where all the bikes and everyone else always hangs out it was deserted and we wre suddenly set upon by guards who proceeded to attack us with huge wooden truncheons to try and knock us off the bikes. We put our hands up to defend ourselves and they didnt actually hit us but only because the boys were determined to carry on whatever and eventually we got away and sped off leaving the guards shouting after us; They obviously werent making any concessions for muzungus that day and we felt very threatened and quite shaken up although we made a joke of it with the gallant cyclists.
We dont know whether to inform VSO of the incident or complain to the village chief, but i think we should tell someone ; generally we feel very safe here although i believe ther are some aid workers who get up to 100 pounds a day danger money for being in Rwanda!!

wonderful weekend in cyanika!

had problems writing this blog because there has been a distinct lack of any sort of electricity in cyanika this week! the school generator broke down so we had no way of charging the computer. no one has ever stayed with us in cyanika before but the young vso girls have always been planning to walk up the mountain and spend the night with us so they could experience life without electricity. so finally, last saturday 5 muzungus plus one kenyan boyfriend arrived with sleeping bags. as soon as they arrived, john damascene, our resident guitarist arrived to give them a recital - they were most impressed! then we went out for a walk - say no more! we had an entourage of thousands, even an elf!! (see photo) i had prepared a beef curry (john went down to gikongoro for the beef) and a chick pea curry which seemed to be very much appreciated. then reality set in ie darkness fell. its great when you are sitting around chatting but not so good when you are preparing yourself for bed! anyway, i think they all said they couldnt live like this for more than 2 weeks. It was so lovely to have the company though, especially from such a lovely vibrant group of girls (and fred)-(who read)!!!