Bye bye bye-eee!

As I settled into Rwanda I stopped writing this blog. Partly because I just got bored of it, and partly because I had no exciting stories to write. On any given day, my head was mostly full of things that aren’t worth shouting into cyberspace (I’m cold, it’s raining, I hope the priests give me beer, I want to hug that teacher, I want to slap that person, oh my God I can’t believe I slapped somebody, etc. etc.)

But seeing as I’m finishing up in less than 2 weeks, I think it’s time for one more short blog to wrap this up.

 I’m going to miss Rwanda so much. Of course, now that I’m leaving, some really good things have started to happen that’s making it even sadder that I have to leave. Little things, like the kids on my road (most of them have spent over a year shouting ‘Julia’ or ‘Muzungu’ at me and asking for money) I left my house yesterday and a swarm of little bodies clung to my legs shouting ‘yooooo deeet a’. Great, now that I’m leaving you know my name. Also on my road, I only discovered this week I have a REALLY handsome neighbour. Who speaks English. He helped me when I got locked out of my house and asked why I never visit him. He's seen me running in the mornings and suggested we go together. Where was he when I moved in?? Oh and the shop in town has started selling chocolate. And the internet in my house is now amazing, I can get youtube. And a few weeks ago, Megan and Joyce showed us a really nice bar in Gitarama, where you can drink and dance without getting too much attention. I didn’t know such places existed. Anyway all these things aren’t really important, but it would have been nice if they’d been here all along.

Of course I’m going to miss the obvious things, like the amazing teachers I work with.  And the other volunteers, although we all arrive at different times and so all leave at different times, it never gets easier to say bye to people. Especially Tricia, who I’ve been living and working with. This week I haven’t seen her since last Thursday and I miss her now already. And the random interesting people you stumble across from time to time, there seems to be a lot of them here. I’ll miss the moto journeys. I’ll miss my house. I’ll miss the sunshine. But not the sunburn. I’ll even miss the Rwandan rain. I know we have rain at home, but what’s good about the rain here is that when it rains you can stay in your house. It doesn’t matter where you’re going or what work you have planned, if you text somebody and say – sorry I won’t make our meeting, it’s raining where I am’ – that’s a valid excuse. That was really annoying when I didn’t know and would get drenched clambering up a mountain in the mud to find no teachers, but when you accept that’s how it is, it’s actually kind of nice. I’ll miss mangos and avocados. I won’t miss fanta and mandazi, or kawunga. I’ll miss the market in Gitarama. I’ll miss the crazy nights with other volunteers where we get a bit excited to be all in Kigali and end up drinking too much waragi and making holy shows of ourselves, waking up with the fear but then realising it’s ok ‘cause everybody else was just as bad! (we have one more of those this weekend) I’ll miss the good days in school when a teacher runs with some idea and shows you a brilliant lesson. Or a good lesson. I don’t like tea at all, but I’ll miss sitting around drinking tea with the teachers.

Anyway, if I were to write a list of every single thing I’ll miss we’d be here all day.  This is just a blog to say: RWANDA I’LL MISS YOU!!!!!

Congo Nile trail

I'm really not good at writing a blog. It's been 8 months. But this weekend was so surreal, it needs to be documented.

Day 1:Rubengera-Musasa

Highpoint: the lady who felt Jo needed a demonstration on how to use the squat toilet

Low point: Enquiring about something to eat (anything!) and a place to sleep (anywhere!) in Musasa and being told ‘here, those things are difficult to find’

On Saturday morning Jo and I started walking in Rubengera. We had no map, didn’t know the path, didn’t know where or if there was anywhere to stay, we were sleep deprived (me) and hungover (Jo) and to be honest, badly prepared overall.

We had a good breakfast in Rubengera, and then started off walking towards what we hoped was Musasa. The Road from Rubengera is exactly where you want to be hiking, we went through little villages, met lovely people, and were happy out. People in general seemed a little bit confused about why we were walking so far, but everyone was so nice to us. We stopped and had a picnic in the banana trees. At one stage we went the wrong way and when we said we were going to Musasa we were brought back to the village and a woman who was going that way walked with us through the fields to show us where to go. There was a moment when we got a text message from Vodacom DRC welcoming us to Congo when I got a little bit worried that maybe doing any walk with Congo in the title was a bit stupid, but we were definitely still in Rwanda so we reckoned it was OK. Some other volunteers get that message where they live, and VSO wouldn’t put us anywhere that wasn’t safe. That was our logic anyway.

and we found a puppy!

We didn’t see anyone else doing the hike, but we were stopped by an American in a big car who wanted to take our picture because he’s working on marketing for the trail. It was a bit disappointing that he wasn’t actually doing the trail, how can you market something you haven’t done??  And he couldn’t tell us anything about where we might find somewhere to sleep, but he did give us a map. Which, on hindsight, is a good thing to have if you're trying to hike a trail you don't know.

We eventually arrived at Musasa. This is where we were told it would be hard to find food or somewhere to stay.. We ended up in a shop, chewing mandazi and drinking fanta and beer by candlelight. There had been no sign of anywhere to sleep and it was pitch dark, but we were feeling optimistic (maybe that was the beer though). The owner, the nicest man ever, went to his house and came back with his mattress, which he put in the back room for us to sleep on. We were happy with that, but then the umudugudu leader came to see the visitors. Through French and Kinyarwanda and gestures we explained that no, we were not together with the young man he had seen us talking to earlier, we were walking for fun and we had come from Rubengera. That changed everything! Suddenly there was more smiling, head nodding, and we were offered a room in the Umudugudu leader’s house. His son slept in the sitting room and gave us his bed. This is the kind of hospitality that I don’t think you would ever get at home! We had a good night’s sleep and the family wouldn’t even take any money from us

this is the back room of the mandazi shop where we were told we could sleep

This is in the cell umudugudu leaders house. Much better.

they even gave us a jerry can to wash with

Day 2: Musasa – Kinunu

High point: Finding a village that sold fanta

Low point: the 5 hours before that where we could not find liquid for sale anywhere. And we were walking a lot, uphill mostly. And it was SCORCHING. I have never been so thirsty in my life.

We got out on to the road just after 6, and apart from us being really stupid and assuming that every village would sell bottled water, we had a gorgeous walk.

This is a cow. It just swam across lake Kivu while being dragged by a boat. Fair play.

We stayed in Kinunu, in a guesthouse. We were the only visitors, and I think the manager was bored, they’ve only had 20 people since May. So we got a tour of the coffee washing station, which was interesting. We’re still not sure what exactly goes on there, again we were working in a mixture of French and Kinyarwanda, and we don’t really speak either of those languages. However we did figure out that what we had from a distance thought was a water feature in a fancy hotel was actually pools for washing the coffee. He also took us down to see the beach, we didn’t swim ‘cause it was getting late and we were hungry, but it would be a lovely place to hang out for a while.

Oh and the food there was really good. If you don’t go for the walking, the swimming or the coffee station, go for the fresh sambasa, straight from the lake.

Day 3 Kinunu- Gisenyi

High point: the boat trip, where we squished in with too many people, and chickens, and a lot of bananas. I would describe it as a boat version of a matatu, with a lot of extra mad stuff.

Low point: being brought to the police station on one of the islands

So, we had to get back for work on Tuesday, and we didn’t have enough time to walk to Gisenyi. Gervais, the manager, suggested we take the boat. It costs 50p, so we said yeah sure, why not?

Well, I’ll tell you why not. Three words you never want to hear on a boat are ‘abantu ni byenshi’. (too  many people) Especially if the police are the ones saying it. The lake police came onto the boat to count how many people were there. Considering there was a lot of bits and pieces crammed onto the boat, far too many people, and some of us perched precariously on the dodgy roof (Jo and me included), it wasn’t really a surprise when we got taken to the police station.  Protais, the main guy, was particularly upset. When we asked him was everything ok he just mimed being handcuffed. Not good. We had to line up, be counted, get a lecture, but then we were all allowed to go, even Protais. So, I would actually recommend getting the boat, if just for the experience of crouching on a sack of green bananas and passing the time playing guessing games with the other passengers. And the beautiful view across the lake.

And that was the end of our weekend. The trail is longer, it would take 10 days to do the whole thing. For anybody in Rwanda now, I really recommend you do it while you have the chance, it’s so amazingly beautiful! Unless of course you don’t like kind, patient people with a sense of humour, or waterfalls, mountains, valleys and lakes. My only advice is to take loads of water, buy food wherever you see it, and if you are getting on the boat do not make the mistake of thinking ‘oh – it’ll be an easy day so I can wear my high heels’. Some eejit did that and really regretted it when she was walking across the narrow beam on the roof of the boat. I think I could get a job in the circus if I get sick of teaching.

Uganda

We took the bus to Kampala on Saturday morning. As we stepped off the bus, the first things we saw were gigantic marabou storks. They are the scariest birds I have ever seen in my life, they live in the city and fly around like dinosaurs, eating rubbish. They kind of set the tone for Kampala. It’s big, it’s dirty, the traffic is insane. OK, we enjoyed the time we spent there, it’s a cool city, but idyllic Rwanda has us a bit spoilt. We’re not used to chaos! On the way out of the city we made the mistake of getting on boda bodas, with our rucksacks, in the pitch dark, and telling the drivers – we’re late for our bus, go as fast as you can! Being late for a bus seems to mean that you are exempt from the rules of the road, my driver shouted something at the traffic police about our bus and the policeman stood back to let us speed head first, the wrong direction, into oncoming traffic.  Seriously, it was scarier than white water rafting.

But apart from being scared of Kampala, I really loved Uganda. The first day Rose and I went white water rafting in Jinja. Aaaagh!!!! Is the only word to describe it. It was terrifying, in a brilliant way! We had so much fun. Even when the boat flipped over and we all went flying into the rapids, to be dragged along by the upside down raft, it was still brilliant. I’m surprised at how much I liked it, I’m not really a very brave person. In between rapids there was calm parts where we could chill out and go for a swim. The most surreal part was when I found myself swimming along in the Nile, having a chat with a man from the Indian army, who was nonchalantly telling me how to catch and kill a snake when you need to survive, a la Bear Grylls.

Then Rose, Isy and I went to Murchison falls. That was amazing! The first thing that happened when we arrived was a little pep talk, where we were warned about the hippos and warthogs that live in the campsite. Now, warthogs may look cute and fluffy, gormless even, but we were warned that if they smelled any food in our tents they would come barging in, ripping the tent to shreds, and then they would have no choice but to KILL us. (that last bit sounds dramatic, but it’s a direct quote)Thankfully, we managed to survive the threat of warthogs, but he did put the fear of God into some people, for example the unfortunate Portuguese man who put a lot of energy into getting rid of any trace of food from his pockets before he went to bed that night.

The three day safari was amazing. We had a drive around, and saw elephants, giraffes, hippos, zebra, buffalo and the best bit – lions and their cubs! There’s something really lovely about just seeing the animals hanging out in their own environment, and not cooped up and sad like in the zoo. We also went on a boat trip, we saw loads of crocodiles and elephants and buffalos and beautiful birds, and then we walked up to the top of the waterfall. That night, there was one more hippo sighting, right beside Isy’s tent. Then the next day we went chimp trekking. First we saw a chimps nest – I didn’t know they made nests. We heard the chimps before we saw them, shouting and jumping around the place. Then we got a bit closer to where they were feeding and saw a few running across the ground before they climbed up into the trees. We ended up standing right underneath a big group of them, and watched them swinging through the branches, eating and play fighting.

After all our excitement, we had an overnight journey to spend the last two days in eco domes in Byoona Amagara. For the last bit of our journey we clambered into a canoe, made from a hollowed out tree, and were rowed 50 minutes across the lake to the island. Along the way our driver (rower?) pointed out an island where unmarried mothers used to be left to die. When he told us that, the lake which had seemed quiet and serene, just started to feel a bit eerie. The Island we stayed on was like paradise. We slept in these big domes, which are kind of opened up so you kind of feel like you’re sleeping outdoors but you have a shelter. It was really quiet, somewhere beautiful to go when you feel like doing nothing and eating loads of food and reading and talking. A word of caution though – after a while in such a quiet place you might get restless, so if you’re thinking of going to Byoona Amagara make sure to bring people with you who you wouldn’t mind being stranded on a desert island with. The sort of people who will be happy to entertain you with games, singing, and murder mysteries, and not care if they confuse innocent Spanish ladies who happen to be around J

And that was our amazing holiday. Back to work tomorrow

our quiet weekend in Nyaraguru

Saturday, 11.30am.

 Judy: So what are we gonna do today then Isy?

Isy: Em, there’s nothing to do in Nyaraguru. Go for a walk? Get pissed?

Famous last words.

So, when you’re visiting a friend who LOVES Rwandan pop, and LOVES a certain popstar called Dr. Claude, and she gets a phonecall to ask her to be in his music video, but she needs to be in Kigali now this minute, what do you do?

Of course, the answer is drop the rice sacks you are carrying, take your groceries and bags, and get on the first bus from Butare to Kigali. That’s how Rose and I ended up in the back of a bus, attempting to do Isy’s hair and make up while squished in beside a group of women and children on their way to a wedding. We did a brilliant makeover I have to say, even though getting changed on a bus is a bit culturally inappropriate. (Nobody saw, we waited till the child beside me puked – as they inevitably do – and used this diversion as an opportunity for Isy to get into my dress and whip off her jeans under a towel). Next step – procure a white man and a pair of shoes, which sounds easier than it was…

Next thing you know, Rose, Isy, Bert and I have been catapulted to stardom. Kind of J. I’ve never met a Rwandan rapper face to face before, and Dr. Claude was just what I would have hoped for, bling and all. He collected us from the bus, and we got to drive around Kigali in a popstar’s car, windows down, music blaring, everybody recognising Dr. Claude and waving at him. The next bit was surreal. That morning when I woke up I thought I was going to stay in Nyaraguru for a quiet night in, eating, drinking and chatting. Little did we know we’d end up prancing around on the set of a music video! In fairness, Isy and Bert are the famous ones, they’re in an actual scene. Me and Rose were the stylist and agent, we did a bit of dancing around but you won’t be seeing that in the video!

But of course it’s not all bright lights and stardom here…In other news, last week was beerfest. People complained that there wasn’t enough beer. I, however, took the shortage as a challenge and managed to get as drunk as you would expect at a beerfest, I can only conclude that the reason people didn’t get any beer was that April and I drank it all… Also, the chickens are sick, but Felicien reckons it’s nothing a bit of medicine won’t fix. Work is plodding along steadily, phonics workshops are done for now, I saw some great sample lessons at the end of it and some not so great ones, the usual highs and lows…next step is plan stuff to do while the schools are on holidays. That’s all my news for now, watch this space for a link to the music video when it’s all ready

Mud and Gorillas

The past two weekends I have been enjoying being a real tourist! Two weeks ago we went to Musanze to climb mount Bisoke, an inactive volcano. On Saturday morning we got up at 5.30 to be taken to Parc des Volcans, and trudge through the mist and the mud for 7 hours. It was a lot more fun than it sounds… At one point though it could have gone either way, it was freezing cold and misty, I had mud everywhere, I couldn’t feel my toes, I had just fallen over and it was really sore, and because we were going downhill and it was so steep and slippy I was kind of scared. I was bent over my stick like a crippled old lady and making my way down the volcano by not moving my feet at all, I was just letting the mudslide carry me down. I really thought I was going to cry. Then I looked up at Rose, and she was doing the exact same thing, and she looked hilarious! The absurdity of the situation hit me and all of a sudden I was laughing so hard, there were tears. Then we were all just laughing, and falling around hysterically in the mud, even our guide was laughing  - with us or at us, I’m still not sure. When we got to the bottom he told us we were a great group and he had fun with us. But I bet he says that to all the groups J. So we spent the day laughing, playing in the mud, and seeing amazing views over the Rwandan countryside. Sure what else would you be doing on a Saturday afternoon?

Then last Saturday, I had what I’m pretty sure is going to be the highlight of all my time in Africa. Me, Isy and Róisín went to see the gorillas. It was even better than I’d expected. We went back to the Virungas, but this time we went through a bamboo forest. It was so cool, we had to clamber through vines and bushes, and our guide went ahead with a machete to hack a path through the bamboo. I felt like I was Bear Grylls! Then, just as we climbed through a thick patch of undergrowth, Róisín turned around with the most excited face… we came through into a misty clearing, and there they were, a big group of Gorillas…

They were just sitting there, hanging out, doing their own thing. It was so brilliant to just see them in their own home! We were literally standing in the middle of a big group of gorillas! The group we saw was the Suza group, it’s one of the biggest groups with 3 silverbacks and loads of little babies. We stayed for an hour, just watching how they are. They were mostly huddling up to keep warm, it was a bit cold and drizzly. We just about managed to control ourselves and not hug any of them! One male was asleep beside a female with twins. One baby kept trying to get away, but the Mam was having none of it, she kept him bundled up. Then the Dad woke up and didn’t like how close we were, so he put himself between us and the family like a bouncer. There were other Gorillas coming and going, every now and again we’d see one appear out of the mist. When you see their hands and some of their mannerisms, they just look like big hairy people. Afterwards we went back to Róisín’s house and had a night in with food and wine, and we watched ‘Gorillas in the mist’. Brilliant day!

Now I’m back to reality though. I’m doing loads of workshops, some aspects are going really well, but of course there are always the frustrations. The thing that makes me happiest is when the teachers are really enthusiastic, getting into the activities, and even coming up with ideas of how to adapt activities to suit their own classes. And you kind of think that maybe they are taking stuff on board, maybe when I go into their lessons next week I will see some kind of child centred action. Then of course you have days like today. I arrived at school bright and early, as arranged, only to find no head teacher, the teacher I had an appointment with (and I’d prepared loads of stuff for her) wasn’t there, the kids weren’t even in class, they were running around all over the place. I found an adult who told me that the head teacher and most of the teachers weren’t around today, because there’s ‘exams’. I didn’t see any kids in classrooms. Grr. That’s the thing about this job, there are a lot of rewards, but there are also frustrations…

My news

One lovely thing about living in Rwanda is that people always feed you. Yesterday I had two dinners. They were polar opposites of each other, it kind of tells you something about my life here…

So the first one was in a school in Kaduha. I had already done one workshop that morning, I had no food, and I was actually starving when I arrived. So we got to school a little earlier than I thought, and the teachers were still eating their lunch. I got pulled into the staffroom quickly. It was dark, because the doors and windows were all shut (I’m not sure why) and there were six teachers huddled around the table, all eating out of a big bowl of rice and something chewy. I got dragged in, handed a fork and a cup of banana juice and told to eat. We talked about mobile phones, school holidays and mothers, and I tried to show off the few words of Kinyarwanda I know and got laughed at. The teachers at that school are just so welcoming and lovely, that lunch was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while. Unfortunately though, for dessert I made the mistake of opening and sharing a bag of sweets I happened to have in my bag. The result was a lot of giddy teachers who were mad out of it on sugar and very hard to work with after lunch!

The second one was a much fancier affair. The Irish ambassador  took all the Irish expats in Rwanda (all 20 of us) out for dinner. It was amazing. There was wine. I’d forgotten that there’s different types of white wine. Before I came to Rwanda, I would normally ask for Pinot Grigot. Now I’m just delighted to get any type of wine, and my preference is – cold. There was Indian food. There was loads of lovely people. There was craic. There was talk of another one soon, when the new ambassador takes over.

And tomorrow, Tricia and I have been promised lunch in another school. I’m a little bit worried, I’ve eaten here twice before. The first time was lovely, I played with the pastors baby (Peacemaker is his name) and got to know the head teacher. Lovely until a big pot of rabbit was brought out. I am the worst vegetarian ever, I had to eat it. The second time I was practically force fed. Seriously, who can eat four eggs and a cake? That was the challenge set up for me. I failed.

 So who knows what tomorrow will bring?

I’m just thinking – I haven’t written anything for months and then I write this really random thing about dinner. I’ve been doing other stuff apart from eating. So my news – well Sarah came to visit in August, it was lovely to see her. I think the highlight was two nights in Paradis Malahide in Gisenyi. It’s so beautiful there. I’ve been to Akagera with Ken, Lynn and Darryl, it was so brilliant  seeing giraffes and buffalo wandering around and then stopping for lunch by a lake full of crocodiles. There’s been a lot of work, many parties, people leaving, and a trip to Tanzania.  I spent my birthday in Zanzibar snorkelling, having a barbeque, and later dancing behind the bar at a tiny Reggae bar. Then we had a few adventures and missed our bus home. Oh god, the bus – 30 something hours, I was intensely hungover, Rachel was worryingly sick, the bus was roasting, the cockroaches were all over the place and nearly everytime I fell asleep, I woke up with one on me… I mean, it was worth it and I would do it again to go to Tanzania, but it was full on….I’m definitely perfecting new skills, cooking on a charcoal stove being one of them, balancing on the back of a moto for three hours carrying 80 rice sacks and all the materials for a training session being another. The rainy season has kind of started again, On Tuesday we were caught in the mountains in a mad storm. At one stage of our journey we had to leave the moto at the side of the road and clamber the rest of the way up the mountain in the rain. That was one of the moments when I actually felt like I loved Juvin, my moto driver. He never complains, he’s just so positive. He was dying all the way up the mountain, at one point I was thinking it was really mean of me to make him climb up with me, I should have just cancelled the school visit. But when we got to the top he just said – ‘now I am very happy. It is very wonderful that I did some sport today!’

My best fav news: I have a new housemate, Rose moved in last week. (yay!!!!!!) For a short while I lived by myself with my chickens. Just a slight variation of the strange old spinster living alone with a load of cats… Apart from the fact that Rose is just really lovely, I’m very happy that she’s moved in J

So that’s my news, now you see why I don’t update my blog more, now that I’m settled here there isn’t a whole load of mad stuff to write about….

Another day at the office...

So last week we finally started the job we came here to do – methodology training! On Monday, we went back to Kiyumba to start our workshops. All the observations, meetings and planning we’ve been doing are a part of our job of course, but the training itself is the fun bit. I was really nervous starting off. We’ve seen these teachers teach, and they know what they’re doing. Given their circumstances, they’re doing a really good job. Most of them have been teaching longer than I have. Who are we to arrive in and tell them they need to change? In fact, one man who I’m going to be working  with every Friday, Gato, has been teaching longer than I’ve been alive. Then I rock up in his school saying ‘ok, I want you to change,play more games and sing more songs’! I’ve already mentioned all the difficult circumstances the teachers here have to deal with; ridiculous low pay, long hours, no resources, as well as the fact that they now have to teach in English, although Kinyarwanda is their first language and they all completed their education in French.  Really, are group work and rice sacks with pictures going to fix anything?

So anyway we arrived in Kiyumba with ricesacks, experiments and ideas for games and activities.  I had no idea how the teachers were going to react to this teaching…

We arrived on Monday with Julia, who kindly agreed to do the secondary science bit. (I’m a primary teacher– I don’t know about his science Kit!) Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, Tricia and I did Social Studies and Primary Science. And they teachers reacted really well! They were so enthusiastic, it was brilliant! From the start, they got into the warm ups, tried out all the activities, asked loads of questions, and the best thing was that they seemed happy. The highlight of the week for me was when we got a group of teachers show the class how they could use drama in social studies. It was so lovely. It was great to see that teachers want this training; they’re taking ideas on board and telling us that it’s helpful.  Next week we have Maths, English and nursery, I hope it goes as well! It takes ages to load pictures, so I just put a few up here of the day.

Then yesterday morning, walked up a mountain with Julia, Rose and Pascal. Oh and a bunch of children who decided to accompany us, of course. It was such a gorgeous walk. (Gaelan, it kind of reminded me of bits of the camino. Although without the wine and tapas) We went through little villages, past fields of bananas, sunflowers and cassava, and after a few hours of clambering we got to the top and had the most gorgeous view of our area. We also saw a group of people who had climbed up to pray. Pascal explained that they like to pray outdoors on top of a mountain because they feel they are closer to God up there. I love that idea! I’m in love with the scenery here. But of course, that’s because we can walk up the hills when we feel like it. A Rwandan man told Tricia and I on Friday that he hates the scenery. Of course we were like, oh no, how can you say that,  it’s so beautiful. He just said  ‘have you walked up the mountain with a jerry can full of water on your head?’. Point taken.  

So now it’s Sunday, I’m going for a jog with Julia and then I’m going to make resources for the training on Monday.( Oh I should clarify that there are two Julias here, English Julia who did our science day, and curly Julia who goes running.) hope you’re all having a nice bank holiday Sunday in Ireland! Aw, if I could just be whisked home for this one weekend… Miss you all xxx