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

pictures from training workshop

this is the group of social studies teacers from our training on Wednesday

Things that made me smile today

I’ve realised my blog makes it sound like life over here is kind of difficult. It’s really not, sometimes I just have a nice day, but I don’t write about it. So these are the things that made me happy today. (I’m easily pleased)

1.       My chicken, Gladys. And two others called Inkoko koko and Jimmy, but Gladys is my favourite.

2.       The lovely email that was waiting for me when I got into work this morning.

3.       Two men eating canned fish and having a little dance before 8am. This morning Tricia and I called into the shop to get chapattis and eggs. The shop beside work is not unlike Yourells shop in Dunboyne used to be, except you can buy a snack and eat it at the counter, and dance.

4.       The stadium behind my house, why am I only realising now how great it is there? Rose and I have found somewhere to run without being harassed, and there are no hills!

5.       The little girl who lives on my road. She’s about four, and she’s so cute! She hugs me every time I see her. Then she asks me my name. Either she has a shit memory, or that’s the only English she knows.

Feeling a bit more settled

Slowly but surely, a strange thing has happened. I’m starting to feel like everything around me is normal. Now, I still never know what’s going on, everyday at least one thing happens that I can’t fathom (e.g. We’re driving along the side of a mountain, the moto driver suddenly stops, starts shouting, gets me off the bike, and speeds off, leaving me alone in the middle of nowhere. No problem, I didn’t need to know why he threw that Mickey fit, sure enough the other driver came back after a while to tell me that driver #1 had gone to get his brakes fixed and would be back to get me soon. You just never know what is going on here)  I still notice and love the differences, like how beautiful the countryside is, and the way the people are, and  the amazing journey through the mountains to get to school, etc, etc, but things that used to confuse me are becoming normal. Like today when a gang of little boys joined me on my run, that was fine, it seemed normal. Or while I was waiting (for ages) at the bank and saw a man sitting on top of another man and holding his hand when there were loads of free seats, that was normal. The nightmare journey to Ngororero? I did it again last week. It was grand. When people I don’t know follow me and want to know all about my personal life and ask for my number, I don’t get freaked out. I also don’t give them my number, but I can say no without being rude. I can even pee in a hole in the ground without complaining. much. I don’t think the goats are amusing anymore. I was uncomfortable when Beate and Felicien thought they had to clean my shoes, but not anymore. Now I just hide my shoes if they’re muddy.  It’s funny how quickly we adapt. It’s not just me, one volunteer (who shall remain nameless) told me that a while ago, she saw her own arm, and for a split second she thought ‘oh yeah, I’m white!’. I just stayed with priests for two nights, and spent my evenings making small talk with a man in a Hawaiian shirt with holy Mary on it, and that wasn’t odd at all. OK that was a lie, the priests were a bit funny. Oh and getting our hair cut in Kigali, when Rose and I ended up doing each others hair in the hairdressers chair, that was a mad experience. OK forget the adapting idea, I still think Rwanda is mad and I still love it for being different!

I mean, I’m only here a few weeks and I’m still a fish out of water. There’s some things I will never get used to. Like the conditions in schools. It’s difficult to write about this but I want to write about the schools we work in. Basically, we forget how lucky we are in Ireland. Schools here have NOTHING. Tricia and I have just completed two weeks of observations in schools in a remote sector. What we saw was a real eye opener. The schools usually have uneven earth floors, sometimes the children have only low benches to sit on with no tables to write on. They have no colours or pencils and a shortage of paper, so they don’t draw or do free writing. The walls are bare, there are no resources to put up but even if there were, the walls are these dusty bricks, you can’t get a nail into them and nothing sticks. Classes are huge. I went to a nursery where one teacher had 81 three year olds. And they were as good as gold, I don’t know how she got them to be like that. The children seemed so happy to be in school, they were all smiles. You should have heard them when they started singing, I have never seen or heard anything so cute!!!! The teachers get paid a pittance and work double shifts, which means they teach from 7am until 5. (sometimes factor in an hour or more each way, walking to school and home on top of this long day)There is no such thing as special needs, resource teachers  or even differentiation. One head teacher introduced us to a little girl with no legs. She drags herself around the school on her hands and knees. She’s been provided with an old battered wheelchair, but it has to stay in the classroom because it can’t cope with the mountain the school is on. There is no support or help for her at the moment. Another head teacher I met when I visited Pauline’s school told us that the children are all hungry in that school, they are lucky if they eat once a day. There is a milk for schools scheme, but the really needy schools don’t get it because they are too far away from the road. He told us that a lot of children don’t even get to go to school, because you aren’t supposed to go if you don’t have shoes and a lot of families can’t afford shoes for their children. Another school has very poor attendance because the children are out working. In 6^th class, there are very few boys, and only one of them passed his exams last year.

It’s all just so so sad. We’ve met teachers who are so hard working and inspiring and enthusiastic, I really admire them and I hope we can be helpful in some way when we start the training workshops in June.

I’ve realised how miserable this blog has turned! If anybody reading this thinks I need to tone it down, please tell me! And I’m so happy to be in Rwanda, the poor teachers have a tough time but I’m really looking forward to starting the training and doing something constructive. Apart from work, this week I’m going to Kigali for fun and food and the cinema and we’re doing a fun run on Sunday so the next blog entry will be nicer.  And to end on a very happy note – I don’t want to speak too soon but it’s been really sunny recently and I think the dry season has arrived!

The muzungus guide to matatus

On Monday, I took a Matatu from Gitarama to Ngororero by myself. I will never, ever, complain about the 70 ever again. I don’t think Matatus are always so dramatic, I think I was just unlucky that evening? Here’s instructions for how to get from my house to Paulines’

1.       Go to the bus park. Ask the drivers of the fuller busses if they’re going to Ngororero. When they say no, realise with a sinking heart that the empty Matatu is the one you have to get. Empty is bad because the bus won’t leave until it’s full.

2.       Get on the bus. Wait.

3.       Wait.

4.       Wait.

5.       Have a conversation with the man beside you about your age, job, where you live, marital status. Run out of words you know in Kinyarwanda. Sit pressed together not talking for a while. But this silence won’t last long. (see no.6)

6.       Ask the passenger beside you to stop playing with your bra strap. If you don’t know how to say this, just say ‘Oya!’ (no) then give him your most angry look.

7.       Wait.

8.       Wait.

9.       C’mon, it’s been an hour and a half.

10.   And you will be so squished you will think you are going to die from suffocation.

11.   Keep waiting for the bus to start driving.

12.   Develop claustrophobia.

13.   Now, no matter how uncomfortable you are, do NOT open door so you can breathe. Some big bags will fall out the door from under your seat if you do. And you will feel really stupid.

14.   Finally, after two hours, the bus will start! Yay!

15.   Now the trick is to hold on. At this point you will be so squashed that you physically cannot move any part of your body. That’s OK, bits of you will go numb after a while. The reason you are holding on is because there is a chance the door will slide open a bit while you’re whizzing around a corner. But if it does open, don’t worry, give a shout and the bus driver will stop and fix it. And everybody will laugh at how scared you are.

16.   The bus may fill with black smoke. Again, don’t worry, the bus driver will stop and sort it out.

17.   After a while the bus will stop to let more people on. You might think the bus physically cannot hold any more passengers, but you’re wrong. Even if there are no actual seats left, it is possible to crowd surf head first into the bus. The good thing about this is everybody will laugh at the crowd surfing man. And it will feel good that people are laughing at somebody who isn’t you. However if you get too caught up in the hilarity, people will start laughing at you again. You will know this is happening because they will be saying something about ‘muzungu’ while they laugh.

18.   If you realise that you have been on the bus more than 2 hours, that’s OK. Don’t panic and assume you’re on the wrong bus. Sometimes the journey takes a bit longer.

19.   There may come a point where you wish you never got on this bus.  Just remind yourself that this will be a good story to tell in the pub at some later stage. And anyway, everybody else on the bus is happy out. It can’t be that bad…

20.   You might want to have money handy. There’s a chance the bus driver may stop to buy meat from a stall at the side of the road. (Not always, so don’t rely on it)He will ask you if you want to buy some too.

21.   Eventually you will get to Ngororero!!! And you will be so happy! Don’t forget to thank the bus driver and wish him ‘mura muke’.Some of the people who had been laughing at you will shake your hand and say goodbye. See, they didn’t mean any harm!

*Oh, it’s important to add, the journey was worth it. Ngororero is gorgeous. And I had a lovely time with Pauline. And she gave me an omelette. With CHEESE. And she has proper chocolate. I’m doing the same journey again next Thursday, wish me luck!

Umuganda

So, at 8.15 this Saturday morning, I found myself with my kind of hoe-shovel thing and my workboots, covered in mud, working away shoulder to shoulder with my neighbours to dig a trench and widen a path close to my house. I think I’m actually quite good at manual labour, I don’t think anybody agrees with me though… So for anybody who isn’t living in Rwanda, I should explain about Umuganda. Every month on the last Saturday, everybody meets up to work on their local area. From what I can make out the work varies, they just do whatever needs to be done. It’s taken quite seriously, public transport doesn’t run on these mornings because you’re not supposed to leave your town, everybody is supposed to pitch in and when I was there a lady went around with a list of attendance. As foreigners, we can get away without doing it but I thought I should go at least once to see what happens.

I’m delighted with myself that I went. I attempted chatting to my new neighbours in very bad French and even worse Kinyarwanda. A lot of people laughed at me hoeing. Apparently I’m hilarious. I laughed a bit too, I also thought it was slightly surreal that I was there.  Children swung out of my plaits and rubbed my sunburnt arms. A few women took my hoe out of my hand to examine me for rough skin and blisters, shaking their heads. A man showed me the best way to hack into the grass and then use my hoe to kind of shovel the dirt off the path. Even though it was a kind of strange experience, and I probably wasn’t very useful, I felt like it was a good thing to take part in.

 When it was over we all sat on the ground while the leader of our umudugudu gave a speech. They LOVE speeches here. I sat on the ground for about two hours getting sunburned and listen to Kinyarwanda, the only word I understood was ‘muzungu’, said in a sentence with emphasis and dramatic gestures in my direction. He sounded really angry, I imagined he was saying something along the lines of ‘the muzungu is crap at digging’ but I was told afterwards that he was saying he was happy that I was there, I’m an example!

So in other news this week, I had my first day in my work, we went to the office and then had an unplanned drive up to one of the sectors we’ll be working in. This entailed a few hours drive through beautiful mountains, a near death experience where I really thought we were going to go backwards over the side of a mountain, and a marathon singalong with Tricia, Ann, and a lot of children.  I also shadowed Julia at work and got to see a few schools in her district. We don’t realise how lucky we are in our schools in Ireland. I sat in on a Chemistry lesson with 89 students. 89! I got to read the Gruffalo, my favourite story, to a class outdoors under a tree. That school was in a remote area and I don’t think they see many white people, I’d been warned about the swarming but it’s really weird when you have loads of little hands coming at you to feel your arms and your hair.  But anyway after my introduction to the schools I can’t wait to start working in my own district!

Two other brilliant things happened this week. I got hot water in my house!!!!!!!! There are no words for how much this pleases me! And also I had my fist trip to the local gym. It’s very different to the one at home. Also I made the mistake of turning up early, by myself, so I was ‘helped’ around all the different equipment before the class started.  But still, jumping around to music looking silly is the same in any language, and it was so much fun! Sarah – over here ‘super’ is just ‘Hey!’ 

Oh and I had a little trip to Kigali. I got the bus in and stayed in the VSO dorm with Julia, Rose, Pauline and Christine. It felt like a little holiday! We went to the cinema in Nyamarambo, and then today the sun was shining, we ate lovely food and then, for something to do, we went to a very strange karaoke mass. Despite the singing and clapping, I can cross Anglican off the list of religions I might convert to. There was an awkward moment when they made us stand up and introduce ourselves, then they sang at us and blessed us. And the best song was the one where all the little kids got up on the stage and sang ‘Satan is a loser man’!

 And then the last little weird thing was the man who sat down the back of the bus with us, with his arm around Pauline for the whole journey. No reason, he didn’t talk to us or anything, he just was comfortable like that.

So, it’s late and I have to get up at a ridiculous hour tomorrow. I should get my beauty sleep. Night night!

Blogging from Julia's office

So, finally, 2 weeks in, I get around to properly writing my blog. There’s been so much new stuff to take it it’s really hard to know where to start….I suppose the important things are – The people here are all great, there’s a big volunteer community in Gitarama and everybody is so lovely. I haven’t gone in to my work yet ‘cause I’m following Julia around for a while, but when I see what my office and schools are like I’ll write all about them. My house is amazing, it’s really big and I love it. I share with Geri, she’s a volunteer working with YWCA. She’s been here three months so she has a fair idea of how things work, and she’s lovely to live with. I’ve also found a Kinyarwanda teacher, Denise. And I’ve arranged to go to a class in the gym with Julia and Rose, and I’m going running with Julia. So straight away I’ve nice stuff to do! Although running partners aren’t a problem to find here in Gitarama… Yesterday I went for a run, I must have looked hilarious, I had a parade of maybe 10 kids running with me nearly all the time. The kids here are soooo cute! (but they’ll never replace my running buddy Caoimhe J )

I’m in Julia’s office right now, she’s very kindly offered to let me shadow her for my first week. So I’m going to tell you about a typical morning in work in Rwanda:

First, I got up BEFORE the crack of dawn. My alarm went off at 5.30!! Grabbed some breakfast (bananas – I still haven’t mastered the art of using numbers, yesterday I wanted three but asked for 500. But that’s another story.) Then walked down the dirt road outside my house to meet Julia. The journey to work was a 30 minute bus, then a few minutes on a moto to get to the district office in Kamonyi where Julia works. I LOVE motorbike taxis! The countryside here is beautiful, because of all the hills there’s gorgeous views of valleys and hills wherever you go. So we sped past banana trees, children shouting ‘muzungu’, ladies carrying impressive loads on their heads… then we got to the office, but first I had a very important chicken related call to take. (I’m hoping to get three chickens, one of which will be names Gladys, but more about that some other time).

So before you start work here you go around and say hello to everybody and shake their hand or else hug them. I got a few hugs this morning, I like it but I’m just worried that I’m going to mistake the cue and move in for a hug when it’s inappropriate! I just got hugged by the vice mayor, but I’m assuming not all mayors are open to hugs? And actually it’s more a shoulder tap, but I end up kind of being a bit awkward and going too far.  I like the way Rwandans seem to greet everybody, even if it’s just somebody you walk past on the way to the shop they nearly always give you a hello or how are you.  Actually I could write an entire blog entry about greetings, and the various propositions that I get every day. Anyway in Julias office everybody is lovely and friendly, so she introduced me to all her co-workers. Then everybody eats breakfast in the cantine and has a chat before they start working.So now Julia is having a meeting with her boss, the district education officer.  I’m looking forward to seeing the Gitarama office tomorrow, I think I’ll be there once a week or so.

Anyway, sorry this is such a rambling blog. I just wanted to let you all know what I’m doing and that all is well. I miss everybody at home so much!

Mwaramutse! My first blog, which I wrote a week ago but am only putting up now

So, after being glued to Ruairi and Alfred's blog, then Pauline's, then Trisha's, I'm finally writing my VERY OWN Rwanda blog!
I'm in Kigali now, we just finished our first, very intense, week of in country training. It's Sunday morning now, I'm sitting around in my tracksuit. It lashed rain this morning but it's stopped so I'm going to go for a run soon.
I've spent the morning pottering about, painting my nails, cleaning my room, and later I'm going to the market to shop. So basically my life here is pretty much the same as it is in Ireland!!! (Except for in Ireland I don't clean my room)
Nah, of course there's loads of differences. Yesterday I saw a man walking along with six live chickens in each hand.Of course Kigali is different to Dublin.
It's much cleaner.(plastic bags are illegal, nobody eats or drinks in public, I haven't seen anybody smoking or being drunk and disorderly. Once a month everybody mets up to do a big clean up in their area) The people are more polite. They dress more conservatively. They laugh a lot. Often at us. They're lovely. I misunderstood yesterday and went to pay the moto driver 3,000 RWF-
The equivalent of around a fiver. He took 300 francs(50 cents) off me and just looked at me as if to say - you poor eejit.
The bananas are nicer, the insects are bigger. The horrific history is sadder.The language is harder.The sun is hotter and the rain is fatter.
There are no dogs as far as I can make out - Triona and Caoimhe you would LOVE it here :) The children are too cute!! The dancing is beautiful, I'm sorry to say it's a lot nicer than Irish dancing.
So I don't really know where to start describing my first week in Rwanda.There's a lot to tell! My head is tired from taking in so much new stuff.
We've been learning about Rwandan culture so we don't offend anyone,then practicalities like how to light a kerosene stove and how to make sure our water is clean, we've had INTENSE Kinyarwanda lessons. It's tough to learn but really worthwhile, as we saw when Melanie took us around the city.
Yesterday we went to the genocide museum. It's really well done, and a lovely memorial to the people who were killed and their families, but of course it's really really sad. The saddest bit was the childrens room. Actually no, what's saddest is how immediate it is. Everybody in the country has been affected by it in one way or another, and yet we've been warned not to ask questions or expect anybody to talk about it.
When we were in outside we heard somebody crying hysterically, I can only assume she lost people.There are no words for how sad it all is.
After mentioning that it seems flipppant to mention anything else, I think I'll leave my first blog entry at that.Thanks everyone who's been in touch. I miss you all loads!!!!