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….