Akagera National Park



Charles, our guide, showing us the map of the park

Yesterday I went to Rwanda's National Park, Akagera which is only an hour's drive from my house. We had an incredible day, searching for animals from inside a jeep and then in a boat. Here are some of our best finds:

Baboons

Impala

Baby Baboon by the roadside

Fighting buffalo

Buffalo





 

My daily commute

Kibungo tarmac road

Having now visited nearly all of my twelve schools, I thought I would tell you about my daily commute.

Every day, my journey begins on moto (motorbike taxi) along a flat tarmac road.

The road lasts approximately 5 minutes after which the moto begins a steep descent over a bumpy dirt track. The first few schools I visited involved travelling along this track, up and down the steep hills for approximately half an hour. I was pretty nervous of the roads to begin with and thought my journeys were difficult. Often I would not look ahead of Safari, my driver, for fear of what was coming next! However, I  soon realised that these trips were a piece of cake compared to what was coming up next....

Last week I visited Munege school. To get there, we had to drive down a ridiculously steep hill, cross the paddy fields at the bottom, and climb up the equally steep hill on the other side. I am not sure which part of the journey was the most scary but going on a motorbike over boggy fields and log wood bridges is pretty hairy stuff so perhaps the flat section wins!

Today's journey, to Muzingira school, took me on a ridge that was 10 foot wide. On one side, there was a sheer drop over the valley and on the other side, the hill shot steeply upwards. When you add the presence of mud ruts, thistles and all sorts of animals wandering about, perhaps you can imagine the 3 foot wide track we were forced to weave our way along in order to pass safely. It was a seriously bumpy ride (which made me crave for the return of the unpaved roads).

I still have not managed to complete a journey without hitting heads with my driver at least once! This said, the hairy journeys do have their upsides. The views are stunningly beautiful. At times, I can see over a valley on both sides of me, and today, we drove next to a lovely sunflower field. Other highlights include seeing a family of chicks with their mum by the roadside, free-range goats wandering along with their kids and a calf running alongside the track with us. Unfortunately I think he was a bit startled and unsure of how to react to our presence as opposed to choosing to run alongside us, which is what the dozens of kids do whenever they see us coming.

It is easy for me to judge whether Safari, my driver, is finding the terrain easy or not. When comfortable, he joins in with the royal wave at the passing children but when his work is tough, his hands stay firmly on the bike and I am left to wave on my own as the children merrily chorus "muzungu" (white person) as I ride by. I am also enjoying a bit of bird spotting on my journeys. Today I saw a small kestral and some sort of eagle. When I have time, I am going to look up the different species of birds of prey so I can work out which ones I see each day.

So I can honestly claim that my commute to work is never easy or uneventful but I am pleased to have Safari, a skilled driver, to lead me through the land of a thousand hills.

The productivity continues

At the weekend, my friend Moses, a VSO volunteer from Zimbabwe, helped me plant a vegetable patch in my garden. I was very grateful for his help as his hoe was a much better tool than the measly spade I had intended to use. Although perhaps it had more to do with his ability than the tools! After digging for half an hour or so, I was soon (self-) appointed chief drink maker and brick mover! We spent a pleasant afternoon digging, picking out bits of brick, levelling the ground and finally planting the vegetable seeds; tomato, pepper, carrot and aubergine. Progress reports to follow!

 Then we sat on my porch and watched the sun going down whilst eating pineapple (and for one of us, a celebratory glass of wine!).

When Patrick (my night guard) arrived for work, he was very impressed with the vegetable patch and he even asked to take over caring for the plants. As we are now leaving the rain season, he has been watering the crops every day which saves me a job!

Hole in the wall update:
At 6am on Sunday morning (!!), a worker turned up to make cement bricks which will be used to rebuild my wall. In five hours, this is what he produced:

I have no idea how long it will take for the bricks to dry before they can be used but until then, the hole remains! However, the tree has been removed and in its place I have a mound of smoking soil (which can be seen in the first sunset picture above if you look closely). The wood is being burnt underneath this mound to create charcoal. Very useful stuff although the constant smell of burning is beginning to grate on me!

Rwanda: A Hardworking Nation

This week I have witnessed many examples of the hardworking nature of Rwandese people. After spending the weekend visiting Coral, my VSO friend who lives in Nyanza (Southern Rwanda), I returned home on Sunday to find that every room in my house had been painted. The house has recently been sold and it seems the new owner is very keen to get everything in good condition for me. It was just a shame that the painters left my house with all my belongings shoved on the floor in the middle of every room and they didn't sweep up the mess they had made! So my Sunday night was spent cleaning and rearranging furniture but it was well worth it as my house is now looking bright and clean.

 

Another other example of hard work I saw this week was at a school yesterday.  In Rwanda, no cleaning or maintance staff are employed for schools. Instead the headteacher is supposed to manage the work that needs to be done. This means that pupils and teachers are responsible for keeping their school tidy (cutting the grass, washing the floors, cleaning the toilets etc). The school I went to yesterday had clearly been neglecting these duties. However, the new headteacher (who started last week) had already devised a schedule for getting things in order and yesterday involved a massive cleanup of the school grounds. Small children came armed with big tools from their homes and began landscape gardening. It was incredible to see how skilled they were! Others made makeshift brooms out of twigs and swept the paths. Within a few hours, a clear improvement could be seen. Here are some of the kids in action:

Today I went to the tailors in Kibungo, to collect my latest design, a new top. To everyone's hilarity, when I tried to get into the top we realised that it would not be possible without a zip -despite two women trying to yank it over my head! So I was given a seat and told to wait whilst the women started making adjustments to my top. Within half an hour, a zip had been added, the sides had been taken in and a belt had been sewn on too. This meant I was able to get into my top without needing help - phew! What do you think?

 

It is my hope that the industrious streak continues as I currently have a hole in my wall, after a tree was cut down yesterday. Here's hoping it is cleared away and the wall is rebuilt soon! A woman appeared today to give the worker instructions (see photo on the right) so I'm sure everything will be put to right!!

Market Day

This should have been posted yesterday but my internet was playing up. The OCD inside me is now most upset because the post will read Thursday when it should be Wednesday. Nevertheless.......

Every Wednesday and Saturday there is a market in Kibungo. The streets are extra busy on these days as all the market sellers walk along with their wares (usually on their heads, unsupported by their hands, or strapped to a push bike).

My personal challenge today was to ask for everything in the market using Kinyarwanda instead of pointing to the items or asking in French or English. Granted, I did have a crib sheet with me, but I still managed to complete my task successfully. Last night I made a poster (from a rice sack) to help me learn the words for things I need in the market. It is now on the wall in my living room:

And here is the product of a very long morning's work (pushing past people, agreeing quantities and prices, finding bags to put everything in and lugging it all home):

£3.60 well spent I think. At the time I was particularly pleased to get 5 corns for 20p. However, when I cooked one for dinner, I was not so sure! It tasted very hard and not very sweet. I asked my Guard if corn on the cob is meant for animals instead of people but he told me it was not. He then explained that it had to be cooked over charcoal and he decided to show me how it was done:

Unfortunately the taste was still tough but it was nice to sit with him and talk whilst we ate together.

Visiting schools

I have had a wonderful week in Kibungo, having spent a lot of time in the house, sorting through rice sacks and useful resources for my work here. I also managed to visit a few schools and the local orphanage.

There are 42 children in the orphanage, 18 aged between 0-3. They are all there because their mothers died during child birth. The youngest orphan is not yet a month old-he was tiny and very beautiful. When the children reach the age of 3, the orphanage tries to re-home them with family members or adoptive parents. If this is not possible, they stay in the orphanage. I have agreed to visit the older children every Saturday when I am in Kibungo to give them English lessons - we are going to learn lots of English songs and games. Any ideas welcome!

It was also great to watch some lessons in school. In most of the lessons I saw, the children were very well behaved although it was hard not to notice that some of the teachers carried a cane which they waved around to control the kids, giving them the occasional tap if they fell out of line. Some of the classrooms had electricity but none of them were using it - the rooms were just about bright enough with the windows (some glass and some open) and open doors. Here is a photo of one of the classes:

On Friday, I shadowed Ingrid and Amass, VSO volunteers in a nearby town called Rwamagana. Together we helped  teachers in a school to create a library room with all the text books and story books that had previously been inaccessible for teachers to use: