Mother Hen

Three times a year, new volunteers come to Rwanda, and two weeks ago we had our latest arrivals. This time round, I was asked to take the role of live-in volunteer, someone who helps out with logistics, co-facilitates training and is available to answer questions around the clock.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week as the 'house-mum'. I had 14 babies from the UK, Kenya, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and the Philippines - 8 female and 6 male which was quite a balanced ratio compared to previous intakes (disproving my theory that few men have it in them to volunteer!).

For the training week, we stayed at Centre Christus Guesthouse in Kigali. Whilst we were there, the local monkeys came to join in our training! Other volunteers have been claiming their existence in Kigali for months and this is the first time I have seen them. Everything was fine until one of them chased me because I was holding food in my hand....Wasn't a good role model at that moment as I ran off screaming!!


During the week, I showed the volunteers around Kigali. We navigated the bus system (which is not my forte) and they braved the motos for the first time. We had a successful shopping trip at the Chinese supermarket T2000 where they bought all the essentials such as water bins, jerry cans, pots and pans and bedding. It was fun for me to think back to how apprehensive I was when I was in their position 9 months ago, and to realise how much I have learnt about living in Rwanda since then. On our whistle-stop tour we went to Kimironko market, visited a few local bars, attended the Kimisigara English club and had plenty of chances to practise speaking Kinyarwanda along the way. Here are the newbies dancing in Kinyarwanda:

 

Welcome Dinner:

 

Dancing along to Just Dance (shown on a projector!) in Kosmic bar:

 

 

At the weekend, all my babies flew the Kigali-nest and I was left feeling tired and sad - I'm sure this wasn't helped by the knowledge that I was returning to the Eastern Province where I had been reliably informed we had had no water for 3 days and were suffering from multiple-hour power cuts!

 I am happy to report that some of the newbies will be staying in Kigali and have offered me their spare room any time I am in town at the weekends (bonus!). I am also looking forward to having some of the others come to shadow me at work in the next few weeks, for some on-the-job training. I have already had to say goodbye to many volunteer-friends in Rwanda as their placements have come to an end..... all the more reason to cherish the opportunity to get to know the latest recruits to VSO Rwanda.

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating Mary and Bebhinn's birthday at Jambo beach (in the East with the power cuts!). We enjoyed the beautiful sunset, chilling out by the campfire and finding a packet of matches and a candle on the doorstep of our guesthouse when we got home.

Christmas in Ghana

Instead of giving in to the temptation of going home for Christmas, I decided to explore Africa a bit more and headed West to Ghana.

The flight itself showed me just how big Africa is - Rwanda to Ghana is a 5 hour flight. When I landed, I felt as if I was on a totally different continent. Even though it was the evening, the air was hot and sticky - not like the cool evenings I am used to in Rwanda.

It was great to see the sea again, having been in a land-locked country for so long. I thoroughly enjoyed spending Christmas day on the beach, eating lobster and drinking pina colados and fresh coconut milk. My homesick-pang and desire for turkey quickly evaporated when the lobster turned up in front of me.

 

Another highlight of the trip included swimming under the beautiful waterfalls in Wli (Volta Region). After a 2 hour hike to reach the upper falls, a dip in the breathtakingly cold water was much needed. It was just a shame we couldn't swim again after hiking back down!

 

I also enjoyed visiting the castle at Cape Coast and found it very interesting to learn about the slave-trade. We visited the dungeons and went through the 'door of no return', which would have lead the slaves to their ships in the past.

Many hours in Accra were spent walking around Shoprite and Koala, two big supermarkets which have lots of western delights that Rwanda is lacking. I did my usual trick (similar to Sainsburys when I was at home last year) and walked up and down every aisle staring aimlessly at all the delights, not knowing where to start! Then I pulled myself together, treated myself to a diet coke and got to work. Having a few kg of luggage to spare, I happily stocked up on muesli, dried fruits, coconut milk, shampoo, cheddar cheese and pasta sauces - lots of little luxuries which I have already been enjoying in Kibungo.

So the trip was a huge success; I managed to relax, enjoy Christmas and explore another African country with some excellent company. However, the humidity, traffic and bad smells mean that I am happy to continue calling Rwanda my home. I somehow think I landed on my feet when I was posted to this little African country    :-)