Weekend excursions: Gisenyi and Kigali

Dry season seems to be arriving slowly but surely. It still rains at least once every day here in Musanze but it seems like less heavily (it rarely sounds like the roof is going to fall in anymore!) and less frequently…although it is raining cats and dogs as I write this, so this may just be wishful thinking…my nose is distinctively redder than the rest of my face though, which means there has been a significant amount of sun as well! Thought I should give an update on the recent weekend trips I have taken with the Canadians.

Lake Kivu

Last Saturday we decided to visit the nearby town of Gisenyi and the beautiful Lake Kivu on the D.R.C. border. We got lucky and it was a beautiful day! We all go a bit burnt actually as we didn’t expect it to be so hot and sunny…it was absolutely sweltering compared to Musanze! We took our friend Mick, a nice teenager from Musanze, who introduced himself to me a few weeks ago while I was walking in Elie’s neighborhood (he lives nearby with his family and 11 siblings!). He has finished high school and speaks very good English and is currently taking art lessons and trying to make money to pay for university in Uganda (which is a apparently cheaper than Rwanda). He spends a lot of time with me in the hotel, while I work/use the internet just talking, telling me his hopes and aspirations for the future. He has really made me think about how lucky I am and how much I have always taken for granted, when I see his awe and amazement when looking at my photos from New York, London, skiing holidays and college. Despite his circumstances (which are better than most people’s here), he remains positive and hopeful for the future, telling me that God well help him go to university, get a good job and travel to America (his dream)! I hope he is right. Anyway he has become good friends will all of us (me and the Canadians) and wanted to show us around Gisenyi, so we invited him along.

Animal sculptures at our hotel!

I am very glad he came he came along actually, as he knew the town like the back of his hand and we would have been completely screwed without him. For example at the bus station, we were swarmed with hawkers, trying to sell us “cheap” taxi rides, food and drink, and he just walked calmly into the ticket office, bought our tickets and showed us which bus to take, telling the people to go away! When we arrived (after a very bumpy, travel-sickness/headache-inducing bus ride), he lead us to the hotel we had decided to stay in beforehand, “The Diane Fossey” which was nice enough, with big clean rooms and running (cold) water and relatively cheap. The funniest part was the interesting choice of decoration…as it was surrounded by life-size wild animal sculptures (which the guide book described as “Disney-on-acid animal sculptures”!). After checking in, we headed into town, which was very different to Musanze…smaller, much less built up, unpaved dusty roads, still lots of shops and people but much more spread out. We walked for about 50 minutes in the sweltering heat to see the “big border” and then another 50 minutes to see the “small border” (which was much bigger!). Again we were lucky to have Mick with us to show us where they were and explain that we were not allowed to take pictures, or the armed guards would be very angry and come and delete them! Neither of the borders were particularly remarkable, it could have been any busy junction/crossing with lots of trucks and cars and there was not even a visible D.R. Congo sign…just lots of hand-to-hand-trading (of foreign currency and all manner of goods between the locals). Mick explained that goods are much cheaper in the Congo and people bring them over to sell in Rwanda for a profit.

The D.R.C. border

In the afternoon we went to see the lake, which was absolutely beautiful, a vast and calm expanse of water, gently lapping against a sandy beach surrounded by the rolling green hills in the distance and a pretty well-groomed park separating the beach area from the main road. It was so big it could have been the sea! Of course there were no other white people around and we caused a bit of a scene (as usual) as we waded around in the shallow water and took hundreds of pictures! I decided to walk back to the hotel, since I was exhausted and wanted to take a shower and rest before the evening. Unfortunately, although I was confident that I knew where it was, my sense of direction failed me, I got lost and ended up making an hour’s detour into town…I had asked for directions from some hotel guards and they nodded confidently that I was going in the right direction but I guess they hadn’t understood! I did get back to the hotel eventually after asking some moto-drivers and declining many offers of rides. We were all exhausted but decided to head out in the evening to a nearby restaurant, where we had a nice Western-style pizza and then crashed at the hotel.

Mick and the Canadians in Gisenyi

Our trip to Kigali this weekend was out first “unguided” excursion but I think we handled ourselves relatively well! We knew where to go for bus tickets this time…the scenery during the journey was very different though as we were going in the other direction and essentially winding down through the mountains for the whole 2-hour journey, which was absolutely stunning (but not so great for Selina and Patricia who got a quite travel sick). I was surprised at how large the city of Kigali is. As you drive in, you can see it extends for miles and miles. We were staying in a house, owned by a Canadian organization that Selina knows an someone from. It was a huge, beautiful house overlooking the city in the clearly more wealthy area of town near the Prime Minister’s office, all the government buildings and NGO headquarters. It was almost like being in another world (or somewhere in California…rather than Rwanda!), with all the neatly trimmed hedges, clean, paved and painted roads, huge houses with flowery, groomed gardens and big security gates. I felt a little guilty…but I can’t deny how good a real hot shower felt!

After dumping our stuff, we set off on foot to visit the genocide memorial, with a map that a local woman staying at the house had drawn from us. Obviously we ended up going in the completely wrong direction. Lunch was an interesting experience…we stopped off at a restaurant on the side of the road, asking if they were open for lunch, the waitress nodded and ushered us in to a large room with a bar and plastic chairs and tables. There were only a few locals sitting inside drinking. We sat for a while, wondering if she was going to bring us menus. Eventually we saw from the terrace a truck pull up in the car park below, then our waitress walked down and began loading up our plates with food from large containers on the back of the truck! After she was finished, the truck drove away and she brought up four large plates filled with rice, beans, a few pieces of meat and some fried plantain chips. We were too surprised and amused to complain or say anything. The food was good anyway (pretty standard Rwandan fare) and good value (2000Rfr/$3). I am still not sure if this is normal…but it was definitely a new experience for us!

View of Kigali from the genocide memorial

Giving up on our map (the women who had drawn it had herself admitted that Africans don’t use maps and that she was afraid of them!), we jumped on four moto-taxis that took us safely to the memorial. The Genocide memorial was beautiful, very respectfully and tastefully arranged, with free entry in order to emphasize access to all and the importance of remembering. The site consisted of a museum, which takes you through a detailed and informative tour of all the stages of the genocide, from the history and lead-up to the aftermath and consequences. The most moving was the children’s memorial section which displayed along with a large photo, the name of each child, their favorite food, temperament and how they died, e.g. : “hacked to death by machete” or “shot in mother’s arms”. There were also exhumed skulls, bones as well as clothing taken from the massacre sites hanging in a dark room which was extremely eerie. The memorial gardens surrounding the mass graves outside were beautiful. We spent several hours walking around and speaking to guides there who were more than happy to talk about their lives and experiences (most of them were orphans/survivors!)

In the afternoon we headed to downtown Kigali, where Selina showed us the Union Trade Center, a new Western-style “shopping mall” that she had visited before with a starbucks-type coffee shop full of white people using the wireless and a huge supermarket with Western goods. Most of the imported stuff was ridiculously overpriced (special K was something like $10!) and the whole place was pretty garish, but I did get my dark chocolate fix and some non-dairy creamer J We left pretty quickly and went to a cooperative market full of local handicrafts, wood-carvings, bags and jewelry (and quite a few imported from Kenya). I decided to get all my gifts/souvenirs out of the way so spent all my money in there, bargaining with the lovely (but very persuasive) venders.

enjoying some Western food!

Arms full of bags of baskets and wood-carvings we decided to get a real (car) taxi back to the house and had a nice long shower, tea and snack break. Eventually around 9pm we set out to find a restaurant recommended in the guide book, but after almost an hour of walking figured it did not exist, so ended up going to a nice Western-style bar/restaurant Selina had been to before, with burgers, pizza etc. It was full of white people and wealthy-looking Africans drinking and listening to loud hip-hop and R&B. Strangely enough, there was also a bakery attached to bar, which seemed to be open all night serving locals who would stop off to buy a baguette or cake! We waited about an hour for our food and didn’t eat till after midnight…but we are pretty used to waiting by now so weren’t too surprised and the food was delicious! (maybe just because we are so used to rice, potatoes and beans by now) I had a fish brochette, Patricia-chicken, Selina-pizza and Matt- a good American-style burger J. Afterwards we went back to the house and chatted over tea and dark chocolate until 3am, which is the latest I think I’ve stayed up since I have been here! It was a really nice weekend and I definitely hope to go back to Kigali, since we only covered a small part of the huge, diverse city and I would definitely like to see more of it (plus I might need to re-stock on the dark chocolate!)

 Though it’s nice to take the occasional break from Musanze, having lived here for over a month now, coming back feels from these trips actually almost feels like coming home!

Dancing with Widows and a major wake-up call…

face-painting at the deaf school!

Where to start…this gets more and more difficult each week! So lots of Mzungu visitors arriving to visit us. I’m starting to feel a bit like a welcoming committee (with one person!), but I don’t mind it’s been great meeting so many new people, especially since Elie’s boys have gone back to boarding school in Rwanda, and Elie and Bernadette are so busy. Last week we had a group from one of FCYF’s main supporters in the UK, Jubilee Action and Think Money. Zoe, the representative from Jubilee Action who was leading the group was great and made sure everyone had a good time. They only stayed for a week, but had a pretty packed schedule. This included visiting all the individual projects, organizing games and activities with the deaf children, meeting with the mentors of the child-headed households program and seeing some of the children’s homes, watching an amazing performance of song and dancing by the CHH and deaf children, dancing with/receiving gifts from the widows of the huge cooperative (884 women!) and attending an intense football/volleyball match between the deaf school and Wisdom! Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed tagging along and joining in with all the activities and entertainment J

Think Money team with the CHH mentors

One of the most fun experiences was dancing with the widows. Other than Elie mentioning it in passing, I had no idea about this huge cooperative of women supported by FCYF. They do not have much funding or resources, but with the help of FCYF, the women who all live in the Kimonyi sector of Musanze have organized themselves into 30 cooperatives that make the most of what they have through activities like farming, handicrafts and livestock. When describing them, Elie was really adamant about the importance of helping these women, as he has seen how much they have been able to do with the little they have and they are supporting thousands of children. Also, it has actually been shown that women will invest everything they have back into the community and their families (as opposed to men, who are more likely to use money and resources for themselves!)

The Kimonyi Widows welcoming dance!

When we finally arrived to meet them, after a very bumpy ride through a mountainous village (off the main road), the welcome of the community was immense! Hundreds of women (as well as some men and all the children of the village!) had gathered to greet us in a large ‘village square’. As we climbed out of the van the traditional Rwandan singing and dancing began. The women dressed in matching, bright and beautiful African fabrics swayed about in an amazing rhythm to the singing and the beat of the drum. We all watched in awe as amazement as we were ushered to a bench at the front of the crowd. At the end of the welcoming performance, the president of the cooperative stood up and gave a speech to welcome and thank the team for their support (which Elie translated.) Then the singing and dancing started again, and before we knew it we were all pulled up by the women and given bright cloths to wear. I felt ridiculous trying move my hips and arms like them, but it was a lot of fun! After the dancing we were all given gifts from the women, a large bag (each!) containing fruits and vegetables that they had grown. We felt a bit bad, knowing that we wouldn’t really be able to make good use of with 20 tomatoes, hundreds of bananas or bitter African plums…but of course it was important to accept their gift! We all left on a high as they continued to dance and sing for us. I really hope they are able to get more support and continue their work as their sense of hope and optimism, despite their difficulties, was so inspiring.

learning to weave baskets with the CHH

Another more saddening/eye-opening experience I had last week with the team was going to visit some of the orphans, supported by the organization’s Child-Headed Household (CHH) program. This is basically a psychosocial support and vocational training program, for children who as a result of the genocide or HIV/other diseases have lost their parents and are struggling to support several younger siblings/older dependents) within their households. The program enables the children to choose adult “mentors” within the community (from pre-selected trusted and respected members of the community) to give them advise, visit them and essentially provide the love and care of a parent. The program has been running for several years now and from what I have seen the children are really happy, enthusiastic about their work (they all now proficient in handicrafts, wood-carving or knitting) and have really formed a community amongst themselves. This is a very different picture from what Elie and Jacqueline the social worker, described from when the children (the most vulnerable in the community), were first selected. Jacqueline said that many of the children (understandably) were so traumatized they would not even speak about their experiences. They saw no hope for the future. What the program has done for them is great, but seeing their homes was a wake-up call and reminder that they still need a lot more support and their a situations are still far from ideal. The most shocking was the first home we visited, which was literally just two large sheets of corrugated iron attached together as a shelter from the rain. Inside they had little more than a thin dirty double mattress (shared by the boy and his younger brother), and a pan and a bowl tied to the ceiling! The boys seemed quite happy to show the large group (gathered around with umbrellas and cameras) their home. I didn’t really know what to think. In my mind, it was unimaginable that anyone should have to live like this, but there it was right in front of me.  I told myself that at least they were receiving some help from the community, their mentors and learning vocational skills so that they can maybe make some money in the future to improve their situation…but how many other orphans are living like this, or in even worse conditions and receiving no help?

A CHH orphan's home

I think it is impossible to come away from seeing something like this and not want to do something to help. The visitors I was with were visibly affected by their experience…and so was I, though in my current position I feel quite powerless to help these children directly. I can only hope that the more people that come to visit and see with their own eyes the conditions that so many orphans face, the more people will be inspired to help and things will actually begin to change…

Washing clothes and daily experiences!

I have been here for three weeks now and I am slowly getting used to rhythm of things…although every day continues to bring new experiences! Today I decided to get a moto-taxi to Sabyinyo Lodge (a luxury hotel for gorilla-trekking near the volcanoes park), whose managers have been supporting the deaf center for a while now and even took on a couple of students for a cooking apprenticeship in their kitchen last year. I didn’t realize until we were driving that it was actually quite far away (about 40 minutes’ drive from Musanze and past the next town called Kinigi), I thought I was just getting over-charged as usual…but it was definitely worth it! The lodge was beautiful, overlooking a vast green and misty volcanic landscape. The permanent managers, who I had gone to see, were away but the temporary manager was very welcoming and gave me a tour of the premises and the cabins (all with a huge bathrooms and individual terraces overlooking the view!). I joked about having a quick hot shower :) and the manager said I could have a bath if I wanted to! May have to take him up on that later…

We then talked (over tea and biscuits in the lounge!) about my ideas for offering visits to the deaf school for guests keen to see local community initiatives and a website called Pack for a Purpose, which encourages tourists to bring extra things in their luggage (like toys, medicines and school supplies) to be distributed at a school affiliated with their hotel. He was very keen on the idea but said he would have to discuss it with the other managers since the hotel is already supporting other local community projects and would not want any tension to develop. It was quite a surreal experience being treated like royalty in such a luxurious setting in such a poor country. I actually felt quite guilty...But I suppose if tourism is such an important source of income in Rwanda and these hotels are directly contributing to the community, it is a good thing...

Me and Selina at the mouth of the cave

Last week, I had a much more rustic experience…Elie’s boys took us (me and the Canadians) to see the caves of Musanze. I didn’t really have any idea what this meant or where were headed (if I had I may not have had the guts to go!) After a “short” (about  half hour) walk up the hill from town we came to a field, which to me looked like all the others except there were lots of little kids running around and a lot more vegetation. So then we started climbing down into the shrubbery and I noticed there was a huge dark opening underneath. We were with a bunch of young teenage boys, who I assume were Elie’s boys’ friends. As we climbed deeper into the cave, I realized why they had all come along and was very grateful as they all had huge torches and clearly had done this a few times before! It’s funny that we had on our hiking gear, raincoats and walking boots etc. and the boys were all in t-shirts and flipflops! The cave was extremely dark, damp and quite hard to navigate (I think it would have been impossible without experienced guides!) The boys were all shouting to each other in Kinyarwandan as we climbed up, down, around and over slippery damp mud, rocks (and bones!), so we didn’t really know what was going on. We had been told the cave was about 2km long, so that’s all we really had to go by…but it felt a lot longer with all the climbing! I slipped several times, but fortunately was caught by one of the boys guiding us! About half way through the boys got excited all a sudden and started shining their torches upwards to show us the bat colony living there! Great! The bats clearly didn’t like the light and I wanted to move on as quickly as possible…Finally we started to see daylight again as we reached the other end, where there was also a bunch of local kids hanging out. The caves seem to be the place to be! They greeted each other and we came out onto a secondary school campus on the other side of town! It was a great experience, thatI really don’t think I would have had the chance to have if we weren’t staying with locals… I also don’t think I would have been brave enough if I had had a clue what was going on!

Selina, Patricia and Matthew enjoy some birthday
cake at Elie's house

I just realized I mentioned the Canadians, who I haven’t even introduced. Selina, Matt and Patricia arrived last week on a volunteer program called Intercordia Canada, which linked up with FCYF and started sending university students to help teach at Wisdom School last year. They are really lovely and seem to be settling in well at their home stays. When they arrived they stayed a few nights at Elie’s home, so I had a chance to get to know them and then they all moved into various homes of Elie’s friends and relatives, who are on the FCYF board. They have spent this week settling into their new homes (all with young children and in some cases very little English!) as well as getting used a rather hectic teaching schedule at Wisdom. They will be teaching computers (as the school currently doesn’t have a computer teacher) as well as hosting sports and games during free time. So far they seem to be really enjoying it, and Matt seems to have become good friends with his host ‘brother’, who takes him to play basketball and watch football matches at the local stadium. The teachers have really made them feel welcome as well, and one has even offered to take us all to see his home town in Uganda!

Shortly after they came we took a trip into town (first one unescorted! to pick up some juice, water, sim cards and exchange some money etc. It was the first time I took the time to look around and take it all in. The first thing I noticed actually was how clean it is! Despite the crowds, buses and swarms of moto-taxis, there is hardly any litter. Once you get used to the setting, it is actually quite organized. There is one main road, which is lined with “supermarkets” (tiny shops with a very small selection of everything), restaurants, bakeries, bars, cafes etc. that all look quite similar and to the side of the road there is a huge enclosed market, which seems to sell absolutely everything (except tourist products). It was clearly for the locals…Although it seemed to have everything in there, from books, toys, baskets, cooking equipment and electrical hardware to formal suits, shiny hand-made shoes and underwear…I would not even know where to begin if I was looking for something specific! We didn’t feel very welcome in there either as I think it was pretty clear we weren’t going to buy anything and I don’t think they liked us just coming in to take pictures! When we got to the other side of town, we climbed up a hill into a small village, which overlooked the whole town. There seemed to be no one around, but soon children started appearing out of nowhere shouting “Mzungu!” and “Good Morning!” (Even though it was the afternoon- this seems to be the most popular phrase for children to address white people!). We greeted them and they put out their hands asking for pencils! Selina promised she would come back with some later (since she actually brought a lot!).

Musanze town

On a side note…washing clothes here is easier said than done! First I asked if there was some washing powder and was told by Bernadette to leave my clothes on the chair. I said I didn’t mind doing it myself, but she insisted I couldn’t manage without a washing machine! I decided it was impolite to argue so I left my clothes out Monday morning…they have been gone ever since! I have seen them hanging on the line outside every now and then but since it rains every day, they are still not dry! I thought about asking if I could hang them up inside but decided I could wait. I guess, just like everything else here seems to…washing clothes takes a little bit longer! I don’t mind wearing the same thing every day, but I think next time I will just wash one thing at a time (and only when it gets really dirty!)

Murakoze, muririwe!

Marika xxx

Enthusiastic children, inspiring stories and learning Rwandan sign language!

“Muraho” = Hello

“Mwaramutse” = Good Morning

“Murakoze” = Thank you

“Amakuru?” = How are you?

“M’Neza” = I’m fine

“Mzungu”= White person

“Oya Amata” = No milk!

Kinyarwandan vocabulary is slowly growing! I am still completely in the dark if I am listening to a conversation though! It’s been just over a week now and I really shouldn’t wait that long because there is always so much to tell! But I have been quite busy, after all I am working out here as well :) I have mainly been spending my time getting to know the FCYF schools, sitting in on classes at Wisdom and spending time with the children at the Deaf Children’s Centre, as well as speaking to the extremely friendly and welcoming staff and teachers of the organization, whom I am interviewing in order to try and make teacher profiles for the website.

A really interesting class I sat in on last week was a P3 SST, which is like Social Studies…which I am sure we did not learn in primary school in the UK! The class was reviewing what they had learned in the previous lesson about their "Our Responsibilities" : “Things we should do to be good in our sector”! Some the answers included: “Respect one another”, “attend sector meetings”, “working hard at school” and “taking care of the environment”. The fact that the children were learning these things and that this is part of their curriculum was a welcome surprise to me…I guess it just shows how important a part of life one’s community is here. This is something English children might benefit from… though I don’t even know if we really have the same concept of community and interconnectedness as they do here. The children seemed really enthusiastic to answer whenever the teacher raised a question, almost leaping out of their seats, waving their hands and shouting “teacher please, teacher please”. It is like that in all the classes I have visited. I have never seen children so excited to learn!

Teacher Geofrey's P3 Mathematics class

Despite my increasing vocabulary I cannot seem to avoid being overcharged by the moto-taxis here! This is the most convenient mode of transport to get from A to B and there are hundreds in Musanze. It’s literally just an old motorbike, you jump on the back, and the driver gives you a helmet and takes you where you want to go. However they also assume because I am a “mzungu”, I won’t mind paying a couple hundred francs extra…and it is very hard to argue with them with the language barrier! I took one yesterday to the deaf centre and the driver was speeding the whole way. I realized why when he stopped about halfway up the hill, and apologetically told me “he had a problem”, which I think was that he had run out of fuel! I paid him, deciding it wouldn’t be too far to walk and to top it off he claimed he had no change! Turns out the remaining walk was quite a bit further than I expected and I ended up walking about half an hour uphill! At least I provided some entertainment for locals who stopped what they were doing to watch as I walked past and little children who ran after me, shouting and asking my name, clearly proud to show off their English skills :) I have gotten the bus a few times also (when it comes, or isn’t full!), which is another interesting experience. They are little minibuses that zoom up and down the hill and squish as many people in as possible. (But at least they don’t overcharge!)

When I finally did reach the deaf centre after my uphill trek in the rain, I was warmly greeted by Louis, the wonderful director there and some of the older children who remembered me from before. I proudly signed hello, and how are you, which they had taught me before. The children are very good teachers, and would not let me leave until I could sign the whole alphabet by heart! I managed it eventually but it took quite a bit of patience (on behalf of the children!) as well as some help from Teacher Noella, who is also deaf but can lip read in Kinyarwandan and English! I see how important the centre really is to these children. As they arrive back from their break, the joy and elation of their faces when they are reunited with their friends and teachers says it all. As Louis says, this really is a family and a home for them.

With some of the students at the Deaf Centre

I also had the chance to have a long conversation with Louis. He was very happy to tell me about his life, his past jobs working with street children, acting as an interpreter for deaf students in normal schools and how he eventually came to found the Deaf Children’s centre with Elie. His story is nothing short of amazing! I was really inspired by it, and especially how he had the courage to give up a stable and comfortable job in the South to move back to the North where he grew up simply because he knew there were so many disadvantaged children that needed help here and he wanted to do something for them. Fortunately he met Elie, who enabled him to put his dream into practice! I am going to write up his story, and hopefully it can be featured on the FCYF website as I think it’s definitely something that people should hear!

There is plenty more to tell but I have already written another rather long post (sorry mum) so I will try to break it down a bit to make them more digestible! I also wanted to mention my first experience of Sabbath, which they celebrate every Saturday (from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday). First of all it was confusing to me that Saturday was the day of rest, rather than Sunday (but apparently that’s a secular thing!) “Rest” involves getting up at 7am to go to a three hour church service at the school! This was a really interesting experience for me, as it was very different to any church I have ever been to.  Elie and the school chaplain hold a service every Saturday for all the children who are boarding (about 250!) There are of course many hymns and readings from the bible, but a really nice element was that the children take turns in standing at the front in groups and making contributions, like choosing a hymn, or leading a prayer, even the really little ones! There is also a question and answer session where children are allowed to ask questions about the bible and their peers are then asked to try and answer. So the 3 hours is broken down quite nicely, although the little P1 and nursery children at the front were asleep on their desks by the end of it! After the service all (maybe 300) people including staff and teachers filed out of the chapel, and lined up to wish each person “Happy Sabbath”, with a handshake and a hug as we passed each other, which I thought was really nice (event though it took quite a while!).

Children gather to sing in preparation for Sabbath

That’s all for now!

I am still shocked by how much people seem to be able to carry on their heads here…I actually saw a man carrying a whole tree on his head (with ease) on my walk to school the other day!

More soon x