Weekend Trip to Butare and Nyanza: The Modern and the Ancient!

So a few things I never thought I’d be doing in Rwanda…Yoga (!), walking around a university campus more modern and developed than any I’ve seen in Europe or the US…and eating Chinese food!

On Tuesday, I joined Selina for a yoga session with a local cooperative of girls. They are part of an organization called “Ubushobozi” (ability), started by some Americans in 2008, where they train local young girls (in their late teens) from a background of poverty in vocational skills like sewing, weaving etc. so that they can make beautiful products (which they sell locally and at a few locations in the US) to sell for profit in order to make a living and support themselves. We had been to see them a few weeks ago (at the suggestion of some friends who we saw with their beautiful bags!) and they explained to us how the cooperative works. They girls go in every day and have a daily schedule of sewing and working, as well as English and computer lessons from local teachers. They also have weekly yoga and dance lessons. The dancing is the traditional style, but the yoga came from a foreign volunteer I think, who taught them the basics and gave them some yoga mats etc. and they absolutely love it! Anyway they had seen Selina in town last week and invited her to join them and she said it was awesome…so this week I decided to tag along as well. It was really fun…but quite unlike any yoga I am used to in West! They did have all the same sun salutations, breathing exercises etc., they just did them a bit differently…and everything was superfast! We jumped from position to position at a crazy speed and the girls seemed to love watching me and Selina sweating as we tried to stretch into some of the crazy positions! I even got a round of applause when I managed one (that I had never seen before in my life), which involved bending down, reaching one arm behind my back, one in front and joining hands between my legs and then lifting my leg up into the air! We had a lot of fun with the girls, even though they speak hardly any English. And it was great to see how much fun they have together… It really felt like they were all a big happy family! We are definitely planning on going back this week.

This weekend we visited Butare, which we had planned a few weeks back. Unfortunately Patricia couldn’t join us as her host family wanted to show her their cow farm! (Cows are a big deal here…I’ll explain more about that later). So Selina, Matt and I set out on the (long) road to Butare…which is a city in the Southern Province on the other side of the country. It is regarded as the “intellectual capital” of the country as it is home to the biggest and oldest university as well as many other educational institutions. It also has the National Museum of Rwanda and many prominent cathedrals and churches. We were expecting the South to be different to the North, but we were in no way prepared for how different! The landscape leading into the town all looked very similar, green rolling hills dotted with mud huts etc. but the actual town was like a different world! There were huge modern houses everywhere, wide paved roads, several roundabouts, street lamps painted in the colours of the Rwandan flag…and everyone seemed to be well-dressed! We almost felt scruffy! We joked that if you wanted to give someone a biased picture of an African development “success story”, this was it!

part of the university campus

Once we had found a nice-looking and cheap guesthouse and dropped off our stuff, it was already late afternoon so we decided to go check out the university. After quite a bit of confusion and wrong turns trying to figure out where it was with the rather misleading map in the guestbook, we found the huge campus on top of the hill. Walking through it felt quite surreal…it was so quiet and peaceful. The grounds are beautiful, surrounded by exotic trees and gardens and there is an amazing view of the whole city. The buildings themselves are super modern-looking, which seemed strange since this is supposed to be the oldest university in the country. But we realized (and read) later that the university was destroyed during the Genocide and subsequently completely re-furbished in 1995 and officially re-opened by President Kagame. Peeking into some of the lecture halls, they looked much more modern than the ones at my university and we could see students with their laptops hooked up, studying and chatting!

Chinese food in lunch trays!

According the guidebook, “The Chinese Restaurant” (it’s actually called that) is the best place to eat in town, so we figured we try it for a nice change from African food…and out of curiosity at what on earth the Rwandan take on Chinese would be! After some communication difficulties with the waiter and the usual hour and a half wait, the food came. And it was pretty much the same fried noodles, beef, rice and vegetables that we are used to. The funniest part was that Matt and Selina had ordered set meals (noodles, beef and vegetables) and they came in metal prison cafeteria-style lunch trays with each food type in a different compartment!

The next morning we went to see the biggest Cathedral in Rwanda, which was huge and beautiful but strangely had three sets of pews going out in three different directions from the alter…which made us wonder how the priest can give a service facing all three sides at once! We also went to see the national museum, which was really interesting and packed with information about the history, traditions and culture of Rwanda. There were traditional weapons, tools (I never knew there were so many types of hoe!), instruments (one with strings made from ox nerves!), clothes (mainly loin cloths and capes made of black tree bark and animal hides before cotton came in). One of the most interesting things I remember reading was a description of the tribal belief in divination. There are many many differ forms, but one involves a diviner placing the client’s saliva into a bird or bull’s mouth and then whispering into its ear the question they want the answer to. They then kill it, open it up and decide the answer based on the arrangement of the inner organs!

Biggest cathedral in Rwanda

In the afternoon we got a bus to the nearby town of Nyanza, which used to be the royal capital of the ancient Mwami Kings! Interestingly, their history is somewhat mysterious and there are many gaps and unknowns, since the only evidence of the Kingdom’s existence before the 15^th Century is based on oral history. Though we rather stupidly got off the bus too early in town and had to walk about 5km uphill in the sun to get to it, the museum was great! It was an hour before closing, but we were told the tour would only take about 45 minutes. A young Rwandan lady, who looked as if she was dressed for a special ceremony in a beautiful silk wrap, and spoke perfect English, gave us a guided tour of several types of restored Mwami palaces. When I say palace, this is a HUGE structure made of hay, straw and bamboo thatched together make a kind of dome (sorry I was too cheap to pay the fee to take pictures…you can google it!) Inside felt very spacious but cozy at the same time! We had to take our shoes off and it was basically one huge space with a few thatched partitions and the floor covered with straw mats. There are separate areas for men and women of course….the women being the King’s many wives, who come one at a time when invited accompanied by their ladies in waiting. The King’s bed was ridiculous, it took up about quarter of the whole palace! The guide made a clearly tried and tested joke about it being “King-size”.

Behind the palace were two much smaller almost identical straw and hay structures...one for the “milk girl” and one for the “beer boy”, responsible for the King’s milk and beer respectively, both of whom had to be virgins!

Rwandan ceremonial cows (not taken by me)

Afterwards we saw the cows. Now I knew that cows are highly regarded in Rwanda, and if you call someone a cow, it’s a complement suggesting they are intelligent! Apparently cows are a symbol of both power and wealth…the more you have the wealthier/more powerful you are. So as you can imagine the Mwami Kings had quite a few! They’re not just any cows though, their special Rwandan cows with a deep shiny brownish black coloring and both males and females have huge long curved horns. They do appear rather regal…not like our black and white milk cows! Traditionally they were used for purely ceremonial purposes and never milk or meat.   

We left quite satisfied at having our fill of Rwandan culture and history and jumped on a bus to Kigali. We were quite tired when we got there, ready to be soon on our way home to Musanze. Unfortunately what we didn’t realize is that the buses stop running at 7pm! We got there just after 7.30…So that put a bit of a kink in our plan, but we figured we would just find a cheap hotel nearby and return in the morning. Unfortunately the bus station is not in the nicest area of town, so the selection of hotels was not the most appealing. But we sucked it up and got a couple of rooms in rather dingy, institutional-looking motel with broken toilets and headed to a nearby buffet-style restaurant as we were starving. The food was cheap and edible normal buffet stuff- rice, beans, chips etc. But unfortunately it didn’t agree with Selina who was up all night with food poisoning in the miserable stuffy hotel…

our not so luxury hotel...

So not such a wonderful end to what was otherwise a great weekend…but even Selina agreed it was a really good trip! It was so interesting to see the huge contrast of the city of Butare. It really reflected how much the rates of development can vary even in such a small country… 

Gorilla-naming, burgers and more beautiful lakes…

So Friday was Matt’s birthday, so we (me and the Canadians) decided to treat him (and ourselves!) to a nice Western-style burger and fries at a touristy café in town. It was delicious (especially after another week of rice and beans) and we all polished off our plates. Though we maybe should have thought about how our stomachs would react after having become so accustomed to having the same thing every day…we all felt quite sick for a while afterwards! We did all agree it was worth it though!

The enjoyable part of our burger experience!

Today was a very special day in Rwanda, Kwita Izina, the annual gorilla-naming ceremony, where all the baby gorillas born during the year are given names at a huge festival held near the Volcanoes National Park and lots of government officials, celebrities and other VIPs show up. Since the gorillas are endangered, and their survival is so important for Rwanda’s tourism industry (the county’s biggest source of revenue) newborn gorillas that survive each year are very special and considered a gift to the country. It is therefore a great honor to get to name one of them, which is usually given to important people/international celebrities (like the president and his wife last year…I think Natalie Portman named one, Don Cheadle the guy from Hotel Rwanda etc.). This year 20 were named, 19 babies and one adult who had moved over from another group in the Congo.

Kids dressed as gorillas!

I am not sure how, but we managed to get into the VIP section, I think because we were white… we didn’t have tickets (we didn’t know we needed them)…but after some argument in Kinyarwanda the security guards ushered us in. It was quite strange in the VIP enclosure, which was full of foreign press, important-looking people and of course hundreds of wealthy-looking tourists. We felt kind of stupid, but we took advantage of the free food and drink and the great view… we sat on the grass right by the Prime Minister (he wasn’t sitting on the grass)! He gave a long speech that we couldn’t understand…but one of the best part was him getting up to dance, when the traditional dancers came over! The performances were great with mixture of modern and traditional performances with amazing Intore Warrior dancing and African drumming as well as some new Rwandan hip-hop and RnB artists. The naming itself was really nice as well, with each “namer” giving a short speech about who they were and why they had chosen their name. One was a very young girl, who had won a drawing competition and had some trouble reading her speech, which was adorable! The funniest part was the pack of “gorillas” they had crawling across the field to the stage, to represent the babies being names (a bunch of children in black fury gorilla costumes and masks!) They had even been taught to behave like gorillas making screeching noises, banging their chests and rolling about fighting with each other! Obviously the crowd loved it. The ceremony was followed by an insane amount of free food and drink in the buffet tent (in the VIP section). Each of the hundreds of tables had an abundant supply of beer, wine and spirits. I did wonder who exactly was paying for all of it…the whole event must have cost a fortune….and it did feel quite hypocritical. I guess it is a way of giving back to all those who are funding the tourist industry, but I’m sure all that money could have been put to better use. We figured we would take full advantage since we had paid $500 each already for our Gorilla Trek (booked for the end of June!) and this was probably what a large part of all that money goes towards!

Traditional Rwandan drumming

I have been spending all my weekends locally for most of this month, so I can’t wait to go for another trip…Next weekend we are off to Butare (a town all the way on the other side of the country). Supposedly there is an amazing cultural museum there and the reconstructed remains of ancient palaces! Anyway being here has been interesting as well. Last weekend there was a big hip-hop concert at the stadium in town. It was part of a tour where a bunch of Rwandan artists taking part in a big competition and the public can vote for who they want to win etc. A huge amount of people turned up (young, old, families, mothers, babies!) It was held at the local stadium, which is huge so everyone could easily fit in and entry was free. The stage however was tiny, so we couldn’t see much. The music was not really to my taste…and most of the music seemed to be lip-synced with lots of aggressive shouting by the presenters in Kinyarwanda in between songs! A lot of people were drunk (which is not surprising considering you could buy 2 beers for about 50p!) but not aggressive. As usual there were many street kids running around, and they seemed to gather around us and point and stare a bit more than usual. I guess it was mainly locals and we were the only white people there. I didn’t stay for long but it was an interesting atmosphere. I have never seen so many families and young children at a concert…it was more like a village festival (with beer!) than a hiphop concert!

Relaxing at Lake Burera

Sunday was really nice…it was a beautiful day so Selina and I decided to go check out Lake Burera, which is about a 40 minute bus ride from Musanze. The bus ride was interesting, crammed full to the brim as usual, luckily we had seats…Selina sat next to a woman who was breast-feeding for most of the journey. Apparently this is a normal public activity here. Breasts are fine I guess… but a woman should not show her legs! When we reached the town near the lake, we had to take bike (bicycles) rides for the rest of the journey down a very bumpy, hilly path! I have taken one once before in Musanze but never on an unpaved road. I held on for dear life to the sharp edges of the little square seat I was sitting on, on the back of the old rickety bike, as it sped down the bumpy road. A few parts were uphill and I did wonder how these young skinny boys driving these things has enough strength to cycle people up the hill all day! Anyway it was a fun experience and the view was absolutely stunning! The lake was beautiful, different to Lake Kivu though…There was no sandy beach, but a grassy area instead a small café and picnic area. All you could see all around was the huge green volcanoes surrounding the lake. It was also pretty isolated and felt very peaceful as there was hardly anyone else there except a few couples, some men who seemed to be having a business meeting (!) and young family. I’m not sure why since it was such a beautiful day but we had a lovely relaxing day just lying on the grass by the lake. Later we ordered some chips and goat brochettes and didn’t even realize they took over an hour to arrive…Must be getting used to “African time”!

xx

A day in the life...(my daily routine)

Sorry I haven’t posted anything for a while. Having lived here for just over 6 weeks now, I think I can finally say I have settled into the “Rwandan” swing of things. My day-to-day routine/schedule usually looks something like this:  I wake up in the morning at seven (consistently, somehow…without an alarm, maybe it’s the noise from the chickens or the house boy playing his wind-up radio outside my room while he cooks and cleans- but that usually starts around 5!). I have breakfast (which is always set out on the table for as many volunteers/guests/visitors that happen to be staying at Elie and Bernadette’s home (up to 7 at a time). This usually consists of a huge hot flask of milk and/or porridge (which you drink- it is not the oaty Western type, but rather a runny, slightly sweet version made of wheat or maize flour cooked with water). It was weird at first…but it grows on you and I now look forward to my steaming mug of morning porridge! With this there is usually some kind of pastry- “beignets” (like doughnuts), “chapatti” (thick fried pancake), crepes or bread…and of course delicious mini bananas (I don’t think I can ever eat a regular-size bland Western banana again). Needless to say I have not been going hungry in the mornings!

I then usually head to one of the schools. Sometimes Wisdom (if I am meeting with one of the teachers or Elie), in which case I walk, taking a very scenic route along a dirt track through a village, which is slightly shorter than the main road and means I get to greet many people, witness the morning routines of the village women, pass by a large expanse of green fields and potato and bean crops, a cow pasture and am invariably greeted with the ecstatic cries of “Umuzungu!” “Good morning!” of the hundreds of local village children who rush to hug me and press their runny noses into my skirt! Usually however I go to the deaf school which is too far (for me) to walk, so I take a moto-taxi, which strangely enough I was not overcharged for yesterday. Quite the opposite! They guy actually offered to take me for free when I said I did not have enough, and was going to get the bus. When I asked him why, he said “I love Mzungus”…so I guess it works both ways, you either get over-charged or under-charged! In any case I get to the deaf school eventually, usually after a slow process of negotiation or calling one of the drivers I have now befriended. Another scenic route through several villages, but this is uphill all the way. Street children still seem to notice me going by even on a moto and I guess a Muzungu on a moto is an even more exciting prospect! The number of children on the street here is still quite unbelievable to me. In Rwanda over 2 thirds of the population are children…and you see it on a daily basis. Bare-foot, grubby children as young as two, often in groups playing about in the huge gutters at the sides of the roads, sometimes they have sticks to play-fight with or balls of paper that they kick around endlessly. Sometimes I see young girls, maybe 9 or 10 years old, carrying their baby siblings strapped to their backs, like the mothers. Public education is free, but most of these children cannot afford the school materials they need to learn and many of them are orphans and have no one that cares enough to make them go to school…so they just wonder around and play in the street all day. I am definitely realizing how much we take education for granted in the West.

Deaf school kids posing!

At the deaf school, I usually join Jacqueline, the social worker and accountant for the Child-Headed Households morning meeting. The 47 children, the three vocational skills trainers and Jacqueline gather each morning to discuss the cooperative, how everything is going, the children’s responsibilities and the challenges of the project. The CHH project is now in its third stage, where the children are now all qualified in a vocational skill (basket-making, embroidery, sewing, knitting or wood-carving) and are being helped to organize them in to a “cooperative”, so that they can earn maximum profit as a group from the sale of their products and continue to produce more and buy more materials etc. After the morning discussion an prayer (led by Jacqueline…and all in Kinyarwandan…I have gotten used to trying to understand what is going on from volume, tones of voice and body language!) Jackie and I go to work in her office. I usually work on my laptop and she does everything by hand, in very neat, long (and tedious-looking) tables. This includes all the accounts and finances and other information for the CHH, mentors and widows. However now that I have come with my laptop, she is very keen to learn how to use it and transfer all her information over to word documents and excel spreadsheets...So we have spent many an hour doing that! 

CHH children making baskets

In the late morning (usually around 11), we go “for porridge” with the other trainers and teachers at the deaf school. This is essentially the Rwandan version of a coffee break J although porridge is a lot more filling (and nutritionally beneficial!) than coffee. I am usually not hungry, but it is kind of socially expected so  I try to get away with just taking a little….and they all laugh at me, saying I must take more so that I can grow “big and strong”…I have accepted that to them I look like a child! Afterwards we go back to work, or go and hang out with the CHH children for a bit. I like to watch the girls make baskets, they make it look so easy but when they tried to teach me, I found the intricate and precise threading of the needle very difficult. I got the hang of it slowly, but I don’t think I would have the patience to make a whole basket! The girls don’t speak much English other than the basic “good morning” “how are you?” “I’m fine thank you” that Jacqueline has taught them but I think they appreciate the company and love to laugh at me trying to speak Kinyarwandan!

Deaf children with their wood-carvings

Lunchtime for staff is around 1pm, after the deaf children have finished. They have a lovely cooperative system where the children take turns in groups cleaning up after mealtimes…and they seem to really enjoy running around with the mops and buckets! We usually eat while they clean, which is fun to watch! Lunch is the same every day, but is not too bad…rice (or more frequently since it is cheaper) “poshu”, which is stodgy white blocks of starch made of maize meal. It’s honestly not bad when you mash it up and cover it with the stewed cabbage and beans that you get with it. Sometimes there are also some “Irish” potatoes (just for staff!)- That’s what they call normal potatoes, since they also have sweet potatoes/yams. After lunch the day’s work usually starts to die down. The CHH children go home and the older deaf children start vocational skills training/sports/free time. I help Jacky, Louis or anyone else if they need anything (usually printing or something computer-based…Before this trip, I had never thought about the value of printer ink! - something else I have always taken for granted…) I then wait the for the bus to take me back, sometimes up to an hour, as they are often full!. Back in town, I usually head to the Muhabura hotel (where I am good friends with the bar staff by now!) to check my emails/do some research/write up reports for Jackie.

After a few hours at the hotel, I might walk into town (if I have any energy) to pick up some things or just to people-watch or I head home for a kettle/bucket shower before dinner. Depending on if there are guests or not, dinner is around 7 or can be as late as 9 if it’s just me, Elie and Bernadette since they don’t get back until late if they are working at the school. Again depending on if there are other people staying at the house or coming for dinner, more or less (usually more!) food is prepared and set out on the table in big heat-proof pots(family style), by Innocent the house boy, and more helpers will come to cook if a lot of food is being prepared. When it’s just us, the selection usually always consists of rice/Irish Potatoes/Yams (or both), green beans/peas or cabbage and a delicious thick peanut sauce with eggplants/aubergines. When we have Western visitors, there is also often extra ‘special’ options like beef stew, fried potatoes and spaghetti…oh and dessert (only usually when we have guests or special occasions) is delicious fresh tropical fruit, or traditional African donuts or crepes! The food is always delicious and I cannot complain...I am eating more on a daily basis here in Africa than I ever did in the West! We do have basically the same thing every day though and I do miss variety, having a fresh salad every now and then (vegetables are always cooked) and being able to order a pizza or an Indian!

Elie and Bernadette's home

Elie and Bernadette are usually visibly exhausted (understandably as they never seem to stop working) and go straight to bed after their mugs of amata ishushi (hot milk) and I usually read for a while/write my journal or (rarely) go out for a drink with the Canadians at a local bar or hotel (usually we are all too tired during the week!). I am usually in bed by 10.30…I guess that’s why it’s so easy to get up at 7!

Boy happily planting a tree

Anyway that’s the basic gist of an ‘average’ weekday at the moment, of course it changes a lot when visitors are here or there is a special occasion like this week Wednesday was World Environment Day, so I spent most of the day at Wisdom in order to document the spectacle of 800 trees being planted by 300 children by the river around the sports field! And weekends of course are a whole different story…but more about them later!

xx

tree-planting madness!