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!