Wedding Marathon

I was invited to the wedding of one of my colleagues, Jean Paul. It was a great day and was also 'very rwandan'. The invitation said the introduction and dowry ceremony was at 10am and the church service at 2pm.

Another colleague said he was collecting the landcruiser at 8am, then had to go to the town 15 mins away to pick up the fantas, and he would pick me up on the way back.

At 10.10 he finally called me to say he was on his way. We then picked up various other people before dropping us all off at the grooms parents house. We stood around there for a while, more people arrived then we got into a minibus and drove into the the neighbourhood to pick up more people and had to wait for a motorbike taxi to arrive to deliver a pair of trousers. We left the grooms house at about 11.15am and drove for about 20 mins. The last part was down a track that only looked wide enough to be a footpath. We were then dropped off in the middle of a field by some children looking after cattle grazing. We waited for about 20 mins, while it started to rain, until the car with the groom in arrived. They then stopped to decorate the car. Finally we all walked around the corner to the house of the bride's family - 2 hours late!!!

The introduction and dowry ceremony last for a couple of hours - lots of speeches and exchanging of gifts and discussions about the number of cows to be given! We were sitting outside under homemade gazebos. At one point part of it collapsed in a gust of wind. There was more drinking banana juice from jerry cans too.

Afterward we drove back to the church (where I started off from). There were 15 of us in the landcruiser and 3 large loudspeakers on the roof, tied on with banana leaves! Fortunately I wasn't too squashed and it was too far (about 20 mins) but I was sitting next to another colleague whose outfit was shedding glitter, so I was covered by the time we got there.

The church service finally started at 3.30pm - apparently they have to pay a fine if they arrive late! I think it was like a traditional English wedding - promises, rings, talk, signing register and choirs singing. There were lots of photos outside before the reception, which was only a 5 minute walk away.

The reception was more speeches, the bride and groom giving each other drinks (Orange fanta), then cutting the cake - it had a large flare in the top and they were sprayed with what looked like snow spray as they were cutting it and feeding it to each other, more choirs singing and giving of gifts. I left at 7pm.... having had nothing to eat all day and surviving on 2 bottles of 'fanta'....

Lakes Burero & Ruhondo

The last few days I spent with my parents were at a very nice lodge overlooking lakes Burero (or Bulero depending on who you believe) and Ruhondo. As we drove into the northern province I saw rain for the first time in 3 months. Here when it rains, it rains! We spent the evening sitting around a log fire and chatting with other guests – I almost had to raid mums suitcase for more clothes to wear, but they put hot water bottles in the beds in the evening.

The next morning the cloud had lifted and the views were incredible. In one direction you could see the 2 lakes, and in the other direction, 5 volcanoes. After a leisurely breakfast on the veranda, we walked down to the lake with a guide. We were told it would take 1hr 45 mins to get there and 2 hours to walk back. After less than an hour we arrived at the lake and were asked if we wanted a trip on the lake. There were about 12 local men sitting around. What followed was half an hour of discussion and to-ing and fro-ing across a small stretch of water, about which boat we should take and who should go in it. Everyone had to give their two pennies worth! We were only in the boat for about 20 minutes! We then walked to lake Ruhondo and saw where the electricity for the country is generated. As we walked back several school children were keen to practise their English. We arrived at the lodge less than 3 hours after we left!

We spent the rest of the time watching traditional dancing, enjoying the views, going on other walks, eating delicious food and I took up the offer of a massage. It was quite a shock to return home.

Ditch Adventures

One evening I was walking down the hill with one of my housemates to the local restaurant as we had been invited for dinner by a group from the UK who were staying for the night. It was 7pm so was dark but we were walking by moonlight like the locals. Suddenly there were lights coming up the hill. First was a moto followed by 2 lights of a car. The moto passed without a problem but I thought I ought to move a little further out of the way for the car. Unfortunately the headlights had disturbed my vision and suddenly I found myself at the bottom of the ditch by the side of the road. I apparently chose the deepest, steepest part of the ditch of the whole hill to fall into and had to be helped out. Fortunately I was not injured but was covered head to toe in dust. I was very relieved it wasn’t the rainy season as the ditches are for the rain run off and are often full or water or at least thick mud. The car driver did stop to check that I was ok – I think they were quite alarmed seeing someone suddenly disappear!

Monkeying Around

After our early morning chimp adventures we went to find a troupe of black and white Colobus monkeys. We walked for less than 5 minutes before we came across a group of around 18 monkeys. They were swinging in the trees about 5 metres away from us. Some of them were grooming each other, others were chasing around and pulling each other off the branches, others were just chilling out. They were very entertaining to watch and gave us a good display for about 40 minutes.

Chimpanzee trekking

We visited Nyungwe rainforest in the south west of the country. One morning we got up at 4.15am and drove for about an hour to a southern part of the forest where we met a ranger and some trackers in the hope of seeing some chimpanzees. Apparently it was necessary to get up so early so the chimpanzees would still be in their nests in the trees as they move every night and once they wake up and start looking for food they are much harder to find.

We walked through thick undergrowth for about half an hour before the trackers told us to wait and they went on ahead to the nests. We then started climbing the hill again but suddenly heard their calls below us so returned to wait. After a what seemed like quite a while of waiting and hearing noises that people thought were chimps I suddenly saw a mother carrying a baby pass along a path above where we were standing. A few moments later a group of about 9 chimps passed along the path below us towards the trees with some of their favourite fruit on. The group stopped about 30 metres away from us and started to collect their breakfast. They spent about twenty minutes climbing the trees and eating which was fascinating to watch. At one point one of the younger chimpanzees had finished collecting fruit from one tree so wrapped its’ arms and legs around the trunk of the tree and slide down! They were much larger than I expected, weighing up to 65kg. After the chimpanzees had moved on to find more food a mountain monkey came along and started jumping through the tops of the trees giving us a great display. We returned to the vehicles by 9am but it was definitely worth getting up so early.

Elections

Presidential elections were held here at the beginning of August. The last elections were held in 2003.

In the run up to the election political rallies took place all over the country. They were huge, attracting crowds of up to 150 000 people in some places. Throughout the night before the rallies people would go around the local areas telling people about them and providing buses for them to get there.
The whole country was also decorated in political party colours and tree trunks were painted white when the President visited different areas to welcome him.

The election day itself was very quiet. It was treated like a public holiday. The primary school was the local polling station (see picture). There was music playing and banana leaves at the entrance. Apparently there was a different room for each different community in the area to vote. When an electorate went to vote one of their fingers was marked with a permanent mark and once they had voted another finger was marked, rather than polling cards or endless lists of names. There were no queues of people waiting to vote.

The following day was announced as another public holiday for celebration even though the final result had not been announced but in the end it was a landslide predicted.

Clothes Sorting

The rehab centre quietened down in the run up to the elections so one afternoon I was asked to help sort out a donation of several large boxes of adult clothes which had arrived from Europe the previous week. I though we would be grouping the clothes with similar items and re packing the boxes eg, all the trousers in one box, all the womens tops in another etc. But as it turned out I was wrong. The process involved emptying a few of the neatly packed boxes at one time, collecting a few similar items, putting them untidily into another box and labelling the box accordingly then if you found a few items of a different type of clothing you put them into the same box and just adding another label to the box. We ended up with the same number of boxes of random mixtures of clothing (and not equal mixtures or useful combinations) but at least the boxes were labelled and it filled an afternoon!

Guiding Centenary Celebrations

For as long as I have known there is a Guide Association of Rwanda I have been trying to arrange to go to one of the ‘local’ meetings – the nearest is in a town about 2 hours away, but I have not been successful due to a variety of reasons although I was told that the Guides of Rwanda would be celebrating the centenary of Guiding and 30 years of Guiding in Rwanda on the 1^st August. Again I didn’t think I would be able to make it as I was on retreat but it turned out that the friends who were giving me a lift wanted to return on the Saturday. I was a little hesitant as I had done all my communicating in French and wasn’t really certain what was happening, where and whether I could in fact go along (and whether the whole day would be in Kinyarwanda). I finally managed to speak to a Commissioner in English who told me there would be other Guides from France and Germany there and I could stay at the headquarters the night before and would be taken to where we needed to be so I felt reassured.

I was very glad I did go because it was a great day and something really special to be a part of. I was warmly welcomed by everyone I met.

It was an early start (around 6am) following a late night (people were still up at 2am) as we were told the coaches were coming at 7am to take us to the stadium. In the end they didn’t turn up until much later. All the girls were given t shirts to wear. We arrived at the stadium and all the overseas invited guests were given seats on the main floor of the stadium with personal interpreters. I managed to get myself included as an invited guest. There was a lot of singing and chanting whilst waiting for the proceedings to begin. The guest of honour arrived an hour late amidst a lot of security. It was the First Lady of Rwanda. After that amazingly, everything ran to time.

As with any celebration in Rwanda there were a lot of speeches by different people then a display of traditional dancing. The ladies danced with pots balanced on their heads! And more singing and dancing.

Afterwards we (guests and dignitaries) were taken to a hotel for food and finally back to the headquarters just as I was beginning to wonder if I would ever make it home at all.

Apparently I was seen dancing on the Rwandan TV news that evening!!

Kumbya

I enjoyed a relaxing week’s retreat in a place called Kumbya. It is a beautiful setting of an unspoiled peninsular towards the south of lake Kivu with loads of birds and wildlife. I spent the week meeting people in similar situations to me throughout the Great Lakes region and catching up with others I had met previously during my time here.

We had talks and discussions each morning and various forms of entertainment in the evening but afternoons were free to relax, enjoy the peace and quite and swim in the beautiful clear lake.The food was a good mix of Rwandan and western food but the drinking water had a smoky aftertaste as it was boiled over a wood stove!

On the Thursday morning the annual swim to an island 2.5km away took place. We started at 6am and a few of us swam both ways. I was welcomed back shortly after 8am with freshly cooked pancakes and syrup. It was made slightly more interesting by the appearance of a military gunboat on the lake saying we should not be swimming as the President was due to visit a nearby town for a political rally that day. I came back from the week feeling refreshed and with new friends.