Choir adventures 19.9.10

Today I went on a trip with the church choir to another parish in the diocese. I was told to be at the church at 7am and to my surprise, when I arrived just after there were other people there already. I was then ‘dressed’ in traditional Rwandan dress and the choir’s smart uniform. The minibus arrived just before 8am and we set off, singing all the way. After we had driven for an hour on the dirt roads it became apparent that no one had been to the parish before and no one quite knew where it was but after asking a few locals and a few short detours we arrived at the church. We were early, so were invited to the pastors house before the service and were greeted by an endless stream of members of his family.

The service started at 10am by which time a large crowd of children and adults had gathered – I think word that a mzungu had arrived had got around. My gardener, who is also in the choir, preached and the whole service lasted for 4 hours. Fortunately I had a translator otherwise I’m sure the low narrow benches would have felt ever harder by the end. Afterwards I was swarmed by children who wanted to touch my skin and hair and practice their English on me. We shared a meal with some of the locals and the Rwandan customs of lots of speeches, introductions and more singing.

We set off on our return journey at about 4.30pm, giving various people lifts to nearby communities and stopping to collect a sack of Cassava roots which was given to the choir as a gift. After about 20 minutes we hit a large dip in the road and there was a loud bang. We stopped and the driver and a few of the men got out to look underneath. After a few minutes of looking and discussion, they decided there wasn’t a problem so piled back into the minibus and we set off again. Immediately it was apparent that the was still a problem as there was a loud rattling from under the back seats, so we stopped again. This time the driver put some overalls on and crawled underneath. He emerged pulling the exhaust with him. He then proceeded to bend it even more so that it would fit under one of the seats. We continued on our journey home, singing again, as if nothing had happened.