Greetings from Nzige...

Sunsets, samosas (sambusas) and storks…

I write this on my first proper day in Nzige, a small rural and quite remote village in the east of Rwanda, about an hour and 15 minutes from Kigali (mainly along a dusty red dirt road!), where I shall be living and working for 12 months.

 

My in-country training has been a great introduction to life in Rwanda and Kigali has made a real impression on me. Life at the Amani Guest House has certainly been lots of fun and a very gentle start to my placement. We have been looked after very well and fed extremely well. The meals have been delicious and have included fresh pineapple, avocado, tomatoes, aubergines, passion fruits, tomato fruits, samosas, local cakes… and Rwandan coffee. There have been hot showers and the grounds are very beautiful, with avocado trees, frangipani and stunning views and sunsets over Kigali.

Kigali is a very clean, green city, across a number of hills, so at any time you can be looking down into a valley, above the eagles and kites that swirl gently on warm thermals, spiralling against a sky that is streaked pink and grey. We have also spotted storks and humming birds. Houses are tiny, and roofs low, so it is easy to forget that Kigali is a city, and playing fields, cultivated land and banana trees are nestled between houses and shops.

The nature of the geography of Kigali also means that you can always hear echoes of church singing amplified by the hills and thunder rolls and rumbles as the rains arrive each day. Torrential, deafening rain pounds the ground, turning the red dusty roads into slippery muddy tracks. I can’t even begin to imagine travelling to or from small village schools during the rainy season!! Not bringing my waterproof trousers seems to have been a huge mistake!

 
One evening we crossed town to visit an ‘English club’ held by another volunteer working in Youth and Development for young people to improve their English (not a club for English expats as some of our group had wondered!). We met and mingled with the group of 20 or so young people and spent the evening in groups chatting about our lives, experiences and aspirations. It was truly inspirational to meet such lovely, articulate, motivated young people and it really brings it home how important projects like this are. I’m hoping to link up with the volunteer running the group as I am planning a similar project in my area to support language and literacy skills for young people.

In-country training also consisted of a welcome dinner where we met the VSO team and current volunteers and were treated to a night of team building games, an excellent buffet and Intore dancing- really spectacular traditional Rwandan dancing. It was good to meet future colleagues (so I know who to email when I’m not sure about my new project) and other volunteers in a similar role or in a local district or sector. The VSO network is certainly really strong and supportive and it’s good to know that everyone is just a text away.

I’ve never seen so many muzungos in one place’

During our time in Kigali we also opened bank accounts, applied for work visas and got to grips with the buses and mutatas (mini buses) and motos (motorbike taxis) of Kigali. Growing confident with motos has been a highlight for me and I have loved zipping along moonlit streets in a convoy with friends in the evening as there is barely any other traffic on the roads so you pretty much have them to yourself! The small buses are lots of fun – a real squish with the other passengers - and they even have fold-down seats in the aisles! They always seem to have cool tunes on the stereo which seems to make everyone feel happy! On one of our trips into the centre we missed our stop, but this proved quite educational as we got to travel round the far end of town before the bus looped back round (luckily) and we jumped off in the main area.  It was handy to see how the different parts we’d been through linked up… so next time we’re lost, we’ll know the neighbouring areas! We were also taken to the large indoor market to get a feel for it all before it was all for real! We obviously stood out from the usual crowd as we heard a local man saying, ‘I’ve never seen so many muzungos in one place’. I’m definitely planning to head back there to stock up on fabric for a quilt project I hope will fill my evenings, a crochet hook and some wool, as well as materials for dresses, skirts and tops and handmade baskets for my home (‘mu rugo’) for bits and pieces.

The day before completing ICT, we all headed to T2000, an enormous Chinese supermarket, to stock up on all things essential for setting up home. Where do you even start? I think it would be fair to say that most of us came close to having a bit of a ‘moment’ and finally, after about 5 hours and three trolleys each, we passed through the checkout, with every item labelled in marker pen with our names, hands black from dust, ready to drop! We had a relay of 2 VSO jeeps carrying our purchases (sheets, duvets, pillows, buckets, jugs, bowls, plates, cups, cutlery, pots and pans, kettles, shelves…etc.), guarded carefully as they were loaded up  outside the shop, which dropped them off at our Guest House before returning for the next load.

Reclaiming all our purchases from the heap back at the guest house was nearly as much fun (lucky everything had been named)… and then the next challenge was loading up the taxi 2 days later as my boss arrived to take me to the village. We spent a good 30 minutes looking at my luggage and at the car and then nodding and smiling and hmmmm-ing and then opening the boot and then looking back at the luggage! In the end, a larger car was called for and after a number of attempts at packing and unpacking and repacking, we were all in and off we went… waving at the last few volunteers awaiting lifts to their new placements.

Having arrived, I was immediately introduced the local government official in the village, which was an honour and felt very important. A production line was then formed along which all my possessions were passed, to my new home (which has a very strong resemblance to the small barn round the back of our home in Winfarthing… just with a lick of paint!) I was asked several times if everything was there, but as it had been packed and unpacked and repacked before the journey started, and then removed from the car randomly, I had no idea! My three main pieces of luggage were there… and so far it seems that everything else arrived safe and sound - I haven’t missed anything yet!   It was an impressive sight to see my furniture arrive from the other end of the village, transported along the road through the village, carried on people’s heads; a bed, a mattress, a dining table and chairs, a coffee table, shelves, a cupboard and two lounge chairs – quite a procession. It was hard to resist reaching for my camera!! However it’s an image I won’t forget!

In Rwanda there are no problems only challenges (Local saying)

I am writing this, snuggled in my room (on my first proper day here after arriving), as the largest thunderstorm I have ever experienced is taking place directly above my house! ‘Moving wardrobes’ would not even begin to describe the booming thunder that sounds as though it is immediately above, if not on, my roof! When I arrived yesterday, the rain became so heavy, slashing diagonally, bouncing up from the ground and gushing from next door’s roof, and it was a relief when it finally stopped! I had wondered whether it would continue for days or weeks! Ironically, despite the torrential rain, I arrived to find that there was actually no water at the tap!

Today’s storm have given me the time to lie on my bed and contemplate my new home and life…reassured that later the rain will ease and stop eventually, as it finally did yesterday… and that the cycle will continue – even if at a slower pace than I am used to.  Rains come, rain stops, water goes… and eventually comes back. Buhoro, buhoro – ‘slowly slowly’ as they say.

The kindness of Neighbours…

This morning I woke at 6am to the wonderful sound of water splashing into jerry-cans and my heart lifted. My sweet neighbours, young girls who are kind and chatty (and very bemused by the funny ways of their new ‘muzungo’ neighbour), arrived at my door as soon as they saw that I had opened my curtains, and as I stood in my pyjamas in my doorway (in my purple fluffy slippers – my one luxury item from home… apart from my cafetierre), they busily rounded up my buckets, bowls and jerry-cans and filled them, bringing them back to my house.  It was such a relief that the water had come – I had imagined that there would be none for 3 days and that I would have to sparingly ration my one jerry-can (provided by my neighbours on my arrival), and I was really touched by their kindness towards me. Water and kindness from neighbours both seem pretty essential to surviving life here!

With water, I set about filling my water-filter and boiling the kettle for coffee. Having woken up at 6 I knew that I had time to orientate myself into the day in my new home…and took my time to make porridge and enjoy a pot of Rwandan coffee, sitting with my door open and sunshine streaming in.  I watched as the girls next door swept and mopped around their house, as huge brightly coloured plastic and metal bowls and buckets were filled and used for washing, washing up, clothes washing… and all were left in the sunshine to dry on a large wooden table. Not a bad place to do washing up I thought! Chickens strutted past, and cockerels crowed, passers-by peeped through the fence and smiled as they wandered past, and my first morning in Nzige, my little village, unfolded.

 

I shared a second pot of coffee with my neighbours, and used my shaky and very basic Kinyarwanda to explain that I didn’t have milk or sugar… and did they mind, or did they have some they could use…? I’m not sure what the outcome of the conversation was (everybody nodded and said yes), but they were very sweet and polite about the coffee and were very smiley when they returned the cups later.

As I had water, I organised myself to take a bucket shower in the room round the back of the house  -  it was cold, but my relief at just having water meant that I was  very thankful to be washing at all! As they say, there are no problems, only challenges – and the shower challenge needed to be addressed! It certainly woke me up. I spent the next hour or so sweeping and wiping and tidying my house and then used my bright pink lavender scented disinfectant to mop my floor – again to the amusement of my little neighbours, who probably thought there was a much more efficient way to undertake such tasks! I shall watch them and try to pick up tips!

I washed up my breakfast things at the table in the sunshine and headed off to meet my friend and colleague, at the market. It was a really happy surprise to find so many tables piled high with tomatoes, avocados, beans, onions, pineapples and bananas and with a local friend with us, we got some good deals (and I noted prices so I know what to pay when I go by myself!) I know my knowledge of numbers isn’t too bad, but everybody fell around laughing when I used them – it seems to be that they are so surprised that I know the words… and simply expect not to understand me… and having a huge crowd of people around me meant the situation was quite surreal! People seem genuinely shocked that I know a few words!

 

I carried all my veg home loose in my bag, beans rattling round with bananas and pineapples, avocados and garlic. As we wandered back, we popped into several of the little shops along the road where I was introduced to many friendly people who turned out to be the TTC tutors and my new colleagues…many of whom I learnt have enterprising second businesses as shop owners. I stocked up on milk powder and sugar (so that I can entertain according to local tastes!), a small blue bucket (for cleaning), a two-pronged plug adaptor and some freshly bakes sweet white bread rolls.

From first impressions, village life in Nzige is probably as you’d imagine life here to be – pretty rural; hens, clucking and scratching, roaming from garden to garden, cows, pigs and goats tethered in family compounds, banana trees, small children inquisitively peeping nervously from behind pillars or grinning widely as I pass…or just staring, bicycles wobbling precariously as their owners push loads of wood, sugarcane, milk pails… and women wearing striking, colourful, beautiful dresses. There is also a small café, where I am keen to have tea and a bar where we had lunch after I arrived yesterday – a tasty omelette and inyama y’ihene, or goat – really delicious! I’m really keen to take some photographs, but I think that my new neighbours need time to get used to me being here first before I start asking if its ok if I take pictures.

Having returned home from the market, and sheltered from the storm, I was honoured to have my first guest! Lucky I had bought in milk powder and sugar - my guest enjoyed 3 spoons of each in her coffee! We had a really lovely conversation, sharing stories of home and family and I showed her my photographs, which she took great interest in. It was strange sharing tales of family Christmases and pets and walks along Hadrian’s Wall and along the coast when I know that all these are a long way away! She is the niece of my landlady and she works in the TTC – she is very kind and helpful and had popped round to check that I was fine. I also know she’s at the end of a text of I need her and I’m hoping that she can be my Kinyarwanda language teacher -  I’m determined to become at least able to hold a normal conversation (I’ve pretty much done all  my introduction conversations now) and strangely frustrated that I haven’t become fluent by the end of my second day here!! Buhoro, buhoro. I felt like an ok host – I offered tea and coffee and had the required milk and sugar. We chatted about lots of thing and had some excellent silences which are perfectly usual and to be expected (as we were prepared for in ICT – it doesn’t mean your guest is feeling awkward, rather that they are happy to be with you), and I nearly ‘gave her the push’ which is actually a polite term and means walking your guest to your gate, but I couldn’t get my slippers off and flipflops on quickly enough! I’ll practice super-quick shoe changes before I host again.

So this evening I have unpacked – it was nice to get sorted out and settled in properly but then also felt odd as it made everything seem a bit more permanent – I know it will be home for now and putting my things out made it very real. But I am happy and today has gone really well and I have a very sweet and homely little house (2 rooms and a store that was meant to be my kitchen but I’ll use instead to house water bins and mops and wellies… and has an unusual aroma!). I’m onto my last clean cup for an evening mug of vanilla chai (as I  have been so busy entertaining today that all my cups have been used…so I’ll need to tackle washing up in the morning before coffee -  a logistical challenge when you have neither a kitchen nor a bathroom and the tap is at the end of the garden near the front gate).  I have my bedroom and kitchen set up and curtains and a kettle and I have full jerry-cans and I know a cold shower is possible, that my neighbours are very nice, that I like the market and know what to pay and can ask in Kinyarwanda… and I know how to get back to Kigali, how much to pay and where to get on/off the bus or moto. I can connect to the internet sometimes and have started my blog, so that’s good! I know that the rain does eventually stop and that the water eventually returns and that in Rwanda there are no problems, only challenges, which is handy as I came here seeking new challenges!

So, what have I learnt?

I am in sole charge of where I have left my keys.

It is good to tie your keys to yourself when using the pit latrine… or wear them like a necklace – never in your pocket.

The rain stops and eventually water comes back on.

Even when speaking perfectly good Kinyarwanda people may still look blankly at me.

The colour of my skin scares small children!

Rwandan coffee is very good and a good coffee makes everything ok.

Conditioner is just not going to happen when it is an achievement even to take a shower!

I can’t worry about how I look as I don’t have a mirror big enough to find out!

Always have a torch to hand.

The internet connects eventually (Skype doesn’t!) In fact, the time it takes to connect to the internet is well spent writing an entire blog entry! Buhoro, Buhoro!

It means the world to hear from friends and family.

Avocados are amazing here… and I can buy 4 (kane) for a pound (ijana Rwf).

My new neighbours rock!

Oh…  and I can wear both a head torch AND an anorak in the name of survival (its fine – I have no mirror!)