Blogs from Rwanda, Africa - page 16

today is what is known as umuganda. The last Saturday of each month when all residents have to go and do some community chores together, both as a means of getting to know each other and to get some stuff done I guess. This involves jobs such as clearing the verges. Very few people have addresses out here and so the towns/villages are divided into divisions and then secteurs and then cells, so people’s addresses just contain their name and cell name and someone within that cell will know them! There must be a good hundred houses per cell and it is in these cell group that they do umuganda. One person per household is expected to turn up each month. Apparently there aren’t even tools to go around and so people end up sitting and ... read more

Not sure if I’ve told you that we have a houseboy at the office - he does all our cooking and washing and cleaning and general help. Its very weird having someone doing all your chores for you - but many people out here do and he gets paid pretty well for it. He is very keen cleaning the floors several times a week by hand, cooking good wholesome meals and keeping this place neat and tidy. It's as if he’s been trained to please which makes me feel rather awkward sometimes. For example today I was lying in the sun on the grass since we had nothing to do and he went and found and brought me a towel to lie on . He speaks little English but we manage to communicate in some form ... read more

Greetings all from Rwanda…my third east African country in just over 10 days. Phewwee! A whistle-stop tour of the cradle of civilization but boy, its an experience. Gruelling…hot…intense…exciting…magnificent are just a few adjectives to throw out there… So, grab yourself a cup of steaming chai and settle down as Im currently online in a convent in the town of Musanze, dropping off point for the Parc National de Volcans http://images.google.rw/images?q=Parc%20National%20de%20Volcans&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi and home to the critically endangered mountain gorillas. Tomorrow we don our hiking boots, bathe in mosquito repellant and traipse deep into the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’ in search of these incredible animals… but for now, let me re-cap on the trip so far….. Having negotiated Nairobbery , its eclipse, its slums,... read more

An unanticipated trip to Kigali today to help one of the other girls doing the same thing as me but in a different organisation to find some safe accomodation. She unfortunately thought the guy working in the hostel was being friendly in showing her around but clearly had ulteriour motives and made her feel very uncomfortable. As a lone female traveller it is always useful to say you're married or getting married soon and often to be fairly cold on first meeting guys.... shame cos i'm sure most are merely friendly. being sunday morning everyone was in church and so the bus, with a picture of Michael Jackson on the back and a motif saying 'still alive', was pretty empty. A pleasant change from the buses normally where 16 seater minivans are stuffed to the limited ... read more

Today was a “down” day since I did not have tons of meetings and tons of information fed to me through a fire house. Breakfast was great - thick breakfast tortillas (I forget the Rwandese word) and an egg scramble with coffee, etc. I did not have to rush off, so I was able to get ready leisurely today. The first stop today was the genocide memorial. Simon had a meeting last night with some missionaries in Kigali and spent the night there. I am not sure how he pulled together a meeting last minute. He was planning to return to Gisenyi yesterday afternoon, but did not realize that we had a full day planned for us. He went with the flow like it was nothing and managed to plan a meeting and a place to ... read more