4/21/2018 0 Comments Visiting other parts of AfricaOver the Easter holidays and Genocide Memorial Week we decided to take a holiday and visit other places in Africa. We booked a camping safari with Wild Dogs Safari based in Namibia. We had a fantastic time visiting Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. On the first day we were picked up from our hotel in Windhoek by our guide, Willem and we set off for Botswana with the only other guest in the group a young french man called Pierre The first night was spent in the San Lodge campsite - very remote and empty ( we were the only ones there). Paulus, our cook, prepared a delicious meal over a campfire and then we settled back and listened to the local San Bush women who joined us to tell some traditional tales by the fire. There was no light pollution and the stars were amazing. The following morning we were up early to go for a walk through the bush with the San Bushwomen who talked us through all the medicinal qualities of the various plants. Our favourite was the Brandy Bush which just about cures anything and another plant that could be crushed and mixed with goat dung to cure diarrhoea. I always wonder how people find these things out? After our walk through the bush it was back into the bus to head for the Okavango Delta. The journey to the Delta was very long but it was a chance to see the countryside - so flat and different from Rwanda. As we left the San Lodge a giraffe wandered out to say goodbye. Pierre was very happy as he had never seen a giraffe and we saw it just a few minutes after he told Willem he wanted to see a giraffe! We spent two days in the Guma Lagoon Lodge in the fabulous Okavango Delta. It was our favourite campsite (although all of them were very good). The lodge is pretty inaccessible so we had to change vehicle for the last hour of the journey and join Mpo and his wonderful old Landrover. There was a kitchen that Paulus could use to cook and we ate in the beautiful lagoonside sitting area. There was free tea and coffee always available and a bar where we could buy beer and wine! We were up early in the morning for a boat ride across the lagoon to our makoros (dug out canoes) where we spent a few hours with our guide, John, who expertly guided us with only a pole to propel and steer us along the river through the reeds and floating plants to a small island in the delta where we went for a walk. Frogs hopped in and out of the canoe hitching a ride and John had an amazing knowledge of the animals and plants in the area. It would have been very easy to get lost but John had grown up in the delta and knew his way around. The following day we had another long drive through the Caprivi strip in Namibia and did a game drive in Mahango Park before reaching Kwando. We saw lots of animals including hippos and water buffalo. There was a huge Baobab tree that was just calling out to be climbed! We visited the cultural village called Kwando TV (Traditional Village) before heading to the beautiful Camp Kwando. Another fab campsite with a bar and restaurant area overlooking the lake which was filled with the sounds of hippos. We caught the sunset and sunrise before we headed off back into Botswana. The cultural village was interesting. The Kwando Lodge where we were staying had once offered 'cultural' visits to the local village. Tourists having a nose really. I have always been a bit uncomfortable with this - and it seems so were the residents of the village. So they have set up a mock up village where locals will show you around their houses and give you a taste of how life was and in some cases still is in their village. The delightful Hadleigh was our guide. With the help of some of the locals they showed us how to pound the grain, set up traps for mice and bigger animals, we experienced some traditional music and dancing as well as the hippo drum! The dance was led by the medicine man who gave us all a clean bill of health! We left Camp Kwando and Namibia for the final time and returned to Botswana for two days at the Chobe Sfara Lodge at the edge of Chobe National park. We did an early morning game drive and a sunset boat safari along the Chobe river. Chobe is famous for having the most dense population of elephants. It is also great for seeing all animals especially in the dry season when they all come to the river to drink. We were visiting at the end of the rainy season and the vegetation was lush so we were less likely to see the big cats. Our expectations were quite high though as on our drive was an Irish girl who had been the day before and seen two leopards - one in a tree and a pride of lions and a lioness stalking. But the cats did not want to come out to play! But our Irish friend did show us her lovely pictures!! We saw very fresh lion footprints (our guide said we had just missed it) and a tree where a leopard had just left! But it was still all very impressive and we saw plenty of other animals including zebra, birds, giraffe, hippos, various antelope and two jackals that entertained us with their play for a while. An early morning start and off to our final destination - Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Our last camp site at the Explorers' Village Shearwater about a ten minute walk to the Falls. In the afternoon we went to the Falls and several people tried to sell / hire waterproofs. Pah! How wet can you get from a bit of waterfall mist! We could hear the thunder of the falls from our campsite so we should have realised that it was going to be very wet. We got soaked! But what an amazing place! The following day we decided that we couldn't miss the opportunity to see the Falls from the air and we booked a helicopter flight. Not a bad location for my first helicopter ride! What a great trip! A big thankyou to Wild dog safaris and especially Willhem and Paulus for looking after us so well. And of course our friend Pierre for being such fun to be with! Peppa Peppa. We flew back to Rwanda from Vic Fall airport. The leopard is the one Big Five animal that we have yet to see in the wild - who would have believed it - There is one in Victoria Falls airport.
The pilot on our Kenya Airways flight did a few loops around the falls so we had one last chance to see them as the sun was setting!
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3/24/2018 1 Comment Chez WatkinsAs promised, a blog about the house. It took us a long time to get this house but we have been living here now for nearly two months so let me show you around! A large (very large!) four bedroomed house in a stunning location overlooking Lake Kivu We have a very large garden with two avocado trees laden with avocado and a papaya tree with lots of fruit ripening. And banana trees and three guava trees which have loads of fruits on them. The garden is too big for us so we have just taken over a part of it for growing vegetables with the help of our delightful day guard, Gilbert, who has dug over the land and sowed cabbage, onion and carrot seeds for us. We have a rainwater harvesting tank (that is usually overflowing as we have soooo much rain). Our tap water is supplied from a large storage tank filled from the metered supply. This seems to be off most of the time and as it isn't very easy to see how much is in the tank, water in the house can be an issue. But we have a very helpful landlady who will ring someone from the water company who will get the water flowing again (not sure how! ) Inside the house - four large bedrooms all ensuite- two of them empty but nice views. One room currently used as a store room for work stuff and the other our bedroom We have four ensuite bathrooms plus an extra toilet. We have four hot water boilers for the showers but none of them works. Electrical wiring and plumbing is an interesting puzzle. In one bathroom if you turn on the water from the boiler (cold as it doesn't actually heat the water) the water doesn't come out of the shower head it comes out of a hole in the opposite wall under the sink! When we were living in Rwanda last time we didn't have a kitchen so this year we are really being spoiled with a large kitchen with tiled work surfaces and a sink - double drainer!! The tap is only over one sink and the drainage is a bit dodgy and sometimes the water ends up on the floor. But we didn't have a sink last time so we are loving it. Spot the Vim - I remember my mum using it to clean! We cook using a small electric two ring hob. And we boil and filter water for drinking. We don't use the cupboards under the work surface but we have plenty of room on the top. We also have a store cupboard and a utility room! Our living room is also big and the furniture we have is dwarfed by the space. But plenty of room for some of my team to come and work with me. And the dining room has nothing in it - but Glyn uses it to keep his bike overnight! So there you have it - a beautiful house in Rwanda!
I hope I have answered the question, "Will you be living in a mud hut?" and also hopefully squash the stereotypical view of life in Africa. 3/18/2018 0 Comments Doing the job I came to do!The team and I spent two days training teachers and headteachers this week. It was very full on and we had many 'challenges' but I have an excellent team and at the end of both days we were all very tired but happy that things had gone well. On Wednesday we welcomed 11 schools with around 80 teachers / headteachers to be trained in the new maths 'toolkit'. This is a resource to help lower primary school teachers improve their skills of teaching maths. I was concerned that teachers would be sceptical about the toolkits as the idea is that the teachers study in their own time. Primary teachers in Rwanda work very hard. School starts at 7:20 and they run a double shift system so half of the pupils attend in the morning and the other half in the afternoon. This means teachers teach until after 4:30 every day. However my fears were unfounded and the toolkits were well received. Part of the kit is a smart phone which contains preloaded video and audio material. Thee were two teachers who had never touched a smartphone before and needed a lot of extra support to learn how to use it. As the maths training is all delivered in Kinyarwanda I wasn't much use to the team apart from wandering around encouraging, doing a couple of 'energisers', smiling and practising my very poor kinyarwanda to the great amusement of everyone there! Hats off to my fab team of SLF (sector learning facilitators) who did a great job! Then on Friday we had a different group of schools who were attending the training for the English toolkit. As this training was delivered in English with some translation I was able to contribute a bit more. We had plenty of logistical issues to deal with. Having spent Thursday afternoon setting up the room, laying out tables and chairs and putting all of our display charts on the walls I arrived at the hotel feeling confident we were ready to go. Then the hotel manager came and told me we had to change rooms because he had taken a booking for the big room. I think he realised I wasn't best pleased and helped with the shifting of tables and chairs so we would be ready in time for the teachers when they arrived. And actually this second room had a lovely outside area overlooking the lake. We were also fortunate that it didn't rain (at least not during the training - just when we were on motos going home - we all got soaked then!) Overall we had a good couple of days. It is quite daunting to think we have 30 of these trainings to deliver all over the district and we won't always be at a well resourced hotel. Sometimes our training venue will be a school, church or small hall in a very remote area that will take a few hours to reach.
Probably my favourite picture of the two days is this one. We had several very cute - and very well behaved - babies attend the trainings with their mums. Here a primary school teacher is studying in order to improve her teaching skills in order to help the children of Rwanda - ie the baby on her back! 3/12/2018 0 Comments A busy week and weekendLast week the Nyayamsheke team was busy preparing for the pilot training we will be delivering next week to over 120 teachers and headteachers about the new toolkits we are going to be working with to help teachers in lower primary develop their English and maths teaching. I am part of a team - I am the District Teaching Advisor and I work with 7 Sector Learning Facilitators. These are a group of very hardworking Rwandans (who fortunately have very good English) and who have been very busy over the past few weeks visiting all 139 schools in our district collecting information and informing the schools about our project. Last week we joined with the Rusizi team (our neighbouring district) to finalise plans for our trainings. On Saturday our rugby team Resilience RFC had their first game of the 2018 National league and we were really looking forward to it. Since Resilience formed three years ago we haven't actually watched them play a league match (only friendlies) although I have always followed every game and kept their website (www.rusiziresilience.weebly.com ) up to date it was great to be able to go and support from the pitchside. They were playing Muhanga Thunders, a team coached by our very good friend Laurien. It is a long way from Muhanga to Rusizi and Laurien's team had left home at 4am. This is always the challenge that Resilience face as the nearest team is many hours' journey away on the other side of the Nyungwe rainforest. But this was a home game. The team were there early preparing the pitch and making a try line in the long grass. It was due to kick off at 1pm, and it did! Resilience play on the sportsground at TTC Mururu which is the teacher training college I worked at in 2013 - 2014 and where Glyn started rugby off in 2014. Many of the TTC students (both former and current) play for Resilience RFC, it is great to see Glyn's legacy! Although the Principal of the college has changed, the new one, Brother Augustin is a great supporter and came and sat with us to watch the game. We were also with Emmanuel, a local headteacher and president of Resilience RFC. Over the years we have brought many team shirts, balls, boots and other equipment out with us to Rwanda. It was good to see that all players had decent playing gear. Resilience was playing in shirts from RTB (Ebbw Vale) and Muhanga in New Tredegar RFC shirts so it was a welsh valleys derby. The final score was 15 - 10 to Resilience so we were very happy to witness a win! Great celebrations and the cap for Man of the Match was presented to Frederick by Br Augustin We had a chat to Donatien the team captain at the end of the game and Glyn and I were also interviewed for the local radio about the progress of rugby in Rusizi. ![]() Me with the captain and president of Resilience RFC As I was back at the TTC I took the opportunity to visit the Teacher Resource Centre (my old classroom) with Dieudonne, the tutor I had worked with for the year. It was great to see it still full of exciting resources and to know that Dieudonne is continuing to do a good job! We travelled back home on Glyn's bike with no problems at all and enjoyed Sunday. Gilbert, our guard, didn't want to wait for the last of the avocados to fall from the tree in our garden and climbed up to pick them. The good news is - we have another avocado tree with lots of young ones growing! Zachee, my former student, came to visit us on Sunday with some furniture he had had made for us. He had travelled for several hours to get to us. It was great to see him as he had been ill for nearly two weeks with malaria. Fortunately he has made a full recovery. 3/12/2018 0 Comments The motorbike!Glyn has been given a motorbike to travel around on. It is great because it gives us freedom but there have been a few issues with it. The cable that attaches to the spark plug is missing a cap to hold it in place. This means it regularly comes off. It is currently held on with a piece of tin can that Glyn has cut out and bent around the cable. My dad would be very proud of such improvisation. Last week we were on our way home from Kamembe ( a journey of about an hour) and the bike ground to a halt. Assuming it was the cable again Glyn poked at it with a stick as did a helpful Rwandan who stopped by to help. But it wasn't the cable - it was fuel. (There isn't a fuel gauge by the way) (or a speedometer for that matter) I have regularly been on a moto in Rwanda and it has run out of fuel (moto drivers here regularly drive around on fumes). The solution is to jump off and the driver lies the bike down and gives it a shake. It is surprising how you can go on a good shake. But we were still 45 minutes from home so the 'tip and shake' wasn't going to be enough to get us home! Two moto drivers stopped to help. One of them gave Glyn a lift back to the petrol station (he happened to have an empty can that Glyn could use. (I hope it wasn't to be used for water). I stayed with the bike. So many people stopped to see if I needed help - lots of chances to use my kinyarwanda 'Ntakibazo murakoze cyane' (no problem thanks) Topped up with fuel and we were back on our way. It is very useful to have a bike that we can pop to the shops on!
And we have a big house so there is plenty of room to keep the bike! And did you realise that Apple made bikes?! We just need a name for it now- any suggestions anyone? 3/3/2018 0 Comments An experience with the policeOn Monday 26th February I went along with Glyn who was doing a training at Ntendezi Primary school with the teachers. This is one of the schools that I will be working with so it was a good opportunity for me to meet the Headteacher and teachers and as this school has a special class for children with additional needs (a first for the district of Nyamasheke) I was keen to see how this works and meet the special needs teacher. We had great fun as usual with the training session with 15 teachers and the headteacher. The training ended at 12 and after the rain stopped we got ready to leave. Glyn gave a lift to one of his RwandaAid colleagues, Jean Nipo, to the main road and I started to walk. Glyn came back for me and I jumped on the back of the moto and we went back home (about 30mins)
When we got home I realised I had lost my phone. With the benefit of technology (and Glyn!) we tracked the phone and worked out it was where I got on the bike, just down the road from the school and it was still there. So, back on the bike! We got there but no sign of the phone but according to the 'Find my phone' app it was near. We were right next to the District Police Headquarters so i wandered in and after speaking (lots of sign language) to several very helpful policemen I found one who spoke good English and explained the situation. When they realised the phone could be tracked this caused great interest. Several policemen gathered around Glyn's phone and decided it wasn't far away. They had no transport available so one very burly policeman jumped on the back of Glyn's moto and left with Glyn's phone in his hand. He directed Glyn for over an hour and they went all over the place and even reached the edge of the rainforest. They always seemed to be close. At one point they enlisted another moto. The policeman jumped on the back of the moto and the moto's passenger joined Glyn. Sadly no photos - we didn't think it would be appropriate. In the meantime I was sitting in the grounds of the police station. They wouldn't let me sit in a covered area that had benches (I think it may have been some sort of holding area) but brought me a chair to sit on. I had dozens of 'conversations' with various policemen and locals all very interested in hearing about my 'problem'. Eventually Glyn and Frodoire the burly policeman returned. Despite best efforts they hadn't been able to locate the phone. I didn't realise it but I had been chatting to the Director of the police for the district. (He wasn't in uniform). He came and introduced himself to Glyn and was so determined that he would find the phone. He gave us his contact details and asked to call in with further details about it the following day as they were not going to give up. When we finally got home we had another look to see where the phone was but the battery had died so the signal had stopped. But looking at the last recorded location it was still near the school and the police HQ. It hadn't moved. The 'Find my phone' app showed where my lost phone is and also the location of Glyn's phone. We realised that the police were actually following Glyn's phone which is why they were always so close. My phone had not moved! So I rang the headteacher at the school and asked if she could mention it to the children in the school and also ask around the neighbourhood as it was there somewhere. I know what you are thinking - no chance! But remember this is Rwanda. The following day we had a call from the school. The grandmother of one of the children had picked up the phone. It was in her house. She brought the phone to the school and gave it back to Glyn. She is very poor and didn't have a phone. We had an old simple phone that we gave her as a reward for returning my phone. So a huge thank you to the police for all their time and effort, the school for helping us to locate the phone and most of all to the lady for handing it back. And also to Glyn for the technical stuff and for 'agreeing' to take the large burly copper on a wild phone chase! (And sorry you missed your meeting) And for me - I am very happy to get my phone back and will not be putting it in my back pocket when on the moto again. Yet another heart warming story from the land of a thousand hills. 2/24/2018 0 Comments February 24th, 2018After the baseline data collection finished I was in Muhanga in the Splendid Hotel. By a very lucky coincidence the following day a good friend of mine and ex teacher colleague from Welsh Water, Helga, was coming to Rwanda to visit a link school. She was coming to Muhanga and was staying for the week in the Splendid Hotel! So instead of going back to Kigali with the rest of the team I stayed in Muhanga. Glyn joined me and we went to stay for the weekend with Jan and Ronin fellow volunteers who live in Muhanga. It was a pleasant weekend we went for a walk, Glyn borrowed a bike from a local (he was missing his bike!) It was great to meet up with Sharon and Helga and find out how their visit to their link school (Mushabati Primary) was going On Monday we were due to leave Muhanga. Our house was ready in Nyamasheke and the furniture and our luggage (yes I was still using that small bag of smelly clothes!) was being brought from Kigali. We were going to be picked up around 10am which would mean we would be in our new house late afternoon. It was all looking good. Then I had a text message from Christian who was organising everything for me "you are going to kill me.." We had to delay by a day as the vehicle that was supposed to be transporting us and our luggage was full of other volunteers! So we delayed a day. On Tuesday we were picked up the delightful Bernard and reached Nyamasheke mid afternoon. We had our luggage but there was an issue with the furniture. Some had made it to Nyamasheke, but not all. Christian asked - "do you need a hot plate tonight?" (in other words - do you plan on eating today?) He then added that it was a rhetorical question! No hot plate = no food = raid the emergency chocolate supply (thank goodness we did have our luggage). ![]() ![]() The bed was also a challenge as the base they brought was narrower than the bed! The house is in a stunning location with amazing views over the lake. It is also huge with four massive bedrooms, a large living room, a dining room, big kitchen and various other rooms - for washing clothes etc. There are five bathrooms with four hot water boilers next to the showers. So in theory we should have hot water for showers. But none of them are plumbed in. Some have inlets and no outlets, some are not connected to the power. With one when you turn on the shower the water comes out of a hole in the opposite wall. The kitchen has electric sockets but they don't work! Our landlady - the delightful Ernestina, is trying to help get some of these issues fixed and has turned up with various electricians and plumber to get things sorted. Not quite happened yet but we are getting there! For some time we didn't have any chairs. But we do have Glyn's motorbike! And I have made some curtains - so "slow by slow' we will make our house a home!
2/23/2018 0 Comments Defining ruralThe past two weeks have been very busy. I had a second week of visiting schools in the Western Province in the sectors of Ngororero and Karongi. Stunning scenery and very steep hills! Every day involved a long car journey and sometimes a hike by foot to reach the schools. The most challenging by far was one school where we spent an hour and a half by car followed by two and half hours on foot. I had been told in the morning by Sam, our team leader, that the Headteacher had contacted him and said it had been raining cats and dogs - and the 'way' was very bad. We were met by the Headteacher at the start of the walk. He said it usually took an hour. The rest of the team said you could always double the time at least as the Headteacher would usually walk much faster than us. It was very slippery and very steep. Going up wasn't so bad but the steep downhill sections were like ice and I regretted the sandals and wished I had decent walking boots. After two hours we reached a swollen river - the bridge had been washed away. A group of locals built us a stepping stones bridge out of large boulders which wobbled when you stood on them! We all made it across although I did have a near fall into the water and was saved by one of the locals who then tried to pick me up and carry me the rest of the way! One of the team refused to cross going over the stones and with the help of a local waded through a shallower part of the river. After another very steep slippery climb we finally reached the school. The two weeks of working with the data collecting team came to an end and we said our goodbyes.
We had been a great team and had shared many experiences together. We visited nine schools over the two weeks and observed around 60 Maths and English lessons as well as testing hundreds of children for Maths and English. Hopefully the data we collected and those from the other 16 teams will help to build a national picture of the levels and Maths and English in lower primary across Rwanda and will be a useful baseline for us before we start training teachers. It was sad to say goodbye to Team A although we are still in regular communication via What's App. It's yet another experience I won't forget. 2/5/2018 0 Comments Still waiting.......Can we have the house? Yes When can we have it? Well that is proving to be a more difficult one to answer. We have now been in Rwanda for almost five weeks and are still waiting for a house to move into. I'm currently in Karongi (half way up Lake Kivu), Glyn is in Rusizi (about three hours away) at the bottom of Lake Kivu and our luggage is all stored in a hotel in Kigali on the other side of Rwanda. I am currently managing with very few clothes (in their second week of wearing) so if I am not reunited with my luggage and clean clothes pretty soon I am going to lose the new friends I have made! The house has been promised for next week - we will see. I left Kigali a week and a half ago having packed all the luggage for the umpteenth time and stored it in a spare room at the Hosanna guesthouse. Then I travelled with my data collecting team across Rwanda by car to Nyamasheke to stay once again in the Ishara Beach Motel. It is a beautiful location right on the edge of Lake Kivu and is best described as a hotel with potential. There is even a helicopter landing pad alongside the extensive grounds. It has WiFi - but it doesn't work! We had a VIP room with a separate living room - three remote controls but no TV. The mosquito net was sparkly and had beads on it and a fancy opening all down one side which meant the mozzies found their way in causing a nightly game of mozzie tennis - usually around 4am. Every morning we would open the curtains to be greeted by an eagle sat in the tree right outside. As the hotel is only an hour's drive from where Glyn is working he joined me for the week. He borrowed a car and was driving into Rusizi for work at the Rwanda Aid offices. I spent a week in Nyamasheke at the hotel with a team of fab Rwandans. I was the token muzungu causing chaos in all the schools we visited as they were pretty remote and many of the children had not seen a white person before. In one school we were told by some of the children it was only the second time they had known a car to come to the school. My role in the team is to observe teachers teaching maths in lower primary classes. As the children in these classes are taught in Kinyarwanda I have a translator - the delightful Gratien who is so patient with me. We are collecting baseline data on the standard of maths teaching and as there are 17 teams all over Rwanda the idea is to build up a national picture of teaching standards. Other members of the team are testing children's levels of English and Maths, interviewing teachers and the Headteacher and there is also another team member who is observing the teaching of English. We spend the whole day at the schools. As most of the schools are pretty remote we set off early and sometimes have to walk part of the way as the roads become inaccessible even in a 4X4 with very experienced Rwandan drivers. We have had a few interesting drives and got stuck a few times. One log bridge had collapsed but the locals soon appeared to help repair it enough for us to get across. See the school on the hill behind me? That is where we were going! ![]() Made it to the top - the views alone were worth the climb. My colleague and translator, Gratien It rains a lot in Nyamasheke - we are right on the edge of the Nyungwe Rainsforest so I guess it's not really surprising. Dark clouds rolled in most days and we were watching the weather carefully as the roads were only just accessible in dry weather. In one school that we visited we were told that occasionally in bad weather the teachers are stuck and sleep in the classrooms. As soon as it started to rain we hotfooted it back down the hill to the safety of the car taking only a fraction of the thirty minutes we had needed on the ascent. For four days the team worked hard, leaving early in the morning to reach schools and we sometimes needed to walk the final leg as roads were narrow and steep or the little bridges were not wide enough to accommodate a car. Moto drivers still managed to make their way up the steep slopes. This one was carrying a mattress! On Thursday February 1st there was a bank holiday - Heroes' Day which is equivalent to our Remembrance day back home. As there was no work and the schools were shut it was an opportunity to head into Rusizi and visit the beautiful Hotel Emeraude. We received a very warm welcome from Eugene the manager and the other staff. We also met up with Emmanuel the Headteacher at ECPS Primary to help him with his application for British Council funding so that the school they are linked with can send some teachers out to visit. It is a very lengthy process and the deadline is looming but fingers crossed. We worked for several hours but Emmanuel still had a lot of further work to do over the next few days. It was lovely to be back in Rusizi. We stayed all day and left just as the sun was starting to go down. I never tire of the beautiful views of the lake. We had a final weekend in the Ishara Beach hotel and managed to watch Wales beat Scotland very convincingly in the first game of the Six Nations. With no Wifi we used a fair bit of data (about £2) but it was worth it - and it was Glyn's data! On Sunday it was time to leave Nyamasheke. I was going north with the team to Karongi ready to visit another round of schools. Glyn headed south back to Rusizi. Shortly before we parted company we received the very sad news that a very good friend of ours had passed away the night before. We had the news on World Cancer day. He had been bravely battling cancer by living his life to the full. As well as being a lovely lovely man who will be sorely missed by all who knew him, the way he lived in that final year is a lesson to us all - make the most of it, whatever you choose to do. I am looking forward to being with Glyn again so we can reflect and share a beer or two in true Mike style. But in the meantime a happy memory photo from just over a year ago - the famous Bodega Band reunion gig. The hotel I am currently staying in is fantastic. Beautiful views (of course), the rooms and the food are excellent too. Not sure that Glyn is quite so lucky! There is WiFi. And it works. And three very important features - a bath, hot water and most vital of all - a plug! Perhaps I will keep my new friends after all. Right signing off now - our team leader has requested that we leave at 6:28 tomorrow morning.
Hopefully next time I write we will be in our new home.............. Thanks for reading! 1/22/2018 1 Comment Keeping busy in KigaliGood news is - we have been told we can have the house we wanted but we are still waiting for the 'procedures' to be completed so are still currently in Kigali. I have trainings with the rest of the volunteers for the remainder of the week but am hoping that by next week we will move into our new home in Nyamasheke. In the meantime we have been keeping busy in Kigali. It was lovely to have a visit from Peter who used to be our top waiter at Hotel Des Chutes but now is doing very well and in his final year at university in Karongi studying mechanical engineering. He is a great example of a hardworking, intelligent young Rwandan who has worked and saved so hard to get through university. On Saturday we went to the Amahoro stadium to meet the members of the Rwanda Rugby Federation who were having their AGM. It was an interesting moto ride to get there as most of the main roads had been closed so we took lots of dirt road back streets - good preparation if I ever take up rodeo. Great to see rugby developing so well in Rwanda. Check out their website www.rwandanrugby.com Then in the evening we met again with Samuel and Donatien from Resilience RFC. I had some boots that had been donated for the team to hand over. Big thanks to Helen Farmer from Abersychan. They loved them. The nighttime view (with lopsided moon) from the guesthouse of Kigali is stunning. Then this morning I went to visit Chameleon Resources. This is a business set up by Terry a former Early Childhood Education (ECE) VSO volunteer. The business makes nursery school resources using local people (carpenters, tailors. story tellers etc). I have bought lots of items over the years. John is one of my former students of ECE from TTC Mururu. With help from various groups I have been able to fund furniture and resources for John to set up a very successful nursery in his village (where there is no local school). Big thanks to my colleagues from the Comms team at Welsh Water for their leaving gift - now spent on resources for John's new nursery class (he has been able to expand and add a new classroom). The furniture for the classroom has been funded by the Hereford Rotary club. Last week John sent me this photo of the furniture he has has made by local carpenters. Here he is cleaning the new classroom ready for Nursery 2. With the help of the local church they have two rooms they can now use for two classes. . It was lovely to see John again and to see him receive training from Christian (from Chameleon) using the resources. ![]() Having learned how to use the resources it was time to try and carry them away. They fitted into a large rice sack (took a few attempts) And then it was time to negotiate with the moto driver! There is actually a moto driver in front of that large sack! This is just the beginning of the journey. Tomorrow John will take the sack of resources onto two buses and another moto and make the ten hour journey back to his school. I am really looking forward to visiting and seeing the children playing with all of these great toys. So a big thank you to all of you who have helped me with funding the nursery. More pictures to follow when I manage to visit. But in the meantime I am in Kigali staying at the lovely Hosanna guesthouse. Fish brochette is on the menu and it has become a standing joke - every night I ask if fish brochette is available. Every night I am told yes. Every night they come back and say sorry - they thought it was but actually it's not! Then tonight we received a What's App from Emmy, one of the waiters, that they had fish brochette tonight. And they did And it was yummy! Hopefully the next instalment will be from our new home.
Glyn will be moving to Rusizi from Wednesday so hopefully it won't be too long before I can also head to the western province and we can set up our home. Thanks for reading! |
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December 2018
Preparing to go back to our second home
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