Stepping into the unknown....
on Sarah's Blog (Rwanda), 16/Nov/2009 14:48, 34 days ago
Monday 16th November 2009Following a quiet weekend at home, having decided not to go the‘bad taste’ party on Saturday, I really had to work to drag myself out of bed this morning...the prospect of sitting in the weekly meeting was not a thrilling one...and as a result...and not uncharacteristically, I was late...however...I was not the only one...there were several district workerson the back of motorbikes...hammering along at full speed...but when we got to the meeting hall where the meeting is held...nobody was there and it was already 7.10am...by which time the meeting is usually well and truly underway...and I am dozing in my chair...but that was not going happen today...after only sitting there for a couple of minutes...discussing all the various reasons why we might not be having a meeting...someone came over and informed us that there would be no meeting today as all district staff were to go and plant trees as part of a national project linking in with the environmental awareness week...not sure what it is called but think it might be an international thing? Anyway...the first car of people set off...obviously, if we are doing something to save the environment we should drive there...but we walked...we are the good ones...myself Ruairi and Alexis set offfor Nyarunyinya where the trees were to planted...before we knew it we had got back to our house where we had started less than an hour ago...we had lost all of the other workers who had been just behind us...then we realised that actually, Alexis had no idea where we were supposed to be going...thankfully we realised this before we walked all the way down the really steep hill...we called one of the other district workers and were informed that we were meeting by the 7th Day Adventists church, which is just behind our house...only there were no people there...after some discussion the three of us headed down a narrow path, following a 4x4 which was apparently going to the same place...and there we were...none of us knowing where we were or where we were going..but we plodded on anyway...there was much moaning a whinging about just how far we were walking...but for once it did not come from me...after walking for a hour...not knowing if we were going the right way...we arrived at a huge pile of saplings...we collected a tree each (we were only allowed to carry one at time...although they were only the size of a can of beans...it would have been just too much strain for one of our party members!) as we headed on...trees in hand, we were informed that we were going to only make this journey once as Alexis was tired...once at the tree plantation there were people everywhere and the trees were being placed by holes which had been dug in preparation. All this was supposed to startat 7am...yet we hadn’t even arrived until well gone 8am and we were by no means the last people to arrive...after standing around for another hour or so...we managed to find a hoe to start actually planting the small trees...Ruairi had gone off in search of something to do...I stayed with Alexiswho wanted to do nothing at all! Perched on a rock...I listened to conversations (in Kinyarwanda) of my colleagues from the district...it was a group of men (maybe in this situation referring to them as boys would be more fitting!) they were laughing and laughing and felt the need to translate thisconversation for me...I really wish that they hadn’t...they were comparing the hoes they were using to their ‘manhood’ as one of the guys had a very small hoe, probably meant for a child...thankfully, they only felt the need to translate and repeat the discussion 3 times before the subject was changed...Alexis did not join in...Eventually after being subjected to such discussion, and very bad Rwandan pop music played through a phone...we were all called to the hillside for a meeting, where we would be addressed by the Mayor of the district and the Minister for youth and culture (who isresponsible for our district) we found a seat on the grass, but were made to come and sit at the front...the speeches were in Kinyarwandan and lasted far longer than I would have liked! Apparently there was talk of the lazyness of the youth, the importance of trees, and why we should look after theenvironment...this was all by 3rd hand translation, Alexis translated into French for Ruairi and then Ruairi into English for me...Alexis also explained to Ruairi what a forest was...just in case we were unsure! I also had an interesting conversation with one of the girls from the district...about whether I had a car back in the UK...I explained that I didn’t as I didn’t need one...which was a shock...I then went on to say that they were bad for the environment...and this seemed to come as a complete surprise to the girl...she is university educated, yet still had no idea that cars are badfor the environment...and went on to ask how and why this was...So, finally at about 11.30am...it was over, it had started to drizzle but we headed back up the hill (oh, did I not mention that nearly all of our hours walk to the tree planting sight had been down quite a steep hill!!!) but thankfully, Alexis was in no mood to be walking back up the hill, he suggested that we walk ‘quickly’ (about average walking pace) back to where the district car was parked and see if we can get a lift, if not we will walk slowly back (slowly is just about not in reverse!) To everyone’s relief, more tocombat the moaning than anything else...oh who am I kidding...I did NOT want to walk back up the hill!!!!...we got proper seats rather than huddling in the back of the pick up...and we were back at the house in no time...dirty, bitten and a little on the damp side! But all in all the morning shouldbe considered both an adventure and a success...700 trees were planted in Nyarunyinya in our district and 300,000 in total across Rwanda...not bad for a mornings work!