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on Sarah's Blog (Rwanda), 13/Oct/2009 13:24, 34 days ago
'the views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO'.Saturday 10th October 2009I woke in the morning after a very restless nights sleep...feeling decidedly poorly and sorry for myself...I decided that although I wanted to spend the weekend out of the village...really I needed to head home and go to bed...after asking round for a while, we were eventually spotted by the moto driver Alexis...he offered to take me back to the house...but I explained that I wanted to get the bus as I was not feeling very well...he was very understanding and explained where the bus went from and at what times...I returned a short while later and there was a bus there ready and waiting...I got on waited for it to fill up and depart...20 minutes later I was still sat there...then the engine started...but we were turning round...why the hell are we going in the wrong direction???!!! Oh no...just getting fuel...then we were on our way...oh no...we are going back to where we started to wait for yet more passengers...after some time...several more passengers and an argument or two we were finally off...and I was back in Gisagara...where it was blowing a gale...the street was foggy with dust in the air...and the rain was on its way...but I was stopped by a nun on my way home...we had a brief chat and I explained that I don’t speak much Kinyarwanda...but I understand some French but I am not very good at speaking it...she explained that she didn’t speak any English...but this didn’t seem to matter...Her name was Francois and she lived in the convent behind where they are building the supermarket (and it will berun by the nuns) I think I was invited to visit and she would teach me both Kinyarwanda and French...then she asked if I was a Catholic...I said no...she then asked if I believed in god and I replied that I didn’t know...wasn’t quite sure what she would do otherwise...but she just laughed and seemed to accept that (which makes a nice change!). By the time I got home the rain was starting...and I just made it into the house before the most almighty storm...I was feeling much better and thought that maybe I had been healed by the nun...no such luck...about an hour later...I was feeling rubbish again...I made my bed...and there I stayed...listening to Harry Potter story tapes...for the next 3 days...'the views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO'.Friday 9th October 2009Today we were visited by Charlotte from the VSO programme office...it was a welcome visit...mainly as she came baring gifts of a new kerosene lamp that will hopefully work, and rice sacks on which to make some resources for schools...just basic things like number squares etc...any ideas that people think might be useful and can be displayed in a classroom on a rice sack...please let me know! I started in the district office and decided to try and walk in my new walking shoes...why on earth I thought that this would be a good idea is completely beyond me! Why they are called walking shoes...when then smallest amount of walking left me nearly crippled in pain as the skin was torn from my toes...bit by bit...is absolutely beyond me!!! Walking shoes my a***...I think I will struggle to sit with them on...however...it may have been partly my fault for thinking that they could be worn in without socks on! Anyway...I managed to make it home...bleeding toes and all (I was just relieved that my toes were still attached to my foot!!!) where we were met by Charlotte and Bosco (the driver) The previously mentioned items were dropped at the house...weekend bags which had already been packed were collected and we left on a whistle stop tour of the schools the new head teachers will be working in when they arrive in January...we started with Cyamakuza...which is a nice school...we had a short meeting with the head and then a brief tour of the school and the grounds...just before we left I was handed the form for the school to apply to be a model school...will be nice to have a school in walking distance...(although I was secretly hoping that Nyaruninya school would also had their form in too...and they were the next stop...on the way...I thought I saw an awful sight and couldn’t understand why no one was panicking...I thought a mother had dropped her child from the sling on her back...meaning that the child would have hit the floor with quite a bang...as it happened...the children had been walking and toppled...At Nyaruninya the school was as welcoming as ever...but again we didn’t stop for long...the teachers from the schools where the other head will be working in, in Kibirizi, were at the sector office...so we agreed to meet them there...these meetings were even shorter than the previous ones. From there it was onto Butare...where we to have lunch...I had not realised that a Croquet Madame was basically a toasted sandwich with cheese and pineapple...or is that just a Rwandan thing? Although it was very strange...it was edible...I stayed in Butare as I had to get a green card and get some money out of the bank...the green card was a none starter...and Ishould have thought about that...with it being Friday afternoon...the bank was a little more successful though (thank god!). I was to stay in Butare for the night with Melanie...before heading to Nyanza for the rest of the weekend...the first job when Melanie arrived was to collect her birthday present from the DLR office...this was done and we went to open the parcel with a drink in Matar...the present can only be described as the most incredible...beautiful...amazing chocolates from France...which due to the time they had taken to arrive...had in fact gone mouldy! Even the wooded box and the cloth bag were covered in mould...in was so sad!!! We managed to rescue some of them...but it was not a pretty sight! We headed to the Africana lodge to drop our thing before heading out for drinks and dinner...I hadn’t had beer for so long!!! We chatted the night away...gossiping witha coupleof drinks...and then headed back to the room.