Rain has its uses!
on Melissa Hipkins (Rwanda), 31/Mar/2010 13:04, 34 days ago
Aphrodise and I had a productive day yesterday. There has been a piece of guttering that's been lying around in the courtyard for some time now, and I've been on at him to find a ladder so I can fix it above the back steps. For a country that is blessed with two rainy seasons and a long dry, it is only very recently that the concept of gutters and collecting the water that flows along said gutters has become accepted. Schools and government buildings are now built with these in place or are having them retro-fitted. This in combination with large plastic tanks makes the schools in particular more independent of the very wobbly water supply. The want of guttering on our house means we get water down our necks every time we go down these steps during or soon after rain.I caught Aphrodise staring into the middle distance while I was waving goodbye to the man who had carried the crate of beer home for me. I reminded him of the ladder, and, as it wasn't the first time, thought no more about it. About an hour later, he turned up triumphantly with a wooden ladder which unfortunately proved to be 3 feet too short to reach the fascia. After a bit of discussion and debate on the merits of getting a much longer and heavier ladder, we hit upon the idea of lashing a small metal ladder to the top of the wooden ladder with a nylon washing line. I was in charge of lashing as I was to be the mug going up this contraption.The fact that the two legs of the ladder were not of equal length was an additional hazard and it meant chocking with a brick to limit the swaying. The rungs had been nailed in place and to save on weight they had only placed them every 2 feet. So with some trepidation I climbed up with hammer and nail to begin the process.Lucy had had the inspired idea of sending inside the only package we have received from the UK some long cable ties which were ideal for suspending the gutter once I had placed the nails in the fascia. The aerial cable and power supply for Aphrodise's satellite dish got in the way at one time, but everything worked out in the end and a test with water poured in one end showed it to be capable of doing the job.After finishing and clearing away, Aphrodise came in to wash his hands and have a drink. He had been looking at some of the plants growing in the little bit of garden we have and I showed him the other seeds we had brought or been sent. Some he was familiar with, some he thought he knew and I gave him a few courgette and chive seeds to try.On the strength of this, he offered me a patch of ground behind one of his buildings to give me more space. He and I will share it and I think I had better begin to dig it over soon even though it is not virgin soil like the beds in our courtyard.A storm in the afternoon enabled me to assess the efficiency of the gutter, and I was able to fill the 50 litre wash tub from the outpouring in about 20 minutes. It meant we could use the water for cooking and I think it will save us having to boil all our drinking water, this will only need filtering.The rain spoiled Oliver's wedding on Sunday, it never stopped all day. Oliver is the mayor's assistant/secretary and very much on the up. He has plans to go into politics, but on a local level only I think. He told Melanie he wanted to get marriedAll three of us had been invited and as it was a very posh do, we needed to dress appropriately. Melissa had brought out good clothes as that was expected for her job, but I had nothing like a suit or good shoes. As things turned out, Melanie's boyfriend (now ex) had been out recently and had for an indeterminate reason left the suit he had travelled in together with an acceptable rose shirt. Rather than cut them up, she offered me the use. He is about my size and it's a good enough fit for occasional use. The only thing I was missing were the shoes. Shoes are the fashion itempar excellencein Rwanda. The drawback is that the current mode is for excessively long toes that have a square end and the habit of curling up like skis. This together with the lack of any sizes above 44 or a 10 means my choice was very restricted. After a fruitless search in Kigali, Zebounissa suggested someone she knew dealing in second hand shoes in the market. Innocent, her right hand in matters of acquiring stuff went with me to meet this merchant.He had a pair of size 13s that were less outrageouslyoutréthan anything else I had seen but it took some hard bargaining to get him down from 35000Rfr to a still steep 25000Rfr. With a bit of Cherry Blossom and a yellow duster, they were rehabilitated to almost shoe box condition. To be fair, they are more comfortable worn for the day than the pair I usually wear in the UK.Oliver had had the civil wedding service 2 weeks earlier, but the culmination was to be the church service. Rumour had it that 500 had been invited, and that the whole affair was costing Oliver over 2 million Rwandan francs.Melissa and Melanie were to be dressed in the Rwandan fashion and needed to collect the material on the morning of the ceremony. On a sunny day, it would have been adequate, but on this particular Sunday the weather was nothing like balmy, more like a dull day in Wales and the traditional dress was to hide warm undergarments in order to endure a lot of sitting about.We walked thus accoutred about a kilometre to the church through persistent but light rain. It was unclear whether this was the right church as neither Melissa or Melanie could see anyone they recognised, so we waited under the porch of an adjoining building watching for familiar faces. The ceremony may have been delayed due to the weather but no one was sure. After reassurance from the presence of a number of heads of schools, we took our seats in the body of the church.Initially we were regaled by a choir of brightly dressed singers accompanied by drum machines and digital tracks with occasional flurries on keyboards. It took about an hour before bride and groom and entourage arrived looking very smart, the whole group in complementary outfits.The service followed a complicated pattern and we remained unenlightened as to what actually went on, but Melanie, an aficionado of this sort of thing was impressed that it was completed within only an hour and a half.The rain had become progressively heavier, the noise from the roof of the church rivalling the quieter passages, made even quieter sometimes by power cuts. The end to proceedings led to a lot of milling about by the doors looking at the rain with no-one keen to brave the mud and wet in their best clothes. By degrees, transport appeared to take everyone in shifts to the reception outside in the grounds of the Old King's palace about 2 miles away.Wedding reception brings images of food and strong drink, but in Rwanda, at this do anyway, no such thing. The families and friends of the bride and groom are allocated seats in shelters designed to keep off the sun located either side of an arena. This was divided in the centre by a cloth covered walkway and arches. At the end of this ceremonial avenue was a tented area for the married couple and attendants.Once again, the two principals did not arrive for about an hour at which point Intore dancers entertained everyone, the dancing interspersed by speeches from the heads of the respective families. bottles of Fanta were soon distributed and the cakes brought out for display. It was getting fairly late by now and Melanie had to go to meet her mum arriving on the bus from Kigali. We were unsure how we were getting back so we slipped out with her, not seeing how they would be able to continue meaningfully in the dark. We gratefully accepted a lift from the executive secretary who took us to our door. We had asked if someone would save us some cake, but we have yet to taste what looked pretty special on the cake stands.