The dry season continues
on Melissa Hipkins (Rwanda), 22/Jul/2010 11:36, 34 days ago
For all it's the dry season, the sky is often dull and overcast, especially in the mornings. There is a breakthrough by the sun about 11 most mornings but it is not getting oppressively hot. The dust continues to annoy. Despite Jacky's washing of the floor, the soles of socks worn in the evening to deter the attentions of the mosquitoes pick up further accumulations brought in under the door during the often windy days. The herbs in the patch of garden at the front are suffering from their layer of grime, a layer that is not readily removed by simple irrigation with the old washing up water they receive. We have begun to rely on the ready supply of fresh herbs to enliven the flavour of the food and we're distressed that they all look as though they are going to seed. We should get a good crop from those seeds when the dry finally breaks but we'll probably have to wait until the middle of September for that.The scanner, generously supplied by BCF, arrived in Kigali 10 days ago but it is still languishing in customs waiting for all manner of forms to be completed before its release. Most of the action is centred on Busogo where the exemption forms and memoranda of understanding have to be signed. These free the scanner from attracting import duty and VAT. Communication between all parties has been a problem. Complaints by FedEx about unanswered phone calls and warnings about the whole package being liable to be sent back have made us very anxious over the whole process, especially as there is still quite a lot of money owed by ISAE in the way of storage and release fees.We have planned to be out of the country during the immediate run up to Election Day. Some while ago Melissa booked a fortnight in Ethiopia and we fly to Addis Ababa on Friday week, 7 days before polling day.We attended another wedding last Sunday, the bride, Jacqueline, being a head of school and an acquaintance of Melissa. It was at the Catholic Cathedral in Nyanza, not far from where we live so a relatively easy stroll. Unusually for a Rwandan event, it started pretty much on time. All the wedding cars had arrived before we got there but for some indeterminate reason, the interested parties stayed in the cars for a good 15 minutes before getting out. It did not seem as though they were waiting for anyone else and after some unseen signal they assembled and things got under way. The entire congregation pressed around the main doors while the priest welcomed the couples with a preliminary address. (This was a marriage in tandem; whether the couples were related or knew each other, or merely an arrangement to split the costs was not obvious) After the priest had completed his oration, the couples entered followed by the guests in a scrum for the front seats. It doesn't do to stand back and be polite in this country. If there is a perceived shortage of good seats, you'll get pushed out or trampled on. In this instance, we were not anxious to be to the fore, but when it comes to, say, a place on the bus you need to be brutal or endure the journey on the uncomfortable gangway seats.As it was, all the seats in the cathedral were equally uncomfortable being low wooden benches fixed to the floor. Marriage services here are hard to follow being obscured by the language and appearing to be more religious in tone. There are no hymns to speak of but a choir had been engaged to bolster any singing and to divert the audience with their repertoire before the main business began. There was much recording of the event by teams photographing and videoing; a lot of it looking pretty intrusive to the ceremony especially with the use of a halogen light on a pole to overcome the rather gloomy interior. Regular excursions up and down the aisles filming those present seemed a requirement; it's hard to ignore a camera pointed for prolonged periods at you.All through the afternoon, there was a constant flow of people in and out of the church; I don't think it was for fag breaks as very few people seem to smoke in Rwanda. In the same way there was no general agreement among those present about standing or sitting during the more important moments of the service. Whether this expressed a relaxed atmosphere and peoples' freedom to interpret the moment or a disregard for any gravity in the day I wasn't sure. Our attention was held by the efforts that had been made by parents to dress up some of the children. The sight of a pair of very young boys in white suits and tail coats parading in and out of the church pursued intermittently by their mother kept us amused. I was also interested in the construction of the interior. The roof is supported by a spiders' web of eucalyptus beams, mostly unsawn, each section's geometry being subtly different from the next. There is a graceful catenary arch separating nave and chancel. Not being a connoisseur of church architecture I don't know if this form is unusual but it's something that certainly adds to an otherwise rather plain building.Having gone up with the other guests to present the couple with gifts of money, and noticing that communion was being offered to all, we decided to go with the flow and leave before the end of the ceremony. On reaching the front of the church it was plain that many of those who we had seen leave were gathered in groups waiting for the couples to emerge. Melissa greeted and talked to a number of head teachers she knew but after that we decided to head home. Rwandan wedding receptions are not occasions of eating and drinking; very sober affairs with speech making and a bottle of sugary pop at the end so we decided a cold beer at home was the way we wanted to celebrate the day.