These trees will spread their branches out
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 05/Dec/2010 09:10, 34 days ago
I cannot believe we are into December already. There are none of the usual signs of winter approaching; cold weather, Christmas carols, trees and adverts, Christmas cards etc. I am convinced it is still August. I am putting Christmas cards in the post this week so fingers crossed they arrive on time.As always seems to happen here, what was relatively quiet plans for this weekend grew into a very busy weekend in a matter of minutes. The plan for the weekend was to go to Nyanza to see the King’s Palace and then to Butare to see the museum on Saturday. Return to Gitarama on Saturday evening and relax on Sunday. Pauline arrived on Friday and a group of us went to Brothers Inn for something to eat. Whilst there I got a call from my VSO Manager to say there was an event happening on Sundayin Butare and could I go and invite other volunteers. Pauline, Heather and I figured that as we were already going to be in Butare then why not (despite not actually knowing what the event was!) So on Saturday morning, Karen, Heather, Pauline and I set off to Nyanza. It took a lot longer than I thought to get to Nyanza, mostly because we had to wait for the matatu to fill up for about an hour but we eventually arrived. The King’s Palace was great and we also went to the art gallery which is housed in what would have been his new house had he not died. Both houses are worth seeing and have wonderful views.View from the art galleryAfter having looked round and eaten it was actually getting very late and it was obvious we weren’t going to make it to Butare to see the museum. Karen and Heather decided to head back to Gitarama whilst Pauline and I made our way to Butare. A misunderstanding meant we ended up walking all the way to the main road from Nyanza and then sitting in a matatu which seemed to insist on stopping every five minutes. We eventually made it to Butare and went and ate at the Chinese restaurant which was amazing, as always. We then went for a drink in Space Place and watched a very explicit dance which we really could have done without.Sunday, we went to Hotel Ibis for breakfast and to wait for my manager to see what the day was going to have in store for us. It turned out to be a really lovely day. It was a celebration of National Volunteering Week and of the Millennium Development Goals. In particular MDG7: Ensure environmental sustainability. There was lots of dancing and singing and then we got to go and plant a tree. We were also given lunch and met some lovely people so it was a very good day.Planting the first treeMe with my treeDancingCelebrations