The beauty is in the journey...
on Camilla Gore (Rwanda), 22/Feb/2011 10:33, 34 days ago
This weekend after eating African Chinese food and listening to 90’s throwback music in Kigali with Mark and Tammy, I visited Rachel and Catherine and snowball the chicken in their hilltop home in Kirambo. On the way out the heavens opened and I got soaked to the bone. The moto driver tried to play a game of ‘beat the rain’ which he lost and I now see why they sell weird double ponchos in Simba supermarket. I have not stooped low enough to buy one yet, but only time will tell. We then went to the market where two umuzungus buying a kilo of potatoes was the day’s entertainment, we drew quite a crowd! Allegedly the more umuzungus in one place, the more curiosity is aroused. One umuzungu attracts the attention of approximately 6-7 children, for two umuzungus its about 12-14 and for three you’re looking at being followed by approximately 20 children. Its like being the pied piper.The following day I had my first real duvet morning since arriving in Rwanda. It rained for three hours straight so we stayed in bed...then the bed broke...oops! So we made a pillar out of bricks as reinforcement. It was like a kind of jenga construction. We were selected to do vso on our‘practical problem solving’ ability after all. Rachel will have to sleep like a log for the rest of her vso days...Well luckily the weather did improve and we were able to visit ‘paradise’ bar for some fanta and sunshine and I was able to soak up the mountain air.The way back to home was unfortunately eventful. The moto got a punctured tyre in the middle of nowhere. There were no houses or anything. The moto driver sped off and said he would be back in a minute, which I kind of knew wouldn’t happen. Nearly an hour later after being stared at by a huge gang of children for the whole time, a guy appears on a bike to tell me that the moto had ‘technical problems’ and no one seemed to know how I could get another one...At this point I must admit I was quite close to cracking. Fortunately a family drove by in a car and agreed to let me hitch a lift (a very rare occurrence!) so I got lucky. I wish I could say I enjoyed the rest of the journey home but...the bus I got was totally rammed and people kept pointing and saying‘umuzungu!’ hahaha! ‘umuzungu!’ for the whole hour. Came close to cracking again but I managed to stare out the window and imagine myself lying on a white sandy beach with the waves lapping the shore. Calm thoughts Camilla, calm thoughts...But despite the journey I had a lovely a long weekend and I was looked after very well. Rachel actually made a cake outside using a charcoal stove which was incredibly exciting. It rose up and everything. It had that proper cakey texture, mmm.....