Rwanda is...

I had a beautiful last post written; all about the kids and life here. Then my iPod ate it, wouldn't restart, and lost all my contacts -- and I am so sad because the writing was good and felt true. This is my attempt to recreate it: 

_________________________________________________________________________

Rwanda 

Rwanda Rwanda 

Rwanda Rwanda Rwanda 

Rwanda Rwanda 

Rwanda 

Drivers going impossibly quickly down steep hills and sharp turns, often in the wrong lane. Politicians who change policy without considering the lives of the people and programs of action that do not take into account the real-world consequences of their work. Mysteries of the 'widow-maker' live current showers and their often shocking ways. The discovered protocols of riding the white express buses to distant corners of the country. Neighbor children calling Auntie Grace! and waving when I walk by. The startling seriousness of children old before their time and yet their strong resilience and surprising joy. Dreaming vividly real dreams of home, then waking here under the protection of a mosquito net all around me. Cries of mzungu, mzungu, everywhere I go. The feeling of kinyarwanda on my tongue; all around me it's rhythmic sound. 

Kids kids kids. Everywhere kids, in my arms, on the stairs, outside my window. Children laughing, children fighting, children singing, always singing. Their laughter as I push them on the swing, throwing their heads back to look up at the clouds. The sounds of bare feet slapping on concrete as they practice dances to the thwack-thwack-boom of the drum. The laughter of the mamas as they teach me to dance; and my surprise at how much I actually pick up. Forgetting about Halloween at home then signing into Facebook and seeing babies dressed up as lions, spidermen, Dorothy of Oz. Children here standing up in church thanking God they survived the night. Children reaching to take my hands, and my hands reaching to tickle them. 

Cries of Bingo! Bingo! erupting excitedly from children all over the hill as a volunteer goes up to play with them. Children running down the hill, down the stairs, down the road yelling Auntie, Auntie Grace! when I return from a trip. My phone battery dying every time I want to talk on the phone. Dead phone, dead mice, dead truck. The tart taste of Inyange yogurt on my tongue. Children cheering when I show up with candy to study time, family time, anytime. 

The sound of early morning sweepers organizing the red dirt for the day. The bird who sounds like a toy who's battery is dying: mah mwah mwahhh. Chirps of SMS messages received and texts from home that make me laugh out loud. Trying to remember all the time zones at home - including daylight savings. The tired sound of the voltage regulator whirring as it compensates for electricity surges in the house. Everyone running to grab the clothes from the line as the wind whips through the banana trees, warning us of rain. The sound of marbles in the dust, as children battle out private wars. Children running faster than I thought possible down the stairs. The joy of children learning Red Rover and Freeze Tag. 

Cody calling Bibi! Bibi! as warning, cry, anthem. Flowers placed carefully on the van windshield by a child. Clothes covered in acres of red dust; and taking a shower and having half my 'tan' wash off. Driving to Kigali surrounded by black clouds of diesel fumes. 

The seriousness and the silliness of children challenging Papa Jojo to checker matches, on the porch and on the stairs. The joy of meeting old friends and finding new ones. Calendars that alternately show me just how quickly time flies and count down the days til I leave. A thousand memories in a single day and no photographs or words that could ever capture it all. A kaleidoscope of colours, sounds and love... My second home. 

Rwanda

Rwanda Rwanda

Rwanda Rwanda Rwanda

Rwanda Rwanda

Rwanda*

I will miss you.

*Poem borrowed from Alexander McCall Smith's 'Africa' poem of the same style.

On the beauty of birds

Sometimes I wonder if the birds come up to the window so that they can listen to the music. It seems everyone here is musical, so why wouldn’t the birds show an interest in the sounds coming from my ipod?

Their beauty causes me to pause when I see them – beautiful blues and greens and yellows darting around. There are a few small birds with hummingbird-style beaks that come to the windows and cling to the screens to have a look. We thought one was going to come in the other day as it was about the same size as the small hole in the screen. I’ve seen them land on the bottom edge of the minivan side mirrors and stop and peer at their reflection.

Shortly after 5, the birds begin to awaken with the start of daylight. So close to the equator, it doesn’t take long for the sun to fully rise, but they cram a lot of singing in before it is fully up. It starts with one or two testing the air with their tweets and chirps and whistles… and then the symphony begins. It’s the quieter preamble to the noise the kids make as they get up and run up the stairs for breakfast… the first gentle alarm before the happy and loud kid chaos kicks in.

And the flowers too – such an extravagance of beauty. At night, I love the smell of the plumeria as it wafts in on the evening air. One of the little boys likes to take one fallen plumeria flower and put it on the windshield of the minivan. Almost every day, I walk out and see he has put one there. I find this ritual of beautifying the van (or leaving a present for us?) sweet and moving. If I am around when he does it, his face lights with a huge smile as he says carefully in English “Look!” and points at the flower resting there, before running off to school. Some of the other flowers last only a day or two in a burst of colour, before shedding their beauty or being washed free of blooms in the rain. When I stop and look around, or literally stop and smell the flowers, it strikes me again what an overwhelming amount of beauty there is in the world. It’s as if there is a continual opportunity to stop and rest for a few minutes by taking in everything that surrounds us that we often miss in our busyness or work or distraction. So I’ve been stopping most times when I walk by the plumeria bush; to stop and smell, or to look at and try to take in its beauty. It may not last long here but the moment I take to enjoy it will give me gifts of relaxation and rest and I’ll have one moment of beauty and peace to sustain me. I think we are meant to take these gifts as they are presented to us – why else would the beauty be there?

Training Complete!

This week I offered some training for the staff who work with the children. Here they are showing off their certificates of completion!

On Dizzy Bugs & the Execution of Chickens

(Written as of November 3, 2012)

Well it’s been a busy few weeks. Currently we have quite a few visitors and the house is packed! The kids are home now from school, on holidays until after Christmas. Speaking of holidays, this week Suzi (a Peace Corps volunteer working up the road) and I are organizing activities for the kids in the mornings. We’ve got sports, crafts, reading and all kinds of fun lined up. Suzi, daring soul that she is (and with exceptional Kinyarwanda skills, I might add), is going to teach poetry to some of the older kids. Exceedingly cool, right?! Too bad I’ll be with the little guys while she does that, I’m so interested to see how it goes! Also, in the afternoons, some of the other volunteers are going to do other activities like computer, ESL and stories. So our kids may be on holidays, but they sure won’t be bored!

Then we’ve got another feast coming up on Nov 10 – the kids have been preparing dances and songs and comedy sketches for Dr. Hazel (aka Mama Victory) who is here for a week or two. She let them know the best performance would go with her to Kigali to show their stuff at the church there on Sunday. The kids are pretty excited, and we sort of have our own talent competition going on (Rwandan Idol, anyone?!). It should be a lot of fun.

Friday night I was doing Family Time with the kids and teaching them another couple of songs. They love to learn new songs but really, I enjoy seeing them sing and jump and drum their hearts out in Kinyarwanda. So this time I had them teach me a song too. I requested a simple, easy song that they would teach a little child and had them teach it to me. It was pretty fun and always good to learn some more Kinyarwanda. I do know a lot of the songs but not all the words, so I guess now I’m making real progress.

I can’t believe I only have a few weeks left – I have a lot lined up for the next few weeks and it should keep me busy. Kid activities, sort of like summer camp next week (I’m writing this on Nov 3 but have no idea when it will get posted!) and then I’m doing some staff training…. And on and on it goes!

I can’t forget to mention that I am now known as the woman who sentenced all the chickens to death. Sad, but true. I did a cost/benefit review of all the animals onsite and sadly, the chickens came out as more cost than benefit. So we should shortly be smelling chicken dinner wafting out of the orphanage kitchen and I’m trying out a new role as Executioner of Expensive Chickens. Add that to the ol’ resume and I should be rolling in job offers!!

In other news, we’ve had boatloads of rain (now there’s an interesting metaphor) and as a result we’ve had a lot of the bugs that former readers of my blog will remember me christening as “dizzy bugs”. I know the local name for them but can’t begin to describe the feeling of waking up in the night after the rain and hearing them banging around off my walls, roof and clouds of them outside my window, drawn to the light and banging off the glass – loudly enough to wake me up, I might add. It’s a creepy feeling to wake up in the dark and wonder… where is that clickety-clackety sound of wings and LARGE bug bouncing around coming from?! It is a bit of a delicacy around here though, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see kids out collecting them so they can take them home and fry them up. I think some of the new kids here expected me to be grossed out but they underestimate my past experience. I walked by the kitchen and there was a group of kids sitting around a bucket of squirming bugs, de-winging them so they could eat them later. I just said the equivalent of “Mmm, nice! Good job!” in Kinyarwanda, and then “Protein!” in English to the visitor I was touring around. As Papa Jojo put it so eloquently last time I was here – God gives the bugs like manna from heaven here after the rain.

Some of our secondary kids are home from school, which is great! We are still waiting on Ignace to finish up at the government school as they are on a bit different schedule. Fabrice is also here but going back to write some more exams in a few days, and Bea and Esther were the first to get home. So nice to see the older kids here at home!

I’m sure I have about a bazillion more stories to share, but that’s it for now! You’ll have to buy me dinner when I get home to hear the rest. :)

Updates as of November 8:

Well here I am in town finally posting my blog -- since I last wrote, I have a few updates:

The chickens surprised us all by having more than 15 chicks all at once! I guess the threat of death was a good motivator. They have a reprieve from the guillotine… for now.

The time Suzi and I spent working with the kids was great! Here are some pictures (most days were too busy for pictures, but I got a few good ones):

The kids playing Red Rover and older kids playing volleyball

 Chalk drawings in between the dining hall and the office...

Fabien

Liliane

Shema

Gilbert

 Jaime & Sonia hanging out after drawing pictures:

Finally, Ignace comes home from secondary tomorrow, just in time for the feast this weekend! Good times ahead... stay tuned!

On the universality of Freeze Tag:

I was sitting in the van at CP (the soccer field up in the village) after playing some games with the kids who came to watch the other children play soccer. We had started with naming games, (you say ‘Giraffe’, I say ‘Giraffe, elephant…’ etc.). Then I moved to the van so I could call my Mom. While talking to her, my kids and village kids tried to regain my attention in many ways. It started out subtly, with children moving closer to the van, leaning on it, patting it, sneaking up one side to look in the mirrors, staring at me. Then it moved to asking me if they could come in, one little boy crumbling a big handful of sand/rocks against the side of the van and lots of little taps on the van while they talked to each other, one eye watching me talk on the phone. There was a water break and I was inundated with children climbing into both vehicles looking for water, so I stepped out so I could hear my mom, handing over the keys so they could get in. Then, when I was back inside, it progressed to a few little boys reaching up to put a grasshopper on the windshield right in front of me. I laughed at that one! All I could see was little hands and fingers, a grasshopper (who didn’t want to be there) and lots of little faces peering up to see if I would scream or laugh. Finally I told my Mom I had to go and came back outside. 

They informed me “We want a game!” so I had to come up with something. All I could think of was “Red Rover” which after a few explanations and practices, really took off. They loved it! They especially loved ramming through the littlest guy’s (Zach) hands… he was definitely the weakest link, but he sure toughed it out. Big kids were pulling him back, knocking him over, hanging on his hands. It got to the point where he was such a target, the other kids wouldn’t hold hands with him. Finally I moved him to the side so only half of him was open to injury. (In Malawi, when I taught the kids Red Rover, they changed it to “Land Rover” which seemed to make more sense to them. Not here, they just went with the whole ‘Red Rover’ idea.) I think I got called back and forth from side to side about 5 times in a row before I said “Not me again! Choose someone else!” and they laughingly chose someone else. It’s always more fun when you can get the adults to play I guess :)

 

Then I taught them Freeze Tag, which was a lot of fun. Some of them had trouble with the idea of actually staying in one place, so they would run a few steps with their arms out, finally stopping. It doesn’t take long for kids to catch on to games and their rules, no matter what the language. The last game of Freeze Tag was ended by a flood of soccer players running back to the truck – time to go! On the way back Papa Jojo and I had fun “racing” each other… as much racing as you can do on bad roads, anyway. The good stretches provide some fun and we sort of let each other pass from time to time and honk at each other – the kids love it when they think we’re racing! They cheer and laugh and on the way back they started singing a song I taught them this week. They especially loved the last line where you yell “Woooo!” at the end and jump. But in the van, they substituted banging on the sides and yelling for jumping. I could not stop laughing – their enjoyment of life educates me continuously!

The Great Rabbit Condo Refurb, Safari Adventures & Mini-Olympics Ensue

It’s been pretty busy around here with Mark visiting. He started redoing the rabbit hutches (what I am starting to call The Great Rabbit Condo Refurb of 2012) and it’s been quite the process. First there was the design phase, where it was decided to try and work with the existing infrastructure, so Mark ripped off all the broken doors and other junk, leaving this (on the right):

Then we drove into Kigali to what we sometimes call the “Home Depot”, which is basically a huge outdoor wood market, surrounded by a few plumbing and electrical shops on the outskirts. Neither words nor photos could do it full justice. Imagine driving onto a red dirt road, surrounded on all sides by men carrying huge planks of lumber on their heads and shoulders, offloading big trucks with fresh wood. Sawdust is in the air everywhere, as saws and machines run at full volume, cutting through wood as women and children gather up bags of sawdust to take away and sell. Everywhere there are men standing around talking about, ordering, cutting, carrying, unloading, re-loading, and handling wood. Women wander through with food to sell in baskets on their heads, and one woman, smiling, gestures at her container of quartered pineapples on her head – Do I want some?  Further in, towards the back, there are plumbing and electrical shops, with overloaded vehicles ramming over the potholes and revving up to make it up the hill and out. Moto drivers wait around for fares, chatting to each other and glancing over at me from time to time. Mark and his helpers show up from time to time to give updates, get translations, discuss “mzungu price” (ie the quadrupling of price with the presence of a foreigner when shopping), drop off purchases and pick up cash to pay vendors. I have been to this place many times when we were building before, especially when I had to find someone to make us tables and chairs… it’s good to be back.

Here is the only picture I have from that day (from the back of the whole place and near the little plumbing/electrical shops):

Of course, getting the wood was only the beginning. We still had to find wire mesh, nails, tin sheets and all the tools needed for Mark to begin. He found an abundance of helpers once he began, as you can see here:

Sometimes they were not so very helpful – using up the drill battery by “drilling” into wood fences around the corner, walking off with the hammer, using the saw on anything they thought they could cut and so on. Sometimes Rugamba or some of the older boys would help, which was better. I wandered down from time to time to see how things were progressing, and even became a ‘helper’ myself one day, when the doors were being put on – being tall enough to reach the doors was the key to my involvement there. The main drawback of not starting from scratch was the cloud of dried rabbit poop that would fly up when Mark started hammering… but it’s not work if you’re not getting dirty, right?! 

Anyway, when I wasn’t there, kids would find me, saying “Papa Mark says: pencil”, and I’d hand over a pencil. Then one kid showed up at the door with a drill battery and said “Papa Mark says: charge”, and I managed to blow out the drill battery pack I was supposed to be charging by plugging it into the wrong side of the voltage regulator. Lesson learned – double-check which side is connected at any given time. Anyway, Mark and his crew managed to get a lot done and we now have redone rabbit condos, and will get some new rabbits from Arlene to keep the stock diverse.

 

In the midst of all this we also went to Akagera Park, a national park with roaming wildlife on the eastern edge of Rwanda. I had been there before the last time I was here, but it was fun to go again. Kirsten, a nurse volunteering at Arlene’s place came along for the adventure too. And what an adventure it was!

We started out at the crack of dark (4 AM) driving to Kigali and then on east to Akagera. However, I mistakenly got off on the wrong exit at first, so we ended up going the wrong way for a while. Turns out the people I checked with to see if I was going the right way were not lying – there was an Akagera river out that way. Anyway, we got back on track and made it to Akagera to find out from the reception guy that all the guides were “out with visitors” so we would have to self-guide using the map. He then informed us the map was 1000 francs, and was adamant it should be paid for and not be a “cadeau” (present) as I repeatedly suggested, since there were no guides for us. We then talked over the map about routes to take (some roads were “not good”,ie rained out) and when I asked about the giraffes he said “We don’t see them… I think they are north” and referred us to the longest route from our entry gate in the south to the north exit, approximately 100 kms and many hours’ drive. Longest route? Mysteriously relocated giraffes? No guide? Muddy roads? We were definitely in.

It was a slow beginning, and not just because the roads required we travel at 20 km/hour – we didn’t see too many animals at the start, just footprints in the mud. It quickly got better as we saw a large hippo out of the water in the reeds along the lake. It got scared by the truck behind us and ran into the reeds – an amazing thing to see just how fast they can move. No wonder they are one of the “Big Five” you can see on this continent. Wending our way through the park, we came across many animals, including one elephant who was not concerned to see us at all. It was quite a long day and thank goodness Mark brought some protein bars, as that was all we ended up eating most of the day. (The promised ‘restaurant’ was only available at the first entrance). What an amazing experience though, seeing elephants, giraffes, warthogs, crocodiles and lots of types of ‘deer’, including ones we started calling “Elk” as we didn’t know the actual name. (No guide=less informed trip). 

I will say that possibly the best moment was when Mark scared the crocodile and it jumped into the water and took off… definitely breaking all the rules about not getting out of the vehicle. Another good moment was when the elephant came wandering out of the bush to eat and say hello. And finally, at the end when we were just saying that we still needed to see giraffes and zebras, there they were! All in all, it was an awesome experience. 

We made it out of the park by dark, and were soon on the road home. I had clear directions (for once) from the men at the gate (22 km then left, 63 km then take a roundabout exit towards Kigali, etc.). We had made it onto good tar road and were zooming along when all of a sudden the truck died three quarters of the way up a hill. I managed to make it most of the way over and we stopped in the dark to take a look. We had to push forward/reverse the truck into a better position off the road. Of course we immediately drew a crowd, which turned out to be both useful and annoying. Basically the truck overheated and it took a while to make sure that was the only problem before we could continue. One helpful guy sent for a mechanic in the area to come help us and did a bit of translating… even though sometimes I think it would have been easier to not have his help. 

I can’t recount the whole experience for you, but some highlights include me sending someone to go get us a packet of cookies and a jug of water from a store (closed, but not to locals) in the area. When he came back he informed me that he had put his contact information inside, to which I replied “Thank you very much” while secretly rolling my eyes, and passed the cookies back to Kirsten, who I’m pretty sure at this point thought she was never getting home (Mark had already claimed the bottle of water for the truck). I recall saying “Well, you wanted adventure?!” to everyone a few times that night. At one point Mark and I were both on cell phones (me to Papa Jojo, he to Bob at VFHC) and talking to other people and each other all at the same time. A few young boys kept banging on the glass and trying to talk to Kirsten in the back, which was ok until it started to get to be too much and one guy asked for a kiss and I started yelling in Kinyarwanda. I’m sure that was also entertaining for everyone involved, but it worked. There is nothing more useful than knowing how to yell at someone like you’re their (ticked off) mom when they are being a pain. He backed off and the quest for a repair continued. 

Eventually we got the mechanic to close off the leak from the radiator with a hose clamp and we put fresh water in and got ready to go. Before we could leave I had some fun negotiating fees for all involved, which included Dr. H’s old standby “I’m working for free helping Rwandan orphans, what are you doing for them?!” which is usually good for knocking prices down a bit. Anyway, we concluded the transaction and roared off up the hill… only to find the truck heat gauge was going up again. So I called my new best friend (who, turns out, wanted Kirsten to have his contact info so he could “discuss” his new and undying love at some point in the future) and told him the job wasn’t done. Basically we found there was a new leak and we filled up the rad with LOTS of cool water, and I tested the progress by taking off at high speeds down a dark dirt road to see if it got hot again. It seemed ok so we put in some more diesel in the rear tank and took off. We ended up stopping a few more times on the way home to scare up some more water for the truck and to put it in so we could keep going. Eventually with the kind assistance of many strangers along the way, we were able to make it home – 21 hours after we left. I think that is my new record for driving in Rwanda.

But what a story it makes!

Then this last Saturday we staged a sort of mini-Olympics games day for the kids. Mark had brought some cool little mini keychain flashlights, pencils and balloons, so we devised a way to get them handed out through one massive competition. We decided flashlights were definitely first prize, and moved on to organize about 8-10 games for the kids, who were divided into 3 big size/age groups. It was a lot of happy chaos and fun was had by all. We started it off with a crab walk, and other competitions including a push-up contest followed.

 

  Agnes surprised everyone by beating out most of the boys in the small kids’ age group… I was cheering her on because she was doing 2 solid push-ups for every one the boys were doing. We followed that up with various other competitions, including wheelbarrow races and a three-legged race that got super competitive:

 

 

Then we moved on to some other races, including a modified “egg race” – I converted it from egg on a spoon to marble on a spoon, and it worked out well. 

We did have to watch the kids because each round of groups came up with their own little ways to cheat the system. In no particular order: holding the spoon right at the bowl of the spoon with one thumb suspiciously near the marble; trying to use a soup spoon instead of a regular spoon; trying to use a big marble instead of a regular size one; and my favourite (for creativity), putting a little bit of dirt under the marble to try and stop it from rolling. We ended with a water balloon toss, which of course ended in Mark, Teacher (Annonciata) and I throwing the last few balloons at the crowd, and having them thrown back at us in return --a wet and hilarious end to competition. Grace (Mama Jojo) was standing near me as I was grabbing the last of the balloons and handing some to Mark and I asked her if she wanted in but she passed. Teacher came up and I said “What about you, do you want to throw some balloons at the kids, Teacher?” to which I got a decided “Yes!” with a strong nod. It was a lot of fun… Mark got pretty wet though. It seemed he had become the target of choice for a little friendly retribution from some of the kids.

Mark handed out gum to those who didn’t win a prize, and since we also had a whole bag of candy left, he hopped up on the water tank platform and started throwing handfuls of candy to the crowd (quite possibly the fiercest/happiest competition yet). I only had to rescue one kid from the chaos (Jaime) but the rest managed to grab a few candies and finish out the day in style and without further injury.

Some of the kids showing off their prizes:

In other news, Bob & Debbie are off to Swaziland for a week and Mark is headed home around the same time. It will be quite the adjustment to go from 4 people in the house to just me, but I’m sure I’ll be too busy to notice.

Stay tuned... the adventures continue in Rwanda!

The long-awaited Rwandan dress!