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!
