November 14th

November 14th and i am still not in my house and still not doing any work. SOOO moment of clarity and realisation ............

Have decided to just enjoy being in Rwanda its a fascinating place so i am travelling about and meeting other vsos and trying to do a bit of work in the meantime. No stressing about it just forget the past few months and start afresh in january - the past months are money in the bank in terms of experience of rwanda and should be able to get something done then and i am just accepting that.

I can't do much of my own work because the schools are shut but i went to work with ken in nyanze and did some resource training with rice sacks. Its all we can manage to encourage teachers to draw and write on rice sacks so they at least have something on their classroom walls

We had an hour to get there on the dirt roads and at one point the taxi driver went over a bridge with a great big hole in it and i really thought we were going to fall in.

We were way out in the countryside and it was very poor. Ken saw a child suffering from malnutrition and the poverty was very obvious. We stopped the car so the driver could get pineapples and we were surrounded by rwandans who just stared intently as though we have two heads.

The begging is quite continuous wherever you are and it does get wearing. I can't answer rwanda's problems by giving to beggars but at the same time i don't know how it feels to live without food and water day after day. Have had to decided to just say no and walk away or it will open a floodgate.

One kid the other day said "Give me my sandwich" so Ken just replied "Do you want ham or cheese and would you like mayo?"

Probably the best thing to joke as it does get a bit tedious. But at the same time you can see whey they do it.


Sorry i have not posted any photos yet - still not sure how to do it but hayley's internet may be working on sunday.

Today i am in butare and i have just been to my first rwandan wedding - it was a noisy colourful affair with lots of beautiful singing and dancing including two choirs who sang in harmony throughout the service to the bride and groom praying for them that their marriage would be blessed by the kingdom of god. The preacher told us that if we prayed then we would go to heaven where there would be honey and food of all kinds that we had never had on earth............

But it was an absolutely wonderful experience - a clever young woman who was training to be a doctor in butare translated for me. My Kinyarwanda is not that good yet!!!

Found out an interesting fact in kinyarwanda the other day. The word for male is muwalimu and to make it female you add the word for work ie kazi so a female is an umwalimukazi ie she is a male who does the work. This is about right as it is the females you see doing all the work in the fields probably while carrying a baby on their back at the same time. When we did the training both headteachers were female and they cooked and waited on their male counterparts!

My kinyarwanda is still a source of great amusement to all rwandans I am trying to learn words and have some vocabulary but adjectives change according to the noun they are with and nouns change according to the verbs they are with so its very hard to learn the rules if there are arny.

Had a great walk through the countryside up to Shyogwe the other sunday. We were accompanied all the way by two gils called rita and mary whom we had asked for directions. Then we came back on the back of push bike taxis. 20pence to the main road! But four muzungus (whites) in a row was too much and the rwandans were just staring. The bike riders thought it was a hoot and it was like being on some crazy film set.

So lots of good stuff like that happening. Some good people around to spend time with and some great experiences. Not done any of the touristy stuff yet really as i am saving it for if anyone decides to come out and visit me.

Feel like a real part of the place now though. Can catch the buses, get around, put up with the food talk to the locals. Still get stared at and called muzungu but trying not to let it get to me. I find the begging harder to deal with.

Moving into my house in two weeks time - cant wait. Oh and bought some lovely african material on the market which you get made up by the local tailors very cheaply so ,may have it made by the time i get home. Looking forward to that too and especially to seeing my family and friends.

intend to get an internet modem when i return - its 20 quid a month plus the initial cost of the modem but it will be worth it just to be able to do e mails when i want to .

Am in the internet cafe at Butare at the moment. I like Butare it has a very relaxed atmosphere.

Going to meet some friends for a beer now so will try to keep this up to date a bit better than i have

hi there

sorry i have not written anything for a while - i have not been near internet access

still not moved into my house or started work. hAVE seriously wondered if it was worth coming back in january but have decided to write off the last few months workwise and start afresh when i come back in january

will write more tomorrow when i have time.

weather is cold and rainy believe it or not. But the country is bright green
with things growing .

will do more later