I am absolutely hooked on these wonderul african fabrics. Decided to go the whole hog here and add the african headdress too. This was taken at the st patricks day ball at the serena which was an extravagent affair and cost me about one third of my month's wages!! But it was fun.

My house in Shyogwe is isolated in a funny sort of way in that it is an hour's walk from the main road. We can get on the back of a push bike for 20p to get down to the road and usually we get a moto up the road. The other day it had been raining and the poor push bike guy was dripping sweat and absoutley breathless when we got to the top of the small incline at the beginning of the road. I had two samosas in my bag and I realised that he needed some fuel in my tank so i got them out and gave him one and i had the other. So we had a nice chummy little mini picnic before carrying on our way.
The motos also struggle with the dirt road because it is just one long stretch of muddy puddles. last night we came home and went past several cows - rwandans are not allowed to graze them they cut the grass and take it to the cows - and four soldiers with guns (perhaps looking out for cows?) and the drivers just wanted the dosh they weren't bothered whether they got us there dead or alive - they just went at full speed over all the bumps and puddles and my helmet and his crash bang walloped all the way home.
The previous week michael had managed to get himself a very dud moto which the guy was driving with both hands on one side to stop the brakes falling off. Then when he came off the main road onto the dirt track the lights failed so the driver went straight down the middle of the track - which unfortunately for michael is also the bumpiest bit. I could see him ahead bouncing up and down and shouting in his lovely posh accent "Stop stop stop," to which the oblivious driver just replied "sorry sorry sorry" . Later it became clear why he had not heeded Michael's urgent appeals - his brakes were not working. So when we rounded the corner into Shyogwe and the driver saw it was a down hill, he took urgent remedial action to bring his bike to a stop. First he tried walking backwards - not very effective action on a ton weight motor bike with two passengers and then as a last resort he swerved to the left - to take the bike uphill presumably hoping to stop - and finally came to rest right outside pasteur emmanuel's front door.
One bike ride not to be forgotten!

After the rain there is a fantastic view of the volcanoes from the back of paula's house. Byumba is already at 2,500 metres above sea level which is twice as high as Ben Nevis and then suddenly when the rain clears you see the tops of 6 volcanoes towering above that height in the far distance, one of which is in the Congo. its an amazing sight. paula calls them her friends and i kind of know why. The leaves in the foreground are the banana trees in her garden.

Trying to get away from the camp at lunchtime on the second day. The road has turned into a muddy river and we are cold and wet - but we can go home to paula's to get the kettle on and get out our hot water bottles to get warm........

This is the school. The young man at the front is called Claude. he really made me laugh when he was speaking english because he managed to do it in a yorkshire accent just like mine. It was wonderful. A corner of one of these buildings just crumbled away on the wednesday when we had the worst storm. This is on the monday when the weather was reasonable and you can see that people are still well wrapped up against the weather.

This gives an idea of how crowded together the houses are - this is on the first day when it was sunny!

We left through rivers of sludge and returned home soaked through to the skin - but at least we had paula's tiny concrete house to go to and we could get our electric kettle to make our hot water bottles and thaw out. I wondered what it was like for those poor people to return to their mud shelters with puddles on the mud floor where the rain came in and no way of getting warm and dry until maybe the sun came out the next day. A very humbling experience and one I feel very priviliged to have been part of.

The training we were doing was based on something which Michael and Ihave developed and it is designed specifically to encourage non english speaking teachers to practise how to ask questions in maths in English and to develop their basic maths vocabulary. We are really proud of it!!! And we know that it works well - and also that other volunteers like our training and are starting to use it too. BY the end of the week we could hear the difference and could hear the teachers using english with each other and singing the songs we had taught them. It is very satisfying to know that it will help them.

It was quite a challenging week in many ways, not least because of their lack of basic english language. The rooms we were working in were the classrooms of the school which has 4000 children. Each room was tiny possibly a half at the most of the size of an english classroom. There are only four small gaps in the mud walls for the light to come in and of course no electricity.
When the clouds and the storm came on the second day we had to huddle the woooden benches together in a corner so that they could even hear myself and Celestin (congolese trainer i was working with.) We couldnt see because we had to shut the door as it was so cold and then the clouds actually starting drifting in through the space which was the window.
It was miserable and cold and dark and wet and one young man only had on a short sleeved shirt. I asked him if he was cold and he answered "Yes but I don't have a sweater". At which point I took off my pink pashmina and wrapped it round him and he wore it for the rest of the morning looking like a strange male madonna in pink.

I have just spent an unforgettable week working in a congolese refugee camp. It holds 19000 people and has been there for 15 years - but it looks anything but temporary. The houses are tiny shelters made from bamboo and mud, crammed together on the very top of the most inhospitable and unwelcoming hill in BYumba. The camp is sited on the land which is of least use to rwandans and it is a desolate place, yet beautiful too as it looks down on tops of green mountains from all sides..
We were trying to train teachers in how to teach maths in english, but as the teachers are congolese refugees they speak excellent french and little english.

This week has been genocide memorial week, which is mainly why we went out to Lake Kivu to avoid the memorial services which have been taking place. Its quite weird as the whole country becomes subdued. There is no loud pop music only religious singing and always before in Rwanda there have been many many people around walking up and down the roads and dirt tracks. Shyogwe was like a ghost town when I got back. There was a huge meeting in the big hall where people were singing religious songs and sharing their experiences. Its all quite strange, but Rwanda is an extremely religious country. It is an interesting topic of conversation as it is almost as though people do not expect to do anything else. It is not questioned that you go to church for four hours on sunday and listen to people evangelicising. And it is the same with genocide memorial week. It is impossible to get your head round the national phsyche of a country like this.

This is the crowd of children saying goodbye to us when we visited a very remote school. We were actually in the diocesan car with 2 american ladies and pasteur emmanual. They went in the church and we went into the classrooms and helped with lessons. It took us over an hour in the four by four to get up the tracks to the school, many of which looked no better than footpaths. The children are so excited to see you - its more than possible that they have never ever seen a white person in their lives which is quite an extraordinary thought. But considering how long it took us in a car to get to their village its unlikely that they have ever been anywhere near civilisation. It kind of makes you think you must know how the Queen feels to be the object of such cheering and excitement. It also makes you remember how lucky you are that you can just travel anywhere whenever and however you want to

This was part of the training we have been doing for the teachers. We were in a very remote school which took 1 hour to reach on a moto up the dirt tracks. The teachers were absolutely lovely and they joined in with everything we asked them to do from "What time is it Mr Wolf" to being angleometers ie making different sorts of angles with their arms. Apart from making rice sacks with them which we wrote on in marker pens to give all the vocabulary you need to teach maths in english, we did all sorts of things which gave them ideas for different ways of teaching their lessons. Everything has to be free because there are no resources. So we cut up old mattresses and made dice and we collected bottle tops so that the children had something to count with. In this picture the teachers are arranging themselves from the smallest to the tallest. The lady at the back is called Yvette and she was a great sport - she got really competitive when we were playing addition and subtraction bingo. But they were all lovely people and so grateful to us for going and doing the training. The more remote the schools the less help they get, so although Michael and I had very sore backsides from riding up the dirt tracks on the back of motor bikes for an hour it was more than worth it. We were really sad to say goodbye to them and I hope that they manage to use some of the ideas we gave them.

no explanation needed!

This is sunset at lake kivu - what can you say it is just so beautiful and not at all what you would imagine africa to be like. Rwanda is such a stunning country you cannot believe really that it is so untouristy. The lake was lovely to swim in too - we swam right to the other side and back.

wow i finally got a photo in and its just one of myself and ivana on our safari. What a day that was . Akagera used to be twice the size it is but it half of the land has now been taken for people to live on. Still they are doing a lot in the park to maintain it and it really is very unspoilt - not like the big game parks in other areas. So glad i did this.

i am still trying to upload photos with no luck. But i have just had a lovely visit to lake Kivu. This time i was at the northern end at Gisenye and it was worth it just for the bus journey. We had to go through the volcanoes national park and it was just spectacular. The highest volcano is Mount Karisimibi at 4,500 metres above sea level which is about half the height of everest. It is just stunning and the whole areas is amazing.

Have also been on safari and had the most exciting day - saw my first big cat in the wild - well it was a little big cat actually - a leopard cub. I was so excited i had tears in my eyes. Akagera is not overflowing with wildlife but that made it all the more fun finding all the animals - everything from giraffes to hippos basically. The park ranger was really thrilled to see the leopard cub too because he has only seen three lions in 8 years - the big cats are very good at hiding. He was very knowledgeable about all the animals and birds in the park and it was a fantastic day - even if we did have to get up at 4 am to get there in time to see the animals. Ivana had organised a jeep from kigali and it was great driving around with our heads out of the top. Also Akagera is quite quiet as game parks go so there were only two other vehicles there as well as us on the day so we really did feel like we were out in the wild. A super day - I will try to put some photos on but may have to wait until late at night

try again!! I have written this three times now and each time my internet lost it.....
So have been doing some interesting and rewarding work at last. Michael and I have developed some trThe aining which helps Rwandan teachers with the vocabulary of Maths in English right through from Reception to Y6. The teachers have been great participants, joining in with all sorts of daft things , jumping around, playing games and making angles with their arms,. But they have also been very appreciative of what we have shared with them. It may only have gone into a few schools and touched a few people but its been enough to be appreciated by them in the way that we have.

I have been trying all day to put some photos on here but the internet modem is just too slow so here is a little update instead. I will keep trying.