#7

Day 17 David is due back from Kigali today with his sister and niece. A quick whip round the house with a cleaning cloth and some clean sheets seemed in order before Martyn, Henry , Aaron and I left for Nkombo early this morning. It is an island not too far from here, but accessible only by boat. And a small wooden boat that we help to paddle at that. But what a fascinating morning. It was quite badly hit by the earthquake of February 2008 and many buildings were destroyed. Horrifyingly, 288 families still live under plastic sheeting, sometimes families of 8 or 10, because there is no money to rehouse them.

We were able to visit several of these ‘temporary’ shelters, and I can tell you, it was a very sobering experience. Rwanda Aid have housed several families in, for this desperately poor and undeveloped island, state of the art houses. These have actual stoves (rammed earth) in the kitchens with chimneys to extract the smoke, and water tanks filled from guttering – almost unheard of here (strange as there is so much rain). They also have organic – composting – toilets which help, later, with compost for their plots of land. We were lucky enough to meet one of the families who are now rehoused in a Rwanda Aid house, and they were just so delighted with their new home. They have 8 children and had lived under plastic for about a year prior to the rehousing. I had a big hug from the mother of the family, and the father was grinning from ear to ear.

The children were out in their thousands, and we spent some minutes patching up a poor little mite whom we’d seen, moments earlier, disappear down a deep hole. She got such a shock and stood solemnly whilst we washed and Band-Aided her up. Secretly I think she thought it was well worth the agony for the attention she received from the ‘mzungus’.

As we walked back down to the lake to find a boat to paddle us back we were passed by a crowd carrying a man on a stretcher. There is no medical assistance on the island so anyone requiring help has to get over to the mainland. We saw the ambulance arrive on the other side as we walked over to investigate one of the island’s water pumps. We were waiting with the Chief Executive (no less!) of the island for the boat and rather shockingly, when it arrived we were told that the sick man had actually died as he reached the other side of the lake. Certainly not the highlight of our day.

With David’s sister and niece, Liz and Emma, the ‘female touch’ arrived. After nearly three weeks struggling as the only girlie amongst four men I’d decided that trying to introduce such concepts as ‘tidiness’ and even ‘cleanliness’ to a degree, was a totally lost cause. Now I live in hope. We did have a candle on the table with supper – and not because there was a power cut: I think the girls are out in force!

Day 18 Our overall task this morning sounded very promising: shopping. The reality was not so quite so exciting. We had to go to the Mothers’ Union to try – for at least the sixth time – to sort out the curtains for the disabled children’s village. Frustration just doesn’t start to describe it. Aaaaggghhhhhh. I won’t even begin to go there. Suffice to say that the curtains are still not sorted. A foray into the market for cushion cover material was somewhat less stressful and we even managed to buy a couple of lengths. Plus, of course, the madly vibrant African print I bought for myself. Ridiculously, despite having been here for some weeks, I’ve managed to leave it too late to have it made up into the flamboyant African creation I’d envisaged. From the fabric stalls we moved onto the fruit and veg. market, finally stopping off to buy some beef. Fillet,my dears. Not quite the butcher at home, but reassuringly clean and surprisingly fresh.

Aaron had valiantly offered a day’s free labour to Ferdinand, the guy in charge of repairing the road Martyn has been working on. He left at 7 o’clock this morning, shovel and hoe in hand, possibly even whistling a merry tune: I don’t know, I wasn’t up. We’d planned a trip to the farm later this morning, ostensiby to show Liz and Emma the road on the way, but really to go and ‘laugh’ at Aaron. Henry and Martyn were in favour of taking a couple of directors chairs and some beers and a camera and making a morning of it. As it turned out the heavens opened just before we’d planned to leave and we had to postpone our trip. In fact, a very bedraggled, totally filthy Aaron arrived back just as we finished lunch. He’d had a good time – causing utter hilarity amongst the locals – and had definitely earned the hot bath he awarded himself.

We finally left for the farm in the somewhat damp afternoon. The mud was as sticky as it was deep and we made slow progress – amid the bevy of tots and tinies hanging onto our hands. Someone had to slip and most of us had the odd close shave, but Martyn was the one – not once, but twice. The second time he managed quite a skilful dance routine before finally hitting the deck.

The evening had a hilarious, verging on the hysterical, edge as we tried to knock up a sample floor cushion using a sewing machine that none of us could master – or even begin to treadle with any fluency – although David did finally manage two stitches in a row. The cushions remain pinned.

Day 19 A bright and early-ish Easter Sunday start for a grand day out. We’d planned the day visiting two islands in Lake Kivu, but for both ease and enjoyment, considering there were seven of us, David had suggested hiring a motorboat. What a sight we were to the locals. Considering there is pretty nearly zero tourism, the sight of seven ‘mzungus’ being motored around the Lake must have been completely incomprehensible. Rwandans just absolutely wouldn’t take such leisure trips – and certainly couldn’t afford to. There was an awful, almost shameful moment, when we realised that the boat for the day, although only a fiver per each of us, actually cost over twice a teacher’s monthly salary. Isn’t that utterly shocking?

But a brilliant day. We visited, briefly, a small island called Ishwa that even David hadn’t been to before. We had such a delightful welcome from all the local children who raced down to the shore where we arrived and then escorted us all around on our wanderings. David instigated a round of ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ with some assorted masses, all of whom followed brilliantly and thought it hilarious fun.

From there to Nkombo for a second visit this trip. This time we were able to meet more of the families rehoused in the Rwanda Aid houses, after the earthquake. Again, we received such incredible welcomes and hugs all round it was very touching. It was incredible, and truly gratifying to see how much several of the families had managed to get back on track and move forward with their lives since being rehoused. We felt so privileged to have the opportunity to see into these lives, and their houses which, although very simple and basic by Western standards, were still homely and on the way to being comfortable. There were the odd quirks such as a goat in one bedroom, and a couple of chooks sitting cosily in a kitchen, but despite these, along with the mud walls, on the whole many priorities were roughly the same.

Although the day started quite pleasantly weather-wise, it deteriorated dramatically once we got to Nkombo and we were wading through mud I suspect too sticky to imagine. The more we waded the heavier our shoes became until it became difficult to lift our feet. The children certainly had the last laugh on this occasion being far less inhibited by their bare feet than we were in our ‘sensible’ walking shoes.

We reached the boat finally, and once in motion settled down to a truly English picnic, in the pouring rain, of course. Soggy sandwiches, even hard boiled eggs. But then, amid the doom and gloom, a vibrant pink box seemed to ascend, almost, from Emma’s bag, containing two complete layers of chocolate eggs! We were all momentarily transfixed in ecstasy before diving in rather frenziedly, without the finesse my mother tried to teach me.

Supper was significantly enhanced by our second Easter treat of mini lemon cupcakes decorated with crunchy chocolate eggs. A small African fabric pouch each, filled with Thorntons chocolate egglets, completed the excitement for the day. But I suspect that that small sample of chocolate nectar could be the ruin of any sort of ‘calm’ acceptance of deprivation….