Nkombo island: The leopard girl shares her food

Woke to a rather dank damp morning. Today was our visit Nkombo island we had to wait for the road to dry as the road down to the lake was very tricky with some steep muddy sections as the better road was being repaired.

The sun broke through and we eventually set off arriving at the lakeside and crossed over in a little wooden boat with an outboard motor. Nkombo is a very poor island with a large population and not enough crops in the ground and fish in the lake. The project has 500 kids on it they are able to feed about 350 of these twice a week at present.

They are fed a porridge made of a special flour called sosoma which is very nutritious with the right mixture of carbohydrate and protein. The children were a very well behaved bunch of ragamuffins sitting in rows and singing for us. The children who were in the program were in a much better state than when we came in September last year. There were less signs of malnutrition and less of the horrible ringworm which infects their scalps. There is a tiny class room and a canvas lean- to so there are two classrooms where they can be taught. There were three teachers employed by the diocese so they can start a very basic education. Hopefully through education they will be able to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty in which they are currently trapped.

We were very touched by one little girl dressed in a very grubby leopard skin print tee-shirt who noticed her neighbour had less porridge in her plastic mug than her and shared hers so they were equal. It was a real lesson to us all.

We then went over to the government school on the other side of the island where Mary O described her project to prevent rural girls dropping out of school, making unwise choices, becoming pregnant and ending up trapped in the slums of Nairobi. She was fact finding to see if her training could be adapted for use in Rwanda.

When we eventually got back to the shore the lake the wind had got up and the lake was quite choppy this worried Mary and Bertha but we got across safely.

In the evening Jonas, one of the Rwanda Aid managers, came over for dinner. He told something of his life story how he had struggled with his education but managed to largely fund himself through designing and making cards .This was very enterprising something a lot of poor African children lack to raise themselves out of poverty. This was one of the themes of Mary’s work to get girls to produce a life plan for themselves with communication skills so they did not just drift downwards into the traps of pregnancy and prostitution.

Rob and Jan had spent the day discussing their water collection projects with one of the possible engineers Basil who eventually joined us for dinner.

We were all exhausted by our busy day and eventually climbed into bed.    

 Boat ride to Nkombo

Feeding the masses

Mary with the little girl who shared her food

Let them eat cake

Woke up to a fine hot morning. The girls had a meeting with  Bishop’s wife Bertha and Honorine Obadiah’s wife. They were talking about Mother’s Union and Mary O’s project to empower young girls by mentoring and training their teachers and leaders. They had a long and successful meeting.

Rob and Ian had an appointment with the Bishop at 10 and were also waiting for the leader of the Pentecostal church in DR Congo Pastor Acheba to come and see us as we had a computer for him.

Acheba eventually arrived at 3 pm and Bishop 45 minutes later, we are now getting quite used to African time. Both meetings went very well, with Acheba getting a laptop computer and a free medical consultation.

Lunch was interesting as we ordered soup which came with cake as they had run out of bread, yummy combination.

Rob eventually had a very fruitful conversation, the bishop was obviously exhausted with all the travelling and all the demands on his time plus a family bereavement which would mean another long trip over the weekend.

Very congenial supper with Tony and Jonathon by then the rain had started in earnest again and so to bed. We were awaken to the sound of running water one of the hot taps had finally given up the ghost so another little problem to contend with.

 Hot walks and thunderstorms

We awoke to another hot day. We met the head of TearFund projects Joan who told us that the ovens were working well. She remembered Faith and the last team with affection.

Then a long march up to the top of Mount Cyangugu. Mary Ogalo was not used to climbing in the heat and altitude I think we tired her out. We had a very rewarding meeting with Kenneth, Mary explained her project for mentoring teachers and pupils in self-worth and self-determination.

Kenneth provided an introduction to the executive officer for education who turned out to be our old friend Damascene.

Ian went to the clinic to say hello, while the rest went off to see Damascene. Before very far we saw Theo, one of the drivers for the diocese, driving into the doctor’s house where the TearFund team is based we were introduced to some of the new team, and Speciose. She was really overjoyed to see us and nearly squashed all the air out of Mary H with a bear hug. Ian had a very hot but pleasant walk along the lake.

The meeting with Damascene went well and all the team apart from Ian managed to get a free lunch at the”vitamin restaurant”. In the afternoon the weather suddenly changed from hot and dry to overcast then a wind got up and the thunder started then the rain. As the evening progressed we experienced the awe and violence of a tropical storm. Water was even flowing through Ian and Mary’s bedroom and out of the door.  Someone came in and mopped up and all was dry by the morning.

Thunderstorms and sticky mud.

Apparently it thundered and rained all through the night. Ian slept through some had disturbed night.

After a wet early morning the sun came out. Two Marys and Jan went up to town to buy phone cards and change money. Then went to see the matron at Jill Barham School.

Jan and Rob set off to visit Jonas’ parents and show off the new wheel chair. The storm had turned the soil to thick mud soon our boots were clogged and heavy. We also visited Angela Roget Ramagana’s sister she was away praying but we were able to check the exterior of the house which the group from Southover built previously. Rob organised some repairs of a pipe for Jonas to implement. She is getting on much better now with a very prolific garden and Mango and Avocado trees they are grafted onto dwarfing stocks so they are good for a small garden and fruit within 3 years usually. These are provided by the government to poor widows. We then went on to another house owned by Patrick, Jonas’s cousin. He greeted us, his wife had gone to the clinic with a sick baby. Two of the other children were not well. They came to see us later at Jonas’ father’s house. It looked as though she had a bad chest infection but were going back this afternoon for the results of a blood test. We then went on to Jonas’ father’s house the family were very pleased to meet us and show us the new wheel chair, Sheila Etherington organised it through a free church hospital.  The family have been given two heifers by the government. They  looked healthy and well fed the animals are kept indoors to stop disease and fed with collected grass. They are expecting a calf in the summer which they will then donate to a neighbour without one. The manure was collected into heaps with other garden waste to mature and would be put back on the land. After prayers we departed and walked back through the mud which was slowly drying off in the sun.  

Journey through the land of a thousand hills

Woke up early all packed and ready Charles and Juliet arrived to wave us off. Modeste our usual driver drove us down to Kamembe on the bus you forget how beautiful the land of a thousand hills actually is. Dropped off Peter in Nyanza where we always stop for the yoghurt. Then a lovely journey through the rain forest. Mary has never been to Rwanda before and was very impressed by the scenery. The forest was particularly beautiful with the clouds floating in the valleys below us.

Lovely welcome at Peace swallows swooping overhead then a very impressive electric storm with sheet lightening.  Finally as we arrived in our Rondavel to be greeted by lots of little flying creatures with very delicate lacy wings. Which drop off and then they day. Very brief lived little lives. So to bed. 

Not very good bandwidth on internet so no pictures at present.

Umuganga distributing the filters

Early breakfast getting ready to take filters to be distributed.
Umuganga is a typically Rwandan affair which happens every last Saturday morning of the month. Every Rwandan gathers in their community to work together on a community project  which will benefit them all. So we were all invited to participate in shovelling in potholes from lorryloads of earth which had been deposited. After this had all been completed everybody gathered for a community meeting with messages being given from the government lots of pep talks and cheers for the president. A lot was said about good hygiene . Then John Gakwande introduced us all Rob did his little presentation of the Aquafilter project Charles and John both gave a little sermonette. Then the filters were distributed this was a little disorgnised at first as everyone rushed forward keen to get one so they had to be re-organised and a representative filter  given to six people who had already been trained from each division of the project. The others to be given later. We returned with John as we pased the airport we happened to see Wim Schoonbee medical director of Gahene Hospital sitting in a bus stop opposite the airport so we picked him up together with another missionary doctor who was going to Solace. At that moment Jonathan and Mary who had come on the same plane from the CMS conference in Nairobi passed us waving frantically. So we all met up at Solace happy reunions then Pater and Jonas arrived so Rob went off with them to look at Peters house while the rest of us went and had a quiet lunch at the Umubamo hotel.

Rob shovelling soil with new found friend

Ian happy with a shovel

Executive secretary introducing filters to the community

Rob and Peter demonstrating Aquafilter

There was a lovely wedding at Solace in the afternoon. Weddings in Rwanda are massive affairs the ladies gate crashed for a while there was about 400 people

Later in the afternoon Jan and Mary took Mary Ogalo our friend from Kenya on a sight seeing trip with Sam the taxi man. Rob went off with Jonas and Peter to Nyamata to visit Jonas's uncle and see Peter's house which was being constructed however the government have put a stop on the building until some final papers are obtained.
Finally to Charles and Juliet's house for a wonderful Rwandan meal and fellowship. Enjoying fresh vegetables from their garden a wonderful way to finish our time in Kigali before travelling to Kamembe for a fresh set of adventures next week.

It will be all right on the night

After the enormous deluge last night we awoke to a thick fog. However this cleared to reveal our first really sunny day. We did not have anything scheduled for the morning so Mary and Ian decided to go for a walk up hill and down dale, we went  down to the golf course which is like a very pleasant park in the middle of the city, very pretty. Totally lacking in anyone playing golf, knocking a ball into a hole in the hot sun does seem rather pointless.  We wandered back up the hill by which time the sun was quite hot and we struggled  back and to have a cold shower and complete change of cloths on our return.
Our planned meeting with Rotary was cancelled so a leisurely lunch and then sorting filters for the planned distribution tomorrow.

In the afternoon Rob and Ian sorted and checked the boxes of filters.
Afterwards Stessi and Peter arrived for dinner.
We had fun teaching the Rwandans a tongue twister; Peter Piper picked a peck of  pickled pepper. picked a peck.

Mary with Stessi in the filter storage room.

Jan and Rob

The golf course

Not a soul in sight in the middle of Kigali

Dr Sosthene and Rhoda

Rob and Jan had an early breakfast and joined Solace for their daily prayer time, while Ian and Mary, struggled to get up.
Rob and Jan had a busy day with a meeting with John to clarify finances and then various difficulties with bureaucracy in the afternoon.
We were very privileged to have Sosthene and Rhoda his wife join us for a sandwich lunch. He is a Rwandan doctor who is in the process of setting up an organisation to teach healthy living HIV prevention marriage preparation and family health especially to young people.
They had worked with Richard and Prilla in Gahini and told us how they hid for a month in their house during the Genocide, all their neighbours protected each other . They were finally rescued by RPF troops and then went to a refugee camp where they treated the wounded and where many people were miraculously healed by prayer. Their work was very similar with the aims of Judah Trust the charity of which we are members, and hope to be able to work closely together in the future.
We could feel a storm brewing all afternoon, the sky darkened  and the storm finally broke with an enormous thunder clap.

Especially for Barbara

Dinner with Peter Then we watched a DVD of Africa by BBC we were joined by the Bishop who was wandering past and intrigued by all this technology. Then to bed.

Wheels within wheels

Rob came down to breakfast with a very smart haircut from Madame Jan's hairdressing boutique. Then the news that the distribution was not happening today as the right permissions had not been given and so we had to go and see the  executive secretary (one of the top civil servants for that area).
We are still struggling to grasp the intricacies of the Rwandan bureaucracy.  However there was no driver for the Solace van to take us. Eventually Rob volunteered to drive the van after getting permission from John Gakwande we set off having to pause to fill up with fuel and wait for a receipt finally arriving an hour eleven minutes late so we are really getting the hang of African time!
Then a brief wait before being ushered in to the executive secretary. He was extremely friendly and accommodating really seemed a man of the people who wanted to help them.
We gave him a demonstration  of the filter and seemed very knowledgeable about all aspects of hygiene and showed us the prizes his area had won.
So hopefully the filters will be distributed on Saturday now.
In the afternoon Jan and Rob worked on a revised budget as many things in the project have changed.
Mary and I did some study and then I discovered my blood sugar was sky high with all the enforced waiting so we went on a walk discovering a delightful new arts centre.
When we got back we discovered another of our friends Jonas, an impecunious student had turned up, who was very glad of a meal, and told us about his fathers new wheelchair which Rob had organised through an NGO who supplied such aids.
So tea and Tom Wright on Acts and so to bed .

A bottle made out of bottles

 

Peter and Executive secretary with prize certificate

Street art

 Breakfast was heaving this morning, school children fighting with bishops over cups of coffee.
Then off with Charles to his school, it turns out that this was much smaller than we were led to believe so we drove back to Kigali to swap the large community Aquafilter for four smaller ones. Then a big demonstration and training of how it all worked followed by an assessment and measuring of the buildings for a water collection system which Rob will design and to be funded by his charity.
While I went back with Charles to swap the water filters Rob and Mary chatted to the children in their English lesson. They were all very sweet, well behaved but cheeky.
Then back about three o'clock for a very diverse lunch of nuts oatcakes and instant porridge.
Good news about the distribution which seems to be happening tomorrow. Plus various meetings so a very busy day ahead possibly.

 So do pray for a good outcome for all the meetings we have tomorrow that the filters will all be present for the distribution and all the community health workers and hygiene club members who have been trained will be there to receive their filters and then for a meeting with representatives of Rotary club who represent the donors.
Charles and Juliet were due to come to come for dinner at 6 pm they finally arrived after some African time and we had a very pleasant evening.
Then tea and prayers and so to bed.

Monday 17th

Awoke to a misty morning warm and sultry. Breakfast with Jonathan before he flew off to Nairobi for his conference. Then we produced a letter for the minister of education so that we could introduce Aquafilters to the schools in the study area otherwise the children would be getting clean water at home but still having dirty water in school. We sent off Rob to deliver the letter to the ministry of education and he managed to get in to see the minister who was an old acquaintance from a previous project so we quickly got he agreement.

Meanwhile we went in to see John Gakwanda who showed us his plans £200,000 extension to his clinic.
Then we travelled down to the clinic and saw how the foundations are already being laid. He is praying for the rest of the money to come in to see it  rising from its foundations.
 The clinic is very busy with patients crowded everywhere, we were greeted by our old friends we had met on previous visits. I presented them with some equipment with which they were very pleased. Then to the purpose of the visit which was to sit down with Martin the data manager  to go through the data entry for the study. This all seemed to go well  until we got home to find that all the data on Rob's data stick had been corrupted by viruses. Then an excursion back to the ministry with an aquafilter for the minister only to find he was not there. So an enormous dinner of avocado fish and chips followed by the sweetest chunks of pineapple. Some good news afterwards it sounds as though the distribution to the other clinic has been agreed and could even start as soon as Wednesday.
Tea bible study and prayer in the lounge, and then to bed.

•                                                       The busy clinic

New clinic extension 

                                                        Rob with data manager

Sunday with Charles and Teddy

Breakfast on the terrace with Jonathan and a party of very excited sixth-formers from Sandhurst Comprehensive.(apparently sandwiched between the Military academy and Broadmoor) the teacher had written a two hundred page risk assessment before the little darlings could come and find the only four wheel drives in Rwanda which actually had safety belts which worked.
Jonathan was having a quiet rest at the hotel next door before flying off to Kenya for his CMF conference.
Then off to church with Charles to his church in the outskirts of Kigali where we are taking the Aquafilter for the attached school on Tuesday.
The service was already in full swing when we arrived at nine thirty and finally finished at one thirty. The people were very welcoming and friendly and the worship very lively with lots of African music dancing and singing. The preacher was someone we knew from Cyombogo a lively preacher and dancer.
The children's choir was charming, after the service various needs were read out and these poor people freely gave money towards helping them. Peter and Teddy joined us after the service. Then back to the Umubamo Hotel for a sandwich and African tea, with Teddy an Jonathan.
A quiet few hours and supper with Samuel Yesashimwe who had  upgraded the computer we were taking to the pastor in DR Congo to windows7.
Finally a DVD played on a projector we are taking to the cathedral in Kamembe, and so to bed.

Aged Muzungus dancing

    Lunch with Charles Teddy and Jonathan

14 2 2014

Rwanda Arrival and first day.

We have all arrived safely in Kigali, having driven through a raging tempest to reach the airport it was quite a contrast to be deposited in a very warm and humid Kigali.

It is wonderful to be greeted by all the sight sounds and smells of our dear Rwanda and the warm smiles and hugs of everyone we have met over the first couple of days. The blossoms on all the trees was very striking after coming from a very wet and bleak winter in England. 

Yesterday was spent recovering from the flight and generally sorting ourselves out. So today has been our first work day as such.

So some positive things have happened, all the health workers have been trained before we arrived and a date proposed for the distribution of the filters.

Jonathan arrived in the early evening with the team from Peterborough. They are a lovely group, Jonathan was really relaxed and pleased to see us. The group had had a good time doing house building and teaching. I met two doctors who had been doing some teaching so it was good to sit down and find out what they had been doing. They had a celebratory meal. We spent the evening trying to get our net books to play a video. We finally succeeded.

So to bed after a very busy day.