Teachings and meetings

Woke up very stiff after our long journey. breakfast looking out over lake then a walk up to the clinic not looking forward to the long walk up the hill, so was very pleased when Theo the bishop's driver went past and offered me a lift, much appreciated.
Then a seminar with Dr Israel and the nurses teaching about whole person medicine and terminal care.
This is  quite a new concept for them as morphine is unavailable and they have a very old fashion model of medicine over here.
Then back to the guest house via a very leisurely and enjoyable if rather hot walk by the lake. Rob and Jan were having a meeting to finalise the contract for the water harvesting with the Bishop and Basil the engineer.
This discussion was quite protracted but finally a basic agreement was reached. Then lunch and packing and a lovely meal with Nathan and Esther, Rob was still training people to use the big filter  as the rest of us went to bed.

Final pictures from the lake

  

Water works and diabetes case studies

We all woke up early today to massed choirs of birdsong and a beautiful red African sunrise. We waved Mary of in a taxi on her way to the airport for her flight to Kigali then on on to Nairobi. Then a leisurely breakfast  Ian Rob and Peter set off for Rwanda aid office we met our old friends Patrick and Jonas there and we were introduced to some new people from Sussex originally doing a year there. Then on to the water company to meet the head chemist. Rwanda Aid are thinking of doing a project on Nkombo with Aquafilters. They need to know the possible dangerous salts in the lake as it is quite close to the Congo border which is a general dumping ground for anything and everything.
In the end we decided the results they could produce locally were inadequate for Robs needs, so the chemist was sent on a mission to Kigali to the national laboratory. This needed a lot of negotiations over  sufficient amafranga to finance the trip .
Then we got a lift from Theo the driver for the diocese back to the guest house, soup and toasted sandwich then we had the most enormous thunderstorm which broke through the thatch above our bedroom so we had a little rivulet under the bed and out into the living area. So this was mopped and it soon dries. Then taxi up to the clinic to do some training with the nurses with Peter translating.
Walked down the hill all that amazing rain had dried and vanished in the hot sun.  
After African tea our guests Bertha and Ephraim arrived complete with two children aged three and 13 months on a motorbike; health and safety reigns in Rwanda! Kenneth and his wife arrived and we had another   convivial evening.

Mary with her Rwandan children and grandchildren

Sunset over lake

Tree after the storm

Auctions and ladders

This morning was another early start as Theo arrived to take us to the cathedral to the English language service. Most of the English speakers had gone off to Kigali for a wedding. However there was a large contingent from the two schools who were boarders. There were very lively choruses and preached on Holiness
 Then off to the little church at Gisakura. When we came the first time this was held under a tree with a tarpaulin to  keep out the rain off now there is a tiny wooden church with a leaky roof. They are in  the process of building a proper brick built church. The worship was very different with a single drum and energetic dancing. They are very busy collecting money for their new church so they had two collections one for the poor people and one for the church.   Ian preached again on Isaiah 53 using a simple illustration about how Jesus bore our sins and sicknesses and gives us his righteousness using a ruck-sac and 3 bricks. After the church someone had brought some  passion fruits which were auctioned for the new church.

The church outside their new building

Auctioning passion fruit after church

Bishop for breakfast

Basil and Rob watching the technician bending pipes 

We had breakfast with the bishop this morning to discuss water harvesting projects. Then he had to go back to Kigali and then Uganda for a wedding and a funeral.  Afterwards Rob and Ian went into town to cash some cheques in the bank. Today Rob’s water engineer was doing some alterations and repairs to the water harvesting system at Jill Barham. Rob and I were supervising. Fascinating to see them bending pipes with a twig fire and soldering the tanks with a hot iron.

The girls went up to the district education office to give a presentation to teachers of Mary O’s project. This went off successfully then back to the guest house for supper.

Mary and Jan dancing with Enid 

Felix and Yvonne came for dinner with Pastor Eugene who does a wonderful work with the down and outs and prostitutes in the town. He has a couple of projects one teaching tailoring and running a shop and a project with street cleaners they have got the contract for all the street cleaning in the time and he keeps them off the street and into a proper paid job. All was very proper until Peter started  drumming on the table then the dancing started and was a wonderful evening of African drumming and dancing.

Then some final speeches thanking us for the meal and we walked them a few hundred yards on their journey home which is the Rwandan custom and exhausted into bed.