St Matthew's school

We awoke to a very bird song filled morning all the birds seemed very active today. Mary seemed fully recovered from her upset stomach this morning which was a blessing. When we got up to breakfast the table was almost bear as  a group had been in earlier and scoffed all the eggs. So we had porridge and toast with banana and pineapple which is a delicious way to eat toast. The bananas are tiny and very sweet, the pineapple is really luscious better than anything you can get in England.
Then we walked over to St Matthews school to visit the library Kenneth has been very ill with a problem which needed very delicate surgery. Thankfully he is fully cured and back in full swing at the school. Mary was very keen to visit the library and see how it could be catalogued. It was neat and in order but no system of cataloguing   however the deputy head who we wanted to see was up in Kigali. So we spent some time reviewing what  needed doing and sorting out some of the books into order. At ten Jan and Judy turned up to talk about installing water harvesting on the roof of the new boy's dormitory which was being constructed. The government had made them construct the dormitory as the boys had been sleeping in one of the classrooms which was far from ideal.

 Kenneth showing us the new boys dormitory being constructed

This is how the foundation is constructed using reinforced concrete in a ring 

with reinforced pillars going up and a further ring higher up

This helps them to withstand small earthquakes which happen fairly frequently.

We walked back the long scenic route calling in at the Catholic cathedral for some rest  and shade before continuing down the hill.Lunch was a snack of soup and a pancake, most of our group then went off to visit several widows we had known and some built houses for in the past. This group came back really exhausted having spent some time with Bertha, Bernadette Leocadie and Speciose. While they we were away we met up with a man called Paul who had just returned from a trip into DR Congo, with an organisation called Flame International. They work with women who have been sexually abused and have a ministry of inner healing and train pastors in that work. It is a major problem over there. He works as an electrician so also does a lot of electrical engineering for people hospitals and such like over there. Dinner consisted of stuffed beef, sauté potatoes and imboga (vegetables) followed by a plate of fruit absolutely delicious. Everyone was quite tired so another early night.