The next (or new?) chapter

Home from home

Have now been back in Rwanda for almost two weeks, after my three weeks spent in the UK. Into my routine of working at the guest house, my daily walk up and down to the office, hearing the cries of ‘mzungu’ from the children and getting used again to the nights getting dark at 6.30pm.

Coming back to Rwanda has felt like the next chapter or possibly a new one?  I left, to come home, feeling tired after my initial three months but, on reflection, I came out tired after packing-up the house and all the things I needed to do before I came. Also, there was a lot of emotion to deal with – saying goodbye to family, friends and Jasper (my faithful four legged friend) who, I have to say, on seeing him when I came home seemed blissfully happy in his new home.

I did let the tiredness and frustration build up but the two-week mission-training course I did has helped hugely. It was great to be amongst other people who are doing similar crazy things with their lives too and going off to places including Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Jordan, Spain, Malta, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and China. 

I feel I have come back with a different mind-set, more relaxed (I know it’s early days!) and, perhaps, more of a sense that I belong here or I can get to belong here. Connecting more with everyone I am working with and meeting and also being more ‘intentional’ in making a home here and developing deeper and more meaningful friendships.

There is a sense here of a change coming from the dry to the wet season. The land has been prepared with fields and plots dug over so everything, mainly due to the lack of rain, is looking very brown and dry and so different from other times of the year when the countryside is so very green and lush.  I suppose it feels like an English September, when we have an Indian summer, still very warm but with the evenings drawing in but knowing a change of seasons is underway. Everyone tells me that the rains that come are very heavy so I think I could be in for an interesting and muddy time.

Getting ready for the rains

The Diocese has started an English service at 8am on Sunday so it’s good to be able to go to church here and actually understand something. Spent yesterday morning in a three-hour meeting, with staff from Diocese, that was conducted, understandably, in Kinywarwandan with bits of it translated for me but I can see the need for language lessons being a number one priority.

Short-cut to the shops!

Been into town this morning, not my favorite of experiences, to do a bit of shopping taking the short-cut (coming down is even harder!) and managed to buy some amagi ga-antandatu (six eggs), using my limited Kinyarwandan. Did come away with six eggs but think I may have paid mzungu prices! I buy eggs from a place in town where they come to sell all the live chickens but not at the stage yet where I think I can buy one as used to them being oven ready!

Some for the pot

More musings next week.

P.S. Click on images to see them full size.

Bacon & Lemon Drizzle Cake

My thoughts are now turning to coming back to the UK on Sunday as well as for a Bill’s breakfast with bacon and lemon drizzle cake in Grange Gardens – anything really as long as it’s not an omelette or a banana!

Leave here on Friday for Kigali and then fly out to London, via Nairobi, on Sunday evening.  Heading up to Ware on Monday, after meeting daughter Jenny in London, for a two week ‘mission’ training course – timing couldn’t be better as will be good to talk though a number of issues that I’m having to deal with here, with people who have gone through similar experiences. Then back in Lewes on 5^th August for a week before heading back out here leaving UK on 12^th August.

Some local colour

Have included a few random photographs from my week – a shot of some rather colourful houses that are going up close to where I live, a lovely old chap who I didn’t realise was behind me watching me take the picture of the rather colourful houses. He almost knocked me out, with the wood he was carrying on his head, when I turned around but he was very happy to have his picture taken. And, some local wildlife – would like to say it was huge but it was quite small really.

Local character

Local wildlife

Still trying to deal with the daily challenges and frustrations – sometimes I deal with them well and sometimes I don’t. I’m trying to understand why I don’t and what it is that makes me get frustrated, impatient and sometimes annoyed. Have always thought of myself as an easy going short of chap with lots of patience and tolerance but I have to say at times here you do need patience in bucket loads to get through the day.

On the other hand, there are moments that make it worthwhile – yesterday I preached at a rural church that is still in the process of being built so we had a sort of open-air service with around 250/300 people.  I confess I am not a trained preacher but I seemed to hit the mark yesterday as had around 60 people come up afterwards to ask for prayer and there was joyful celebration in a way we don’t seem to have at home.  I also have to confess, my preaching did follow a very powerful testimony that moved me to tears and I was sitting there wondering how I was to follow it.

Here in Rwanda, the power of testimony is wonderful.  Since the 1994 genocide, people have been encouraged to share their stories, many as you can imagine horrific, but it is through this sharing that has allowed much healing, reconciliation and forgiveness. I have heard many testimonies over the years and it’s also good when we share too as it shows that us Westerners also have been through problems and difficulties and not so much the easy life many here may think we have.

I had one of the guest house security guards come into my office earlier to thank me as I had helped him sort out problems he was having with headaches and his eyes.  I was able to speak to a UK doctor, who is working here, and she was able to tell him he needed glasses and fortunately, the team who is here with her, was able to kit him out with some sun glasses and some prescription glasses they had brought out with them as well as a hat to keep the sun out of his eyes so he was a very happy man!

Last night going home, I shared a lift in a Land Cruiser, with eight pastors on the way to the house.  I was sitting next to a woman pastor who had a very young baby strapped to her back (as they do in Africa – no posh prams here!), her very young daughter falling asleep half on my lap and half on her's and me sitting there holding an inflated beach-ball (don’t ask!). The thing I’ve noticed here is that when you are being driven anywhere, you never go straight to where you are supposed to be going, you go off somewhere else and they never tell you where you are going.  Usually it’s to go and buy some airtime or drop someone off or pick something up but eventually you get to where you are going if a bit late but that’s all part of the experience of being here.

This will probably be my last post until I am back here on 13^th August.

Land of a Thousand Hills (& Emotions!)

Rwanda is commonly known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hill’ or ‘Des Milles Collines’ - the name of the hotel in the film Hotel Rwanda.  Yesterday, driving to a very remote parish, Rasano, I felt I drove up and down most of them.  A four hour journey along bone-shaking roads although TB’s 4x4 Toyota, his very good driver and some stunning scenery made it somewhat bearable.

View from Rasano & some of the hills we drove over

Arriving in Rasano, high on a hill, we were met by a large crowd who had come to church as TB was confirming 47 young people and word had gone out a musungu preacher was also coming.  For many, I was the first musungu they had seen so attention was firmly on me rather than on TB. Walking into the church, I was aware that around 250 pairs of eyes were looking at me – quite an intimidating experience as you walked through the church overwhelmed by the heat (must have been around 85 degrees under the corrugated iron roof) and the aroma of having around 250 hot people in there!  I did wonder how I was going to cope with what was going to be at least a two-hour service and thankful that they brought us some water as I had forgotten mine.

All eyes on the musungu visitor

Interesting old face in the congregation

Another four hour drive back to Kamembe, two hours in the dark along unlit roads with lots of people walking - have no idea how they can see anything but guess their eyes are better adjusted to the dark than ours are.

I thought last week’s visit to Kanzu, another remote parish, was quite a challenging drive but yesterday’s certainly beat it. But, there is something wonderful going to these remote churches – the simple buildings with corrugated iron roofs, mud floors, young children crawling and walking around the make-shift platform as TB is in mid-flow and mothers breast feeding their children! It all feels very raw but worship is wonderful (despite yesterday’s loud speaker blaring out to a crowd outside the church) and the opportunity to hear a musungu speaker brings in a few extra people – think TB is going to take “my musungu” (as he affectionately calls me) to a few more churches to get the numbers up.

Come to see the musungu in church

Earlier in the week, I went up to Kigali for a night.  Opportunity to have my first bath in about five weeks (don’t worry I have been taking showers!) and a look in a decent mirror, in decent light to see a much slimmer Jonathan with a mop of wild hair.  Managed to find a hair salon in hotel next door to got a hair cut, much to amusement of Rwandese ladies who were all having their hair done. Without my glasses it was difficult to see what was coming off and tried not to worry about the large chunks of hair on the gown but came out with a not too bad hair-cut and looking a bit more respectable.

My emotions, like the hills, have been up and down this week.  Think a combination of tiredness, had to meet a team from the UK who arrived at midnight on Monday in Kigali and didn’t get to bed until 2am and then early start and six hour drive back to Kamembe on Tuesday, combined with the challenges of being here has kicked-in.  Have to admit there has been some tears (for the first time I’ve been here) this week as well as feelings of frustration, impatience and, at times, anger. However, next moment I can find myself laughing and also humbled by the people here.

I returned late to the house the other evening after getting caught up in a situation at the clinic, where two doctors from the UK are working for a few weeks, when we got into a long discussion with local nurses about the condition of a very sick baby and whether it should stay in the clinic, which has limited hospital facilities, or be taken to the local hospital in town where it could be properly treated.  In the end, we managed to persuade the local nurses to call an ambulance to take the baby to hospital, as the UK doctors were worried that the baby may not last the night.

Getting back to the house, I was desperate just to get in and go to bed when I noticed in the shadows, on the terrace, there were two people waiting for me who turned out to be Christian and Jimmy, two sons of Leocadie (who I mentioned in an earlier post). They had brought me six fresh eggs from their chicken – a thoughtful and generous gift, as I know they need eggs for their family. Had a nice long chat with confident Christian who speaks very good English whilst his brother, Jimmy, sat there rather shyly but it was a lovely end to a trying day.

That was until I discovered a huge spider in the shower tray. Tried to capture it in an empty Blue Band tub but it wasn’t having any of that so, sorry spider lovers, turned the shower on and flushed it down the plug-hole.

I’ve still got a lot to understand here.  Why the Rwandese do things in the way they do and why they don’t do things at all!  Once I’ve understood this, I think things will get easier as I am finding it hard at the moment to progress anything – so many things just get forgotten so I’m trying to introduce a bit more accountability and some musungu ways of doing things. We’ll see!

P.S. The baby taken to the hospital is fine but the two doctors sadly had to tell a mother that her very sick baby, who she had brought to the clinic today, was going to die so high emotions all round. 

Football, Banks, Retreat & Ice

You can see from the heading, I’ve had quite a varied week!  Started off, last Sunday, with a football match (watching, not playing and the first since seeing Arsenal v Fulham in the old Highbury stadium) between the Diocese Youth Team and the Rusizi District Team.

I was told kick-off was at 3pm but being Rwanda I knew it would start later so arrived around 3.30pm when they were still discussing tactics, warming up and the match started just before 4pm.  I forgot that ‘youth’ in Rwanda is anything from 14yrs to 34yrs so couldn’t quite understand why the teams were made up of very large chaps. I asked someone what happens when the youth get to 35 – are they young men or middle aged?  No, old. Made me feel positively ancient.

It was a good match and just when it looked as if it was going to end in a no score draw when the youngest and smallest player from the Rusizi District Team scored in the last minute – think he was so small that no one saw him sneak up and kick the ball into the goal.

Winning team photo

I should be getting used to this by now as after the match, I thought I could just sneak off but I was asked to go and have a Fanta with the players.  They had played for 90 minutes with no water and I was treated as the guest of honour, given a drink before all the others and was asked, as is the Rwandese custom, to make a speech. There wasn’t a Biblical passage about football that came to mind but a few mentions of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal got them happy and then I remembered the “it’s not the winning but taking part that counts” quotation so ended on that but not sure how it came out in translation.

In the week, I needed to go and get some money exchanged in Kamembe Town. There has been a huge growth in banks in the town and across Rwanda and people are being encouraged to join ‘Savings & Credit’ programmes to teach them to become more self-reliant. They set-up small community savings groups and, each member in the group has to save some money each week – we are talking, in many cases, amounts of RWF100 (10 pence) which may be 10% of their weekly income (you can work this out to get an idea of their income) – and then they bank the collective savings of the group.  This gets them into the habit of saving and also gives them confidence to go into a bank and pay money into the account.  Small banks are opening up in the rural villages and there are even mobile banking services. 

I went into a bank, as have got to know a couple of staff there, who are keen I open up a bank account with them (which I need to do). A new airport style security check has been installed at the entrance but, most people walk around the gap next to it or, when you do walk through it, as I did and it bleeps, no one bothers to check you!  I was shown into the office, of one of the staff I had met, and although there was another customer in there, they just sat me down and talked to me and completely ignored the other person!  It’s things like this that make me smile as you just wouldn’t see this at home. The office was air-conditioned, the first I had come across in my time here, so I could have spent the afternoon there.  Did have a very interesting chat about banking in Rwanda – some good interest rates on deposits here!

On Thursday, I had a day-away with The Bishop (TB).  He wanted to go on a ‘retreat’ for a day so we escaped and drove to a five star lodge hotel located in a tea forest on the edge of the Nyungwe National Park – hope none of the staff from the Diocese are reading this as we could be in trouble! TB said he wanted a day with no phones, email or work stuff but when I arrived at his house, with my swimming trunks, sun tan lotion and sun glasses, he had packed-up his briefcase full of papers, phone and his iPad ready to go. I just smiled!

Passed this wedding procession on way to lodge

The NYP is acclaimed for its biodiversity and for being one of the most endemic species-rich areas in all of Africa and is one of the most important conservation sites.  It covers 1020km2 and boasts a diverse ecosystem from rainforest, bamboo, grassland, and swamps.  It protects one of the region’s largest and oldest remaining patches of montane rainforest and is home to 300 species of birds, 13 primates and location for one of the sources of both the Nile and Congo rivers. Takes almost two hours to drive through the forest to get from Kigali – Kamembe but it is spectacular.

The lodge is set in a tea plantation with the forest as an amazing backdrop and very peaceful – there were even some monkeys up in the trees and on the roof of one of the bedrooms. Temperatures in the park are cooler than those in Kamembe and we experienced the first rain in seven weeks.  So, no swimming but just a relaxing day, chatting with TB, trying to get him off his phone and stop checking his email and enjoying the beautiful surroundings and being transported into a world of luxury although a stark reminder of the rich and poor divide that is developing here. Even the men’s urinals, in the gents, were filled with large pieces of ice – never seen this before!  The contrast between this and a pit latrine couldn’t be more different.

The Lodge in tea plantation & forest behind

Then it was back, I suppose, to the real world of Kamembe where they’ve been painting the town red.  Must have had a consignment of red paint delivered as suddenly the buildings are turning red– not quite the Farrow & Ball shades I’ve been used to in Lewes High Street but it kind of works here! 

Painting the town red!

Tomorrow I’m going, with TB, to Kanzu - one of the remotest of the Diocese of Cyangugu’s 15 parishes and have just been told it takes four hours to drive there. TB has asked me to preach and also to preach in two more remote parishes on the next two Sundays. Many of the churches are in very remote places and difficult to access so if some pastors need to come to Kamembe, for a meeting, it can take them seven hours to get here! One thing I notice about being here is that people don’t complain – despite the hardships, challenges, distances they just get on with it.  Not like me, as I often moan to myself about the heat, the hills, the dust, and the potholes so I have much to learn from these resilient people.

I think TB wants to turn me into a ‘Preacher Man’. I’m also now known as ‘Musungu Man’ by some of the children I pass each day walking to and from the guest house – meaning ‘White Man Man’ – bit like ‘White Man Van’ but without the van!

Just back from town, where I managed to leave my printed sermon, that I just had just walked all the way down to the guest house to print out, in Alimentation OK where I buy groceries (and now Mars Bars!) but one of the shop assistants ran after me up the high street. Being the only musungu don’t think he had a problem finding me and I was much relieved as couldn’t have faced going back to the guest house although it would have given me something to moan about.

Walking up the hill, to the house, about 50 soldiers with rifles passed me in single file. I think each one of them ‘eye-balled’ me but didn’t respond to my friendly ‘wiriwe’ (good afternoon) or a smile.  They were Rwandan military so at least we haven’t been invaded.

Off to Kigali on Monday, to meet a group coming over from the UK who are working here for three-weeks. Hoping to have time to get to one of the city’s new coffee shops for a cappuccino and a chocolate croissant or two!

Another week goes by

I wondered when I came to Rwanda whether time would go any slower here than in the UK. It doesn't seem to. I've been here almost 7 weeks now and the weeks seem to be flying past - one minute it's Monday and then it's Friday. I think all the days here seem to be the same so don't, except for Saturday and Sunday when I have a different routine, really know what day it is.

This week, I did have a break from my weekly routine when I went to Nkombo Island, my first visit there since coming to Rwanda in 2006. Located a 30 minute drive from Kamembe, along some pretty rough terrain and then a short boat crossing across the water, Nkombo Island has around 20,000 inhabitants and is one of the poorest places in the area.  The soil is infested with insects that eat most of the crops making it very difficult for people, who are reliant on what they can grow to feed and sustain themselves.

Boat to Nkombo - takes more than passengers!

The Mothers' Union of Cyangugu Diocese, set-up a Nutritional  Clinic on the island for malnourished children and have a twice-weekly feeding programme for 320 children.  On the day I visited, around 70 children came to the clinic where they were given a porridge like drink, watery in consistence, made out of flour, a formula with nutrients/proteins and sugar. 

Drinks ready to serve

All the children sat there, patiently waiting whilst the drink was prepared, poured into cups and then distributed amongst them all - there was no squabbling or grabbing the mugs and whilst some consumed the drink quickly others needed a little help.

Happy children!

Walking back to the boat, we were followed by many of the children desperate to hold your hands or, in my case, each finger and thumb!

Fingers, thumbs & man boobs!

Being here in Rwanda is enriching with experiences. However, I am having all my buttons pushed - patience, understanding, perseverance, compassion and many more!  I am having goods day and bad days. It can feel, on some days, a hard place to be - Kamembe is a busy border town and I often have to steel myself to go in and do some shopping. It's busy, noisy with traffic and music blaring out of the shops, lots of bikes, lorries, people and a road that is crumbling at the edges so you have to be really careful not to trip or slip. On the other hand, you have the beauty of the lake, the scenery and the people.

Some local colour to brighten the day

Sometimes the walk to and from the guesthouse feels hard - its hot and dry at the moment so very dusty and there are days I just can't face another walk up a steep slope. Still greeted everywhere by children with cry of musungu but have given up trying to teach them the difference between Good Morning and Good Afternoon. Many have started mimicking my English accent (some say it's a bit posh!) which is rather funny.

I learnt this week that there's "gold in them hills" - apparently Rwanda has gold which was news to be so thinking I may give us this mission lark and head for them hills!  I met a chap in the guesthouse, the other day, who is over here setting up a coffee business to export Rwandan coffee to Canada (I also learnt that the Rusizi area I am in is the best coffee growing area in Rwanda) and he is mining/digging (or whatever the word is) is for gold - I should have suggested he call his coffee brand Gold Blend! He had wrapped, in a RWF1000 note, some gold in its raw form - small chippings and bit of powder and strangely gold/yellowy in colour which I guess makes it very easy to see when it comes out of the ground.  He dropped some of it on the table cloth, by accident, and brushed it on the floor saying there goes US$20.00 worth - if only the guesthouse staff knew, when brushing away the crumbs from the floor, they were brushing away gold!

And, for those not on Facebook. I had my first bar of chocolate in seven weeks when I discovered Mars Bars in a shop in town. Got it home, opened it with some trepidation in case it was dry and hard but relieved to say it wasn't. Even sniffed it to get the smell of chocolate and caramel and then ate it enjoying every mouthful - the simple pleasures of life!

Wedding Bells

No, not mine! Invited to my first Rwandese wedding this afternoon.  Had to get 'suited and booted' in temperatures of around 80 degrees F - sorry to rub it in as I know the weather is not great at home but we are into the hot, dry season here.

For those of you who have been to Rwanda, and know Bertha, her brother Alphonse was marrying Sylvia. Today was the formal wedding ceremony, in the cathedral, where the bride wore white and the groom wore a suit with very long sleeves!  

Sylvia

Bride, groom, friends & family

Great hat!

Some great shirts and ties on display

Lovely 'old' faces!

A musungu gatecrasher!

The reception, in a local hotel in town, was not really what we have in the UK.  All the guests sit in rows, facing the bride and groom who are on a raised stage in the middle of the room with family and VIP's seated on tables at the front. I found myself on the VIP table, I think as I was with Bishop Nathan's wife, Esther and her son Joshua and they did treat me as guest of honour even though the bride and groom probably had no idea who this musungu was. Couldn't leave without being asked to make a speech saying who I was - getting used to this now as the Rwandans do like their visitors to say something.

Lots of speeches, cake cutting, presentation of gifts and toasting the bride and groom in Fanta!

The wedding cakes with bananas, tree tomatoes & passion fruit

I have been interested to see if time goes any slower being here but finding the weeks going quickly as they do at home.  Now into a heavy workload, finding myself walking to my office, at the guesthouse, deep in thought about the day ahead and have to remind myself I am walking past some stunning scenery so often just stop and look at the lake and the views across to the DRC. I think people are getting used to the musungu walking to and from work and they still laugh when I greet them in Kinyarwandan.  I'm starting myself now to refer to white people as musungus and even have to stop myself, if I see one, from shouting out "musungu!".

My work remit seems to be growing by the day - on Wednesday, I started the day looking around Murangi Farm, owned by the Diocese, hoping Bishop Nathan wasn't going to ask me to get involved with the management of it as smelly pigs and pregnant cows aren't really my thing!  It was then back to the guesthouse for a meeting about a Craft Shop (more my thing!) we are going to open up, then a meeting about a savings and credit scheme that is training people to save small amounts of money, then I had to write job descriptions for all the staff and then a meeting with Bishop Nathan to discuss the business plan for the guesthouse so certainly a day of variety!

I'm learning a lot about myself in that I like order, structure, planning, clarity, organisation so you can probably get I am finding it a bit of challenge!  I've also learnt not to keep the Blue Band in the fridge as it comes out rock hard and it's OK to leave it in the cupboard!

Modeste, the security guard, continues to do my washing for me but I am finding that some of my large polo shirts are coming back extra-large and with strange shapes in the shoulders where he has hung them on some quirky hangers!  However, it's lovely leaving a pile of dirty washing out in the morning and coming home to find them all clean and ironed.  I'm now on the look out for someone who can do a bit of shopping and cooking for me so I'll be well looked after.

P.S. Sorry blog is so long with images but can't get it to format so I can get them next to one another but will work on it.  Thought you'd like to see the images anyway

First working week

Sitting here reflecting on my first 'working week' here in Rwanda.  I started on Monday at Peace Guest House, owned by the Diocese as an income generating project for the church here in Cyangugu. By Wednesday, I had an office with a desk and a chair after I had to commandeer these from the Diocesan Office but at least I have somewhere to sit and work with my colleague, Boniface.

Here are a couple of pictures - first of our office and some of the lovely guest house staff - Alpha (Receptionist), Boniface (Project Manager) and Sirryl (Housekeeping).

Our office - I have the Executive chair!

Happy staff!

I am working on a business plan to support the guest house get more business as well as be more effective in their sales and marketing.  It's in the most fabulous location, overlooking Lake Kivu and offers huge potential to be a great place to stay.  Next week, I'm starting on doing the same for the Clinic and also looking to set up a micro-finance scheme, as well as other things, so will have plenty to do.

It all works very differently here, at a much slower pace and taking some getting used to but enjoying the challenge. Felt exhausted last night but have decided to keep Saturday's free to do things around the house, catch-up on emails, shop and all those sort of normal Saturday things!  However, housework today ended up by me directing Modeste, one of the guards, who I asked (or really pointed at a brush and made sweeping motions as that's the only way I can communicate with him, at the moment!) if he could come into the house to do a bit of sweeping. Next thing I knew, he had come in, taken most of the furniture outside, swept all the floors and then washed them all - he then took all the sheets, that I had taken off the bed and proceeded to wash them as well.

It's quite strange, when you're not used to having servants (!), to have all this done for you but they seem quite happy to do it.  I did, however, change the bed and getting used to having sheets and blankets and not a duvet that we have all so got used to having. Modeste will also do the ironing and, as the guards now know there is an iron in the house, I came back this evening to find one of the other guards sitting outside, with the ironing board up and with a pile of his clothes that he'd brought round to iron so he's now outside ironing!

Shopping in town this afternoon. As those from Lewes can see, it's quite different from our town and not a Flint, Wickle or a Tom Homewood in sight! 

Saturday afternoon shoppers in Kamembe

Found a couple of small supermarkets where I can get Blue Band spread (that's a name from the past), UHT milk, yoghurts, bread and stuff like that.  Did buy some fermented milk thinking it was going to be like pasteurised milk but it tasted pretty awful so that had to go down the sink!  Was tempted to buy a Mars bar but not had chocolate, biscuits, crisps for almost 5 weeks now so resisted.  Did stand on some scales that are in the house and, if they are correct, it looks as if I could have lost a stone in weight although, regrettably, not from around my stomach!

Walking back up the house, from the shops, I was carrying a bag of shopping (my 'Lewes, Fine all the year round' bag) and a 5kg bag of rice I'd bought Modeste, as a thank you for the work he had done for me, thinking it was all very hard with the steep climb and heat when I saw the women, in photo below, walking up carrying these huge, heavy loads on their backs with straps around their heads so really I had nothing to complain about other than a bit of sweat!

Haven't quite mastered the art of carrying shopping Rwandese style but working on it!

Then it was back to the house, shorts and kettle on for a nice cup of Rwandan tea on the terrace enjoying the view!