Kumbya 2 - the swim

One of the Kumbya traditions is a morning swim to a nearby island. It is 2.5km! After a couple of afternoon practices, we decided that we would give it a go, despite the 0600 start : one thing in its favour is that Lake Kivu is an ideal temperature for swimming. On the day, we were both awake in our tent from about 0330, only dozing intermittently after that. Whether this was from anticipation or dread we could not tell.
In glorious dawn light, about 20 of us aged 10-50+ plunged in (the cold air made this easier than in the afternoon) and swam, accompanied by several safety canoes. It took us about 100 minutes, and involved 3 sunrises as the sun appeared and disappeared behind the hills. There were also some enthusiastic but surprised greetings from some local people setting out early in their boats. I’m sure it confirmed any notions they had that they would never understand “bazungu”!
Although the water was not cold, we were glad of the warm clothes sent ahead in the canoes and even more glad of the pancakes waiting for us when we got back to the camp. Like a half-marathon, it was hugely satisfying to have completed it and everyone was a winner, particularly the 10-year-old girl who became the youngest ever to finish and a heroine to her friends.

Kumbya 1 - missionaries

Our first week back in Rwanda was spent at Kumbya, a retreat camp on the shore of Lake Kivu, about 1 hour away from Cyangugu. This is the 60th anniversary of Kumbya Week, which was started on the back of the revival which took place in Rwanda and Uganda in the middle of last century and resulted in a huge expansion of the church. It is for missionaries and Christian ex-pat workers in Rwanda and the surrounding countries. One of the interesting things about it is that there are a large number of denominations, mission groups and nationalities represented although there are only about 70 adults in total. Americans and Brits predominate, but there is a fascinating mix of people of different backgrounds, ages and outlooks.
I have to admit we approached the week with some trepidation, but it has been refreshing, restful and challenging. The small group discussions were particularly interesting, because it gave us a chance to understand some different perspectives on mission in Rwanda.
The people were interesting, too. Our experience of short-term visitors to Cyangugu has not always been positive, but the people we met at Kumbya were sensitive to local culture, almost all learning the language, committed to the good of the country, positive and often making huge sacrifices to be in Rwanda.

Cafouiller

I came across this word by accident in the Collins French Dictionary in the middle of a very difficult first day back in the office. With uncharacteristic French conciseness it sums up my experience of working in Rwanda : “to get into a shambles”. As a Scot I would change “shambles” to “bourrach”. Finding it helped make the transition back to Rwandan pace and style of working a little easier, as if someone understood.

Back in Rwanda

When I started to write a blog, I resolved that I would never make a post on the theme of “I’m back”. I have noticed on other sites that these seem to precede as often as to follow a long period of non-posting.
We are indeed back in Rwanda after a month in the UK with 2 graduations, a wedding and too many social events to recount behind us. We had a wonderful time, even if it was not very relaxing. It has been strange but reassuring to come to Rwanda and to see familiar things and sights. It is so totally different from last year when everything was new.
Our first evening was also a reminder of one of the most appealing aspects of life in Rwanda. We had left our car at the garage in Kigali (not the original plan, but that is a long story). One of the managers from the garage came to meet us from the plane at 930pm on Saturday night. He was in his own car with a relative who was visiting. We were offered dinner, but since we had already eaten we were taken to where our car was parked and helped with the luggage. Nothing was too much trouble. Now, the car was at the garage so long due to someone’s incompetence, but the warmth of the welcome and the personal service were such a lovely way to come back to Rwanda.

Harsh realities

We arrived back in the UK on Wednesday, just as the handover of prime ministers was happening. We spent 3 nights in Sussex as planned and then came back to Scotland on Saturday. 30 minutes after we left Glasgow Airport, 2 men deliberately drove a car apparently laden with gas cylinders into the terminal. It was a reminder of the harsh realities of life in Britain.
Evil manifests itself in all kinds of ways, but hatred of other cultures and the desire to destroy them seems to be one of its most extreme forms. In this respect (motivation), events in the Rwandan genocide and the current campaigns of various terrorist groups are connected.

7 nights, 7 beds

As expected, the preparation for leaving Rwanda for the month of June has been hectic, with the added unexpected work of getting a new accountant started with us in Cyangugu. Today we face a week of changing bed every night : Cyangugu, Kigali, the plane to Brussels, 3 different homes in Sussex and then Scotland. We are hoping not to arrive home exhausted, but the adrenaline of seeing everyone will keep us going and anyway it will be good practice for the wedding at the end of July. This is likely to be even more hectic.

Gold-diggers of Burundi

On the eve of the opening of Bweyeye School and in the middle of the preparations which were well behind schedule, the local government executive decided to take me to see the Burundi border. Admittedly this is only about 1 km away and on the Rwandan side consists of 2 soldiers and a pole across the road. We duly drove across to find that the Burundi side was similar except that there were no soldiers. 2 men without any sign of official status let us through after some discussion about a drink.
Passing through a small trading post, we soon came upon this group of gold diggers. They were very keen for me to see what they were doing and to take photos of them.
The mud was being dug from a hole about 6m deep and then “panned”. This was producing a little gold - I was allowed to hold a piece, which was about the size of a letter "i" on a typical page! The photo indicates that this area is producing few millionaires, as for most gold-mining, I suspect. It turns out that these guys earn about 1000 Frw per day, probably about twice what they could get from digging fields, but it's obviously tough and dangerous work. They had started to tunnel under the road, but there was no sign of any supports or the intention to use them. Another group of people who are cheerfully struggling to make a living in the remore centre of this continent.

The grand opening of Bweyeye School

It’s all over, or at least it nearly is. Bweyeye Primary School was officially opened last Saturday by the local Senator (from the upper house of the Rwandan parliament). This was no small commitment from him - he left Kigali in the dark at 4am for 6 hours’ drive to get to Bweyeye and returned there at the end of the day. The hoped-for television crew did not arrive, but we got some coverage on national radio.
I arrived the day before as part of the advance party to help with last-minute preparations. The pickups were laden with the 600 pairs of shoes, exercise books and pens as gifts for the children and other materials not easily available in Bweyeye. We got there about mid-morning to find a buzz of activity at the school – a shelter being built, cleaning and painting under way, last minute touches to the buildings. No children, however – they were to come at 3pm to collect their new shoes and uniforms.
We were clearly going to be struggling to get everything done before Saturday morning, as everything had been delayed by unseasonal rain, but of course there was not the slightest sign of worry, stress or sense of pressure about this.
This was highlighted by the tailors, who were nowhere near finished the uniforms. They had sewing machines running, charcoal irons going and button-sewers working hard, but the uniforms were piled high in chaotic fashion. Several visits backwards and forwards persuaded them to recruit some extra help, but contingency plans for distributing uniforms in the morning were clearly needed.
By the time we got back after a late lunch the atmosphere at the school was electric and the children charged with adrenaline. They had already been waiting for at least 1 hour for us. The distribution of shoes started well enough, but there were simply not enough uniforms available, it all took longer than we anticipated (of course) and as darkness fell (and being Bweyeye, it was DARK), there were hundreds of children still at school. We sent them home to regroup in the morning.
I managed to surprise a few local people by rising early. It’s very unusual to see a “mzungu” who has spent the night in Bweyeye. At 0630 the potato peelers and chicken pluckers were already hard at work at the back of the pastor’s house, but the uniform sewers had been less productive. Fortunately the guests were late, as expected and so the preparations proceeded reasonably smoothly. We started 1.5 hours late, with about 100 special guests, a few hundred others and about 300 children. They were immaculate in their new uniform and shoes and immaculate in their behaviour, too. It was a proud day for the community.
The event itself was less interesting than the preparations. The preposterous idea that speakers should limit themselves to 5 minutes failed to be implemented, but there was nothing excessive. The star turn was one of the pupils who delivered a speech in heavily accented English which was a model of brevity and directness. The rain threatened but came to very little and we finished about 2 hours behind schedule. Meanwhile the cooks had worked wonders with very limited facilities and the spread was fantastic – over 100 people fed in just over 1 hour.
The day will do wonders for the community, giving an enormous boost to morale for all concerned. The new school, new uniforms and books, visitors from outside are all really important for a place like Bweyeye. There is still lots to do – I chatted to a couple of children who don’t go to school, there is always a shortage of teachers in communities like this and the quality of education and school management give cause for concern. Nevertheless, it was one of those days when it is a real privilege to be working in Rwanda.

God's day

Yesterday we worked in the garden instead of going to church. It had been a long week with a lot of travelling and we needed some exercise. The children who live next door came to visit at one point and Mukeshimana gently took me to task for “working on God’s day”. She is about 15, in primary 7 and is also responsible for cooking for 8 people in the household. She has a very charming smile and not very good English, but she has definite ideas about not working on Sundays.
The type of work is important – she was going to cook that day, “because I have a stomach”. Cooking is “soft work”, but digging is hard work. I didn’t ask, but presumably the school meeting which Sheena had been asked to attend in the afternoon was no work at all!
It’s not about going to church – she was not there either.
When I asked if every day was God’s day, she agreed, but she was very definite about not digging. In general this is not a very sabbatarian society : many of the kiosks open on Sunday afternoon and there are a lot of meetings scheduled. It seems that the tradition of not working the land on Sundays is quite well-established, however.

1km of fabric, 700 pairs of shoes

In the 10 months since we came to Rwanda, the diocese has been building a primary school in Bweyeye. This is funded by the “Telegraph” Christmas Appeal of 2005, where Bweyeye was heavily featured as one of the target communities. It has been part of my work here to supervise the building and in the process of regular visits I have got to know the community and the people there a little. This is not easy : the route involves 1 hour on pot-holed tarmac roads followed by 2 hours on a rough track down through the forest to near the Burundi border. No electricity, running water or phone signal, of course.
The official opening is now approaching and excitement is mounting. A very generous personal sponsor in the UK has offered to buy uniforms for the 700 children there. On our last visit we took 1km of fabric for the tailors of Bweyeye to work with. A quick survey of one class of 45 showed 5 children with shoes and the same number with any semblance of uniform. This is a very poor community. Tomorrow the advance party leaves with 4 huge sacks containing the 700 pairs of plastic shoes. We also have exercise books, pens, pencils and slates for all the kids in the school. We will sleep in Bweyeye, an adventure in itself, at least for me.
The Minister of Education has been invited to the meeting, along with Rwandan TV and about 100 other guests. No-one has any clear idea of how many of these will turn up, but the food budget should be adequate for all eventualities – 60kg of beef, 20 chickens, 50kg of rice, 50kg of potatoes and 10 hands of matoke, washed down by 1000 bottles of Fanta. It’s going to be quite a party! However, the significance for a community like Bweyeye is huge.

The weight of poverty

Today I spent 2 hours walking around the island of Nkombo, with some visitors from Kigali. Nkombo magnifies all the problems of Rwanda : overpopulation, soil erosion and poor agricultural practice, inadequate housing, limited education and health care, poor hygiene for the children. There is no electricity or running water on the island, which has nearly 20,000 inhabitants. Without fishing, people would be starving. There are children in rags everywhere.
Nkombo is not unique by any means : several of the parishes in the diocese are similar in the standard of living. However, it was one of those days when the extent and depth of poverty here weighed heavily on me, as it sometimes does.

The Message gives Romans 12:8 as “if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated by them or depressed by them.” It’s good advice, but can be hard to follow. Two things help : the usual cheerfulness and friendliness of Rwandans even in desperate poverty and the evidence everywhere that faith in God is strong and a real help in hardship.

Cuddly toy

Our day guard, Modeste, has been seriously ill with malaria. I went to visit him : his house is several kilometres away. When we came out, there was the inevitable group of children waiting and looking at me. One seemed to have a cuddly toy in his hands – strange, because they were barefoot and in rags, like most of the children in that area.
A closer look revealed that the cuddly toy was actually a dead mole.