A mixture of peace corps, mud huts , and moto rides

Well the title enough should say many things about my weekend ! On Saturday I went to Kigali city center and went to the Belgium memorial and shopping. On the way back from the memorial I met a girl called Michelle who is a peace corp from California, USA , who was very nice! She invited me to have lunch with her and another peace corp volunteer and then she invited me to stay at her house for the weekend in her tiny little(mud )house in her tiny farming village of Bungwei, on top of a 500 metre hill which is about a 5km walk from Uganda.So I grasped the opportunity , I caught my first motorbike back home packed my things and caught the moto back to town , from there we wanted to catch a bus which went to Byumba . The bus didn't leave until 2 hours later so we had dinner and went to the grocery store. On the way To Byumba there was a terrible storm so we went to a friend of Michelle in Byumba for a while until the rain cleared , she took us out to dinner and we were too polite to say No . We were given this huge omelet which was very thick and had chips(!!) in it and meat (!!!), we were very extremely full and could eat maybe half of it. We caught the 'moto' to Bungwei and it was a pretty freaky ride considering it had just rained! Michelle's house (mud hut with plastered walls and is the flashest almost in the village) was very small and very cute, she had a bucket which she had left out for the rain water and that bucket would last her a whole week for cleaning and drinking water!!! Crazy!! It was the best sleep I have had in Rwanda that I had in Michelle's bed! Because it is so cold it was the first night I have slept under the blankets! We went to an Anglican church service in English, I liked that service better because we sang hymns and I knew most of the hymns from choir and also it was very reserved compared to the other services I have attended in Kigali. She also showed me around her school that she teaches and there was a parent teacher meeting going on and she had to be there so we sat on the bench I was introduced as the 'visiting teacher' which was weird because I had not thought of myself yet as a teacher and I suppose to some extent that is what I am. There was elections for the head of the p.t.a and two men nominated themselves and the voting system was hilarious , if you voted for one person you stood behind there backs , definitely different from back home, probably not as fair but definitely the most practical way. Also because I was a visitor I had to sit with the other teachers (there were only a few it was also extremely unorganized) at the front on the bench outside, it was very wobbly so at one stage during some intense discussion the bench collapsed in front of everyone and we fell on the ground, it was pretty funny and we used it as an excuse to sneak away because Michelle realized she wasn't even supposed to be at the meeting. Then we went visiting which was an interesting experience we visited the local people in the town and everywhere we went they got there best food out even one of the poorer ladies in the village got out her biscuits! It was a really fun time meeting local children . Michelle is fluent at french and speaks kinyarwanda very well so I had to use her as a translator half the time. I really enjoyed myself we were so full from several lunches that we skipped dinner! It was really cute because she doesn't have any electricity so we had a candle and one lamp , I thought it was very gezellig (Dutch word for Homely)!! The next morning Monday I caught the moto back to Byumba and saw some amazing scenery , I took tonnes of photos and every corner I went around had some children who screamed Muzungu! and Bonjour! and Good morning! I used 3 french words in a row and felt very accomplished, the village life was definitely different than city life and I think I liked it better!!
In Byumba the bus to Kigali didn't leave for ages so I checked out the market etc. When I finally arrived in Kigali it was 1pm and so I decided to go home instead of going to the orphanage as it would take another hour to get there. Yesterday I went and loved it! Today I needed to write my c.v for my visa so that's what I am doing when I finish this blog I am going to the orphanage.
People have been asking questions about Rwanda so here is a summary
Prices: Everything is reaaaaaallllly cheap, only some delicacies are expensive compared to New Zealand, you can buy clothes here for less than 5 dollars internet is 400 franks an hour which is about 1 nz dollar, travel is really cheap its 700 franks for my whole days travel which is less than 2 nz dollars. You can get a restaurant meal for 5 dollars a buffet can be less , lunch could be 50cents etc
Weather: Its is gorgeous weather even though it is the rainy season!! I am becoming very brown! Sometimes in the afternoon we get thunderstorms and the rain pours down and its crazy but that happens maybe twice a week , otherwise it is over cast or really hot and sunny, its usually hot and the nights have been very warm!!
Scenery: I could rave for hours about this everything is so luscious and green like you're living in a rainforest , everything grows here we went to visit the plot that belongs to fva where they are going to build an orphanage and clinic and it had everything imaginable growing on it , pineapple, banana, papaya, oranges, beans, peas , corn , guava, lemons and so much more! Especially the country side you see many bananas mango , papaya , pineapple, avocado, lychees everything thats delicious!!! Every morning we get pineapple and banana for breakfast which is very nice and sometime tamarrillos and oranges and papaya (which is actually really yuck)
anway I think thats all the questions
miriweho! (good bye in the afternoon)
love kim