A visit with hope, joy and a new home.
Well its about time I blogged, theres so much to tell you all... hope all is well..
Well I had a really good weekend on saturday I walked around town looking for books and bibles for the children of Gikondo, I ended up going all over town and found the place where I went for lunch on my first day in Rwanda all of a sudden everything just made that much more sense. When I left one of the bookshops I heard an agonizing scream , I walked outside and saw a poorly dressed woman crying and screaming uncontrollably, there were a whole lot of men who were standing around uselessly, they were angrily shouting things but that of course didn't help the situation , so this poor lady was crying on the side of the road (this is very unusual in Rwanda to see someone cry) so I went to her and put my arm around her and said Babarera Babarera ( I am sorry, I am sorry) and anything else I could say that was remotely comforting, this middle class lady interpreted saying this woman was a beggar and had been begging and a man she had begged to had beat her with a stick! I was very angry and asked where this man was but fortunately for him he had disappeared and nobody knew where he was. Some men brought her, her little boy back who had run away from the fright, so I walked with her a while and comforted her and she said 'un de shoonshi' which means I am hungry so I went to the supermarket and bought her some food and then bought some fruit for her which was on the side of the road she was very happy and I was glad to make her feel better, she didn't even own shoes, and in rwanda you can tell so much by what someone wears, if there is a beggar I look to see if the beggar is wearing shoes if so it means they are not so bad off, the people with no shoes represent little self respect and no money. The only thing was when I helped this woman all the other beggars followed me wanting money etc, but I had to say no , just gave them a No I am sorry. Its really hard doing that but many beggars can genuinely get a job but would rather beg, live on the streets and sniff glue. For example last week Tuesday I went to Remera where our organisations head quarters were and I spent the day there with basket weaving with the women who suffer from gender based violence. At lunch I went exploring and made friends with 5 street boys, I bought them some nice chocolate which we all shared around, I then brought the oldest boy who was 17 with me to the head quarters to ask if there was anything FVA could do for him , and he readily admitted he sniffed glue etc, and that some of those boys did have parents but just ran away all the time...two were orphans and genuinely didn't have a home and they were only 8 and ten and they made about 200 franks a day from begging which isn't a lot by rwanda standards.. hopefully now that I had taken the oldest boy to Fva they know where to go if they want help with schooling, homes and orpanages.. that is if they genuinely want help.
on saturday I then met all the other volunteers for lunch and was suprised to find 4 children from the orphanage there with Alex the other volunteer at my placement, she had gone that morning to the orphanage and had brought two children with her and the two older boys Elias and D'amoure for supervision. I didn't understand why at first they would need supervisors but besides the language barrier , it was also there very first time on the bus, to have chips, to have icecream , to use a flush toilet , to go to the city. Both had never been to the city ever even though there orphanage is in a little ruralish town only 10 minutes drive from Mamoogi (town) . it was crazy and they were both really overwhelmed but extremely exited, none of them had ever had icecream before and it makes me think back to home when I always refused icecream saying 'icecream is yuck!' so everyone enjoy your ice cream chocolate, meat and fizzy drink , because they are very very special treats for these children.
One funny moment was when I took Angel to the bathroom and I had to physically lock the door for her and show her how to use the tap and the soap dispenser and also how to dry her hands under the electric fan , she stared at it with wide open eyes like it was the most amazing thing she has ever seen. Angel is 12 and I could not believe that she had never experienced any of these things before. When me and Angel walked arm and arm down the street many people stared (well that's normal but excessively this time) and one man said you should take her back to Europe with you.. haha
another cool thing was that when we were having lunch , which has a good lookout of the roundabout all traffic was stopped and the presidents car and several other important looking cars drove past, the kids were very excited because as true Rwandans they idolize the president Paul Kagame. We also went to the two big supermarkets which is what they really wanted to see having heard about it from there friends , they were in awe of everything, a bit different from the shop in their district that sell's tomatoes, oil and blue band butter substitute, and if lucky maybe some mayonnaise and lollipops.
On sunday I was going to church and was running late and I walked fast and slipped and cut my leg open so I went back to the house and got it fixed up and by then it was too late for church... that afternoon I visited my new friend Hope whose a pastor, she spoilt me so much with food and fantas etc. She is about 40 and an amazing lady, she runs a little school on her property for street children and children whose parents are too poor to send them to school (kwi shuri), and also has a programme which teaches poor women skills like sewing and bead making, and world vision donated all the equipment for it, and worked with her. So I thought that was awesome to see where my money was going to and also because now I have a contact (ish ) with world vision, which may come into handy when wanting to work for them. On Thursday I made another friend on the bus and her name was Joy, she is a seventh day Adventist and is expecting her first child, her husband works for the government, I met her walking back home from the bus stop and went to visit her house which was quite flash, I definitely will be visiting again, they were both very good at English and very educated and interesting.
Further more nothing that exciting has happened this week except I moved house on monday so instead of living in Kimironko I now live in Kichikuru! The house is very flash and we have A TOASTER!!!!!!!!! I am so excited by that! Except apparently we have to shake the cockroaches out of there every morning, and there are many cockroaches around the house, the location is quite rural and the people are friendly.. I caught a bicycle taxi down to the house the other day and we had the biggest fun me and the biker, we were really slow though but it was so much fun. Anyway I am now going to catch a moto to Kitchikiru because I am now going to be caught in rush hour and will not be able to catch a bus and if I do it will be an hour or more before I get home..
I must go...
Mirigue!(goodbye)
Well I had a really good weekend on saturday I walked around town looking for books and bibles for the children of Gikondo, I ended up going all over town and found the place where I went for lunch on my first day in Rwanda all of a sudden everything just made that much more sense. When I left one of the bookshops I heard an agonizing scream , I walked outside and saw a poorly dressed woman crying and screaming uncontrollably, there were a whole lot of men who were standing around uselessly, they were angrily shouting things but that of course didn't help the situation , so this poor lady was crying on the side of the road (this is very unusual in Rwanda to see someone cry) so I went to her and put my arm around her and said Babarera Babarera ( I am sorry, I am sorry) and anything else I could say that was remotely comforting, this middle class lady interpreted saying this woman was a beggar and had been begging and a man she had begged to had beat her with a stick! I was very angry and asked where this man was but fortunately for him he had disappeared and nobody knew where he was. Some men brought her, her little boy back who had run away from the fright, so I walked with her a while and comforted her and she said 'un de shoonshi' which means I am hungry so I went to the supermarket and bought her some food and then bought some fruit for her which was on the side of the road she was very happy and I was glad to make her feel better, she didn't even own shoes, and in rwanda you can tell so much by what someone wears, if there is a beggar I look to see if the beggar is wearing shoes if so it means they are not so bad off, the people with no shoes represent little self respect and no money. The only thing was when I helped this woman all the other beggars followed me wanting money etc, but I had to say no , just gave them a No I am sorry. Its really hard doing that but many beggars can genuinely get a job but would rather beg, live on the streets and sniff glue. For example last week Tuesday I went to Remera where our organisations head quarters were and I spent the day there with basket weaving with the women who suffer from gender based violence. At lunch I went exploring and made friends with 5 street boys, I bought them some nice chocolate which we all shared around, I then brought the oldest boy who was 17 with me to the head quarters to ask if there was anything FVA could do for him , and he readily admitted he sniffed glue etc, and that some of those boys did have parents but just ran away all the time...two were orphans and genuinely didn't have a home and they were only 8 and ten and they made about 200 franks a day from begging which isn't a lot by rwanda standards.. hopefully now that I had taken the oldest boy to Fva they know where to go if they want help with schooling, homes and orpanages.. that is if they genuinely want help.
on saturday I then met all the other volunteers for lunch and was suprised to find 4 children from the orphanage there with Alex the other volunteer at my placement, she had gone that morning to the orphanage and had brought two children with her and the two older boys Elias and D'amoure for supervision. I didn't understand why at first they would need supervisors but besides the language barrier , it was also there very first time on the bus, to have chips, to have icecream , to use a flush toilet , to go to the city. Both had never been to the city ever even though there orphanage is in a little ruralish town only 10 minutes drive from Mamoogi (town) . it was crazy and they were both really overwhelmed but extremely exited, none of them had ever had icecream before and it makes me think back to home when I always refused icecream saying 'icecream is yuck!' so everyone enjoy your ice cream chocolate, meat and fizzy drink , because they are very very special treats for these children.
One funny moment was when I took Angel to the bathroom and I had to physically lock the door for her and show her how to use the tap and the soap dispenser and also how to dry her hands under the electric fan , she stared at it with wide open eyes like it was the most amazing thing she has ever seen. Angel is 12 and I could not believe that she had never experienced any of these things before. When me and Angel walked arm and arm down the street many people stared (well that's normal but excessively this time) and one man said you should take her back to Europe with you.. haha
another cool thing was that when we were having lunch , which has a good lookout of the roundabout all traffic was stopped and the presidents car and several other important looking cars drove past, the kids were very excited because as true Rwandans they idolize the president Paul Kagame. We also went to the two big supermarkets which is what they really wanted to see having heard about it from there friends , they were in awe of everything, a bit different from the shop in their district that sell's tomatoes, oil and blue band butter substitute, and if lucky maybe some mayonnaise and lollipops.
On sunday I was going to church and was running late and I walked fast and slipped and cut my leg open so I went back to the house and got it fixed up and by then it was too late for church... that afternoon I visited my new friend Hope whose a pastor, she spoilt me so much with food and fantas etc. She is about 40 and an amazing lady, she runs a little school on her property for street children and children whose parents are too poor to send them to school (kwi shuri), and also has a programme which teaches poor women skills like sewing and bead making, and world vision donated all the equipment for it, and worked with her. So I thought that was awesome to see where my money was going to and also because now I have a contact (ish ) with world vision, which may come into handy when wanting to work for them. On Thursday I made another friend on the bus and her name was Joy, she is a seventh day Adventist and is expecting her first child, her husband works for the government, I met her walking back home from the bus stop and went to visit her house which was quite flash, I definitely will be visiting again, they were both very good at English and very educated and interesting.
Further more nothing that exciting has happened this week except I moved house on monday so instead of living in Kimironko I now live in Kichikuru! The house is very flash and we have A TOASTER!!!!!!!!! I am so excited by that! Except apparently we have to shake the cockroaches out of there every morning, and there are many cockroaches around the house, the location is quite rural and the people are friendly.. I caught a bicycle taxi down to the house the other day and we had the biggest fun me and the biker, we were really slow though but it was so much fun. Anyway I am now going to catch a moto to Kitchikiru because I am now going to be caught in rush hour and will not be able to catch a bus and if I do it will be an hour or more before I get home..
I must go...
Mirigue!(goodbye)
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