TIA moments
Yesterday after my last blog saying I hadn't been sick yet, I came down with the tummy bug..Luckily I feel fine today which is good because I really missed my kids and today after work I am going for the night to Musanze and tomorrow which falls on world environment day Paddy , Lara , Joy, August and I are attending the gorilla naming ceremony, which only happens once a year and there will be media from the whole world there.On saturday afternoon/night I am coming back home , while some of the others are staying because they are doing the gorilla trek on sunday. Apparently the hotel has hot showers, something I haven't had in a looooong time so I am really looking forward to that.
Apparently yesterday when I went for a nap at about three it started pouring with torrential rain, when it rains in Rwanda it pours! And Paddy who was staying home that week came from her bedroom to find an unknown Rwandan sheltering in our living room from the rain. She dragged the man to our cooks and security guy Asumpta, Chantal and Armani and they didn't know him either, turns out when it rained he went through the nearest gate, which when we try to get in and out of it is almost always locked , and took shelter in a strangers home, only in Africa.... We all thought it ironic that when we came home late we could never get inside the property because the gates were always locked.
Every day this week I have been buying fruit for the orphanage from a fund left by a volunteer that came for two weeks, the kids have been so excited, because they usually only get fruit once in the weekend. The less fun part about buying fruit is carrying it , and I discovered 8 pineapples is super heavy and far too heavy to carry for two kilometres by yourself up hills, so this local man Josef helped me carry them . Also macheting all these pineapples and the other day 50 oranges has resulted into me cutting myself... Today I think I will get some advocadoes, just to spice up the kids lunches a bit. I can't believe how cheap everything is here for 6 dollars you can buy 60 bananas or 50 oranges and 20 bananas , or 8 pineapples!
I really enjoy my walks to and from the orphanage, to the orphanage its good to reflect and plan and chat with the locals , on the way back I walk with Elias and any number of the older children , who walk me to my bus stop , the other day I was stopped by this old man who i thought was crazy but elias said he was drunk who was rapidly speaking in french and grasped my hands firmly , Elias was translating and the man was asking me do you know God? and he was trying to convert me... But he obviously was crazy (and /or drunk) so I tried to say goodbye but he wouldn't let me go so Elias told him in french to let me go and the boys Vincent and Elias dragged me from his arms...This is Africa.
There are no new volunteers at my placement so I have the place to myself , which I love , its very hard work keeping 15 toddlers occupied , but I love the freedom and having the children to myself! A few days ago one of the older boys Rogers came running to me with a snake he had killed a few moments before, I didn't know if it was still alive so I was a bit scared which all the kids laughed at. Fortunately it was very dead, but It was the first time I had ever seen a snake and to think that he killed it in the grass which I walk through in my jandles every day..I think it was a grass snake though so it wouldn't have done much damage if it had bitten me.
There were a lot of workers all week hand ploughing the land so I decided to have a go and realised it was not as easy as it looked , all the workers were extremely fascinated that a white person was capable of and willing to do some work . In Rwanda on the whole the locals are used to white people being driven around in taxis, eating out every night and staying in fancy hotels and homes.One of the boys who was hand ploughing the land was 16 and was an orphan from the genocide, he had lived on the streets with his older siblings since birth and now he worked in the fields to earn himself money for food. So this week I have begged the orphanage workers to give him a meal at lunch and I always share my fruit with him, I always pile up his plate, so at least he has a free meal every day, which should fill him up , the boys at the orphanage laugh at me because they're not used to people doing that . At least Theogen (the boy) had a good job this week and was earning 4 dollars a day (which is well above the average 1 dollar a day that Rwandese people earn) so I think he will be okay!
Another This is Africa moment would have to be when a crazy woman ran out of nowhere into the orphanage and said to me in Kinyarwanda, some which I understood and others which Musa, Emmanuel and Rogers translated for me but she asked me to have her children and she said she would bring her children to me to keep that day, luckily she didn't come back , as there is no way I could take her children.
Oh yes and before I forget, the older children are getting art lessons from a local artist Emmanuel and one of my boys Rogers he wants to be an artist and said so before the painting lessons began , so anyway his first painting ever he did was very good and then his second was so good that Emmanuel bought the painting of him for 20 us dollars!!!! Rogers had done one half of the painting and J.M.V had done the other half although it was clear that Rogers side of the painting was what had sold the painting, so the boys are both getting 5000 franks each and they are so excited! Roger said he will buy his own sandles with this money as he uses Musa's . I am so proud and happy for them because Rogers by every painting is getting closer to his dream!!!And this has inspired everyone else to do better with their paintings so all day every day I see at least one person painting or drawing and they are all so talented. The idea of the art lessons that after a few months there will be an exhibition at Emmanuels art studio and also an exhibition at the orphanage so people can come and buy paintings!!!!!And if any develop there art well then they can come and work and live at the studio and become a full time artist, so I hope Rogers will be there some day!!!
anyway time for me to go see my children
keep in touch!
byeeee
Apparently yesterday when I went for a nap at about three it started pouring with torrential rain, when it rains in Rwanda it pours! And Paddy who was staying home that week came from her bedroom to find an unknown Rwandan sheltering in our living room from the rain. She dragged the man to our cooks and security guy Asumpta, Chantal and Armani and they didn't know him either, turns out when it rained he went through the nearest gate, which when we try to get in and out of it is almost always locked , and took shelter in a strangers home, only in Africa.... We all thought it ironic that when we came home late we could never get inside the property because the gates were always locked.
Every day this week I have been buying fruit for the orphanage from a fund left by a volunteer that came for two weeks, the kids have been so excited, because they usually only get fruit once in the weekend. The less fun part about buying fruit is carrying it , and I discovered 8 pineapples is super heavy and far too heavy to carry for two kilometres by yourself up hills, so this local man Josef helped me carry them . Also macheting all these pineapples and the other day 50 oranges has resulted into me cutting myself... Today I think I will get some advocadoes, just to spice up the kids lunches a bit. I can't believe how cheap everything is here for 6 dollars you can buy 60 bananas or 50 oranges and 20 bananas , or 8 pineapples!
I really enjoy my walks to and from the orphanage, to the orphanage its good to reflect and plan and chat with the locals , on the way back I walk with Elias and any number of the older children , who walk me to my bus stop , the other day I was stopped by this old man who i thought was crazy but elias said he was drunk who was rapidly speaking in french and grasped my hands firmly , Elias was translating and the man was asking me do you know God? and he was trying to convert me... But he obviously was crazy (and /or drunk) so I tried to say goodbye but he wouldn't let me go so Elias told him in french to let me go and the boys Vincent and Elias dragged me from his arms...This is Africa.
There are no new volunteers at my placement so I have the place to myself , which I love , its very hard work keeping 15 toddlers occupied , but I love the freedom and having the children to myself! A few days ago one of the older boys Rogers came running to me with a snake he had killed a few moments before, I didn't know if it was still alive so I was a bit scared which all the kids laughed at. Fortunately it was very dead, but It was the first time I had ever seen a snake and to think that he killed it in the grass which I walk through in my jandles every day..I think it was a grass snake though so it wouldn't have done much damage if it had bitten me.
There were a lot of workers all week hand ploughing the land so I decided to have a go and realised it was not as easy as it looked , all the workers were extremely fascinated that a white person was capable of and willing to do some work . In Rwanda on the whole the locals are used to white people being driven around in taxis, eating out every night and staying in fancy hotels and homes.One of the boys who was hand ploughing the land was 16 and was an orphan from the genocide, he had lived on the streets with his older siblings since birth and now he worked in the fields to earn himself money for food. So this week I have begged the orphanage workers to give him a meal at lunch and I always share my fruit with him, I always pile up his plate, so at least he has a free meal every day, which should fill him up , the boys at the orphanage laugh at me because they're not used to people doing that . At least Theogen (the boy) had a good job this week and was earning 4 dollars a day (which is well above the average 1 dollar a day that Rwandese people earn) so I think he will be okay!
Another This is Africa moment would have to be when a crazy woman ran out of nowhere into the orphanage and said to me in Kinyarwanda, some which I understood and others which Musa, Emmanuel and Rogers translated for me but she asked me to have her children and she said she would bring her children to me to keep that day, luckily she didn't come back , as there is no way I could take her children.
Oh yes and before I forget, the older children are getting art lessons from a local artist Emmanuel and one of my boys Rogers he wants to be an artist and said so before the painting lessons began , so anyway his first painting ever he did was very good and then his second was so good that Emmanuel bought the painting of him for 20 us dollars!!!! Rogers had done one half of the painting and J.M.V had done the other half although it was clear that Rogers side of the painting was what had sold the painting, so the boys are both getting 5000 franks each and they are so excited! Roger said he will buy his own sandles with this money as he uses Musa's . I am so proud and happy for them because Rogers by every painting is getting closer to his dream!!!And this has inspired everyone else to do better with their paintings so all day every day I see at least one person painting or drawing and they are all so talented. The idea of the art lessons that after a few months there will be an exhibition at Emmanuels art studio and also an exhibition at the orphanage so people can come and buy paintings!!!!!And if any develop there art well then they can come and work and live at the studio and become a full time artist, so I hope Rogers will be there some day!!!
anyway time for me to go see my children
keep in touch!
byeeee
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