life at Noel
Muraho Inshutis (Hello friends)
So its been another week in the lovely , frustrating, enjoyable rwanda... what has this week brought me? Wow so what hasn't it brought me....? Just another week in the Rwandan roller coaster. I have stubbed my toes this week more than I have in all of last year , because of the uneven roads, and always wearing jandles. I have also been temporarily sunburnt twice. I was also sick for an evening , I had a temperature and a pounding headache. An overdose of homeopathic medicine cured it. The 'pain' I experienced is nothing compared to the pain of Noella the girl with leprosy, her condition is getting worse ,it is spreading to her face, she cannot sleep because of the pain and doesn't want to leave her bed, her elbows and knee muscles are deteriorating. Yesterday I did the stupidest thing I could have done under the circumstances , I cried . In front of her . She was in so much pain and groaning and crying out just because it hurt her so much to move and make her self ' comfortable' I couldn't bear to see Noella suffer any longer and burst into tears. Noella told me to be quiet or else she would cry. Only the other women who share the room with her (they are all about 19 /20) started crying too. I made Noella feel bad by crying, so I left until I had calmed down..I hope everyone who reads this will pray for her, that her pain will stop and that she will get better because she asked me If I could ask my family and friends to do so . Besides spending time with Noella, I have had a tour around the tea plantation across the road it was very interesting to see all the process's of the tea, freshly picked to the final product a package of tea, I bought a few packs to bring back home , and the good thing is it was fair trade too because pfunda tea was the first company to get a rain forest alliance stamp in Rwanda.A new volunteer arrived from Rwanda, we have been out to eat a disgraceful amount of times. First early in the week we went to the beautiful Serena hotel complete with bats and multicolored lizards, and a gorgeous beach on lake Kivu, then on Friday after the tea tour we had lunch at the Staff club rooms at pfunda it was absolutely delicious ! and we learnt how to make African tea. On Saturday we met up with Liesbet ( who is a Belgian volunteer through Gvn which I volunteered through last year, 3 days a week at Noel) and Milly who grew up in Carterton (my home town) and was volunteering for Gvn also , and lived with Liesbet, and we had a cheap buffet lunch at a Rwandan orientated restaurant. On Sunday I got up at 6.45 to be ready by 7 (theres no prissing and priming for me to get ready :)) and then walked about one and a half hours with the only non catholic orphan John (fondly known as pink John because of his very effeminate qualities) to his church in the next town .. It was a good walk , church was about 3 and a half hours long , and by the time we were home it was 1pm .It was a bit different going to a church with 5 choirs, a chorus of amens and hullelujahs, having to be asked a million times if I was sure I didn't want to sit at the front , and hearing the word Mazungu in the sermon. Oh yes and having to stand up when guests were asked to stand and to say Hullelujah.. I did stand up but didn't go so far as to say 'Hullelujah' John the boy I went with is extremely flamboyant so if he knew a song from the choir he would stand up dance down the aisle and get everyone to sing. I spent a lot of that time covering my face with my hands. Trying not to laugh. One day the boys from Noel Orphanage had a football game, it was a friendly between Noel orphanage and a neighboring towns team. I watched the whole game screaming loudly off course, but somehow missed the first goal so the whole time I was yelling at the team to 'score a goal for petes sake' They were actually winning. My bad. Afterwards we had team photos and the whole procession of supporters and players made the victorious walk back to the orphanage. On Thursday , we went to Imbabazi orphanage , an orphanage nearby , which was founded by the famous Roz Carr , and American who lived in Rwanda for 50 years and who was friends with the legendary Diane Fossey. It was a crazy moto ride to the place , which was a peaceful serene beautiful English garden with a genuine English cottage, dogs gardeners and about 4 kids (the others were all at school or uni) , It was an amazing place, where Gorillas in the Mist was partially filmed, miles away from My real home at Noel orphanage. Noel Orphanage itself is huge. 592 children call it home not to mention children of 'mamas' working there, all the mamas and staff. You see new faces every day, I meet people and think who are they. I have still Not seen , the manager of the orphanage, whether or not he actually comes to work is the big question? The director as one volunteer put is 'the scary old lady with the stick' , I don't think shes actually scary since she is 80 . Half the children go to school in the morning and the other half in the afternoon , it alternates every day . In the Mornings me and the other volunteers usually do crafts in the library we let in about 20 children at one time to do crafts and then as the children finish we let other children in, some days we may 'only' have 50 interested children other days its more like 100. We have done things such as paper aeroplanes, paper snowflakes (which we ended up putting elastic bands on and sticking it on there heads like fancy hats which could easily compete with the royal family's hats ), colour themes, these pipe cleaner flowers that ended up being bracelets, and bead necklaces. Our inspiration literally is whatever we catch our eye on first in the library store room. I usually go to visit Noella after this arts lesson. Sometimes I am there as they clean her wounds , but last time she was in so much pain I nearly threw up when I came out of the medical centre. Some days she has good days you can walk with her outside and play cards, other days I just show her pictures in my camera while she lays in bed. I am happy to say that since the beginning of this blog post ( I posted it and am now adding on things that I didn't have time before to right on ) she has improved. She got some local treatment what looks like a mud paste (and probably is) which covered her entire body , it was a type of clay mud so she literally looked like a Mazungu, we all had a good laugh about that. She also has to drink Honey, which I don't think she will mind since Rwandens are obsessed with all things sweet . After visiting Noella, I have lunch. Usually with the other staff , and the director, although it is usually rice and beans which I am definitely not a fan of at the moment , so sometimes I just eat at my place, we have a little kitchen and a growing supply of food. In the afternoons there are many things to do , I will visit the older children , or visit the special needs place. The last few weeks we have been dispersing the many donations that were in the donation room , so we might spend a whole afternoon dressing one group of kids. The last few days we have been dressing the girls 4-12 years, and they look so gorgeous in there new outfits. This is always very chaotic and we get mobbed, outside the house for kids asking for clothes and shoes and balloons and lollies. It is very frustrating when a certain number of kids always ask for things. Things they don't need, like you will see them with shoes and then you give shoes to someone who needs shoes and then all of a sudden they run to you in bare foot or with broken odd shoes and they say they also need shoes. Some of the children also steal , so we try to make sure we lock the house , and we don't let many children inside our house only the few that we trust. Its sad that not having parents screws up the morals of many children. Like they feel they have to steal , or get things to make themselves feel special. I really enjoy hanging out with the older kids, the girls are absolutely adorable , and wow can they sing. I am going to have a sleepover with them on friday. One exciting bit of news, the painters have officially started painting the special needs place , so hopefully in a few days it will be a bright happy place, and Joanna another volunteer that arrived last week can do murals , which is great. Some of the money people kindly donated is being used to fund the project, There is a lot of talk between us volunteers about other projects, so I will keep you all posted! Yesterday I went to Kigali , to sort out my visa, only the visa office was closed to applications so I had to stay the night. I stayed the night with two boys D'amour (my big little brother) and Jmv, they were two of the orphans from last years volunteer trip , I most likely wrote about them in my blog, who had to leave the orphanage in the most awful way. (I officially am never going to speak to the director of that orphanage again), their house is being funded by some other volunteers , it was a very clean and tidy house and they were proud of it , they cooked a very nice meal , and it was a lot of fun , the boys slept in a bed together (a completely normal thing to do here) and I slept in one of there beds, a pity that there were so many cockroaches in the 'toilet' or I could have considered living there. This morning , I tried and failed to get a visa, because I didn't have the right paper work (I got the paper work which the girl at the visa desk told me to get yesterday)so hopefully third time (or I think fourth time ) lucky later this week. It is an extremely frustrating process to get the easiest visa a tourist visa here. I mean why don't you want people in your country who are supporting the local economy are giving up there time and resources to help the unfortunate orphans, and who are financially supporting and assisting many people in Rwanda? Its a mystery to me. Anyway I won't try to let this get me down , There are worse things in the world than getting a visa.I hope you are all are having a successful time wherever you are.
Love Kim
So its been another week in the lovely , frustrating, enjoyable rwanda... what has this week brought me? Wow so what hasn't it brought me....? Just another week in the Rwandan roller coaster. I have stubbed my toes this week more than I have in all of last year , because of the uneven roads, and always wearing jandles. I have also been temporarily sunburnt twice. I was also sick for an evening , I had a temperature and a pounding headache. An overdose of homeopathic medicine cured it. The 'pain' I experienced is nothing compared to the pain of Noella the girl with leprosy, her condition is getting worse ,it is spreading to her face, she cannot sleep because of the pain and doesn't want to leave her bed, her elbows and knee muscles are deteriorating. Yesterday I did the stupidest thing I could have done under the circumstances , I cried . In front of her . She was in so much pain and groaning and crying out just because it hurt her so much to move and make her self ' comfortable' I couldn't bear to see Noella suffer any longer and burst into tears. Noella told me to be quiet or else she would cry. Only the other women who share the room with her (they are all about 19 /20) started crying too. I made Noella feel bad by crying, so I left until I had calmed down..I hope everyone who reads this will pray for her, that her pain will stop and that she will get better because she asked me If I could ask my family and friends to do so . Besides spending time with Noella, I have had a tour around the tea plantation across the road it was very interesting to see all the process's of the tea, freshly picked to the final product a package of tea, I bought a few packs to bring back home , and the good thing is it was fair trade too because pfunda tea was the first company to get a rain forest alliance stamp in Rwanda.A new volunteer arrived from Rwanda, we have been out to eat a disgraceful amount of times. First early in the week we went to the beautiful Serena hotel complete with bats and multicolored lizards, and a gorgeous beach on lake Kivu, then on Friday after the tea tour we had lunch at the Staff club rooms at pfunda it was absolutely delicious ! and we learnt how to make African tea. On Saturday we met up with Liesbet ( who is a Belgian volunteer through Gvn which I volunteered through last year, 3 days a week at Noel) and Milly who grew up in Carterton (my home town) and was volunteering for Gvn also , and lived with Liesbet, and we had a cheap buffet lunch at a Rwandan orientated restaurant. On Sunday I got up at 6.45 to be ready by 7 (theres no prissing and priming for me to get ready :)) and then walked about one and a half hours with the only non catholic orphan John (fondly known as pink John because of his very effeminate qualities) to his church in the next town .. It was a good walk , church was about 3 and a half hours long , and by the time we were home it was 1pm .It was a bit different going to a church with 5 choirs, a chorus of amens and hullelujahs, having to be asked a million times if I was sure I didn't want to sit at the front , and hearing the word Mazungu in the sermon. Oh yes and having to stand up when guests were asked to stand and to say Hullelujah.. I did stand up but didn't go so far as to say 'Hullelujah' John the boy I went with is extremely flamboyant so if he knew a song from the choir he would stand up dance down the aisle and get everyone to sing. I spent a lot of that time covering my face with my hands. Trying not to laugh. One day the boys from Noel Orphanage had a football game, it was a friendly between Noel orphanage and a neighboring towns team. I watched the whole game screaming loudly off course, but somehow missed the first goal so the whole time I was yelling at the team to 'score a goal for petes sake' They were actually winning. My bad. Afterwards we had team photos and the whole procession of supporters and players made the victorious walk back to the orphanage. On Thursday , we went to Imbabazi orphanage , an orphanage nearby , which was founded by the famous Roz Carr , and American who lived in Rwanda for 50 years and who was friends with the legendary Diane Fossey. It was a crazy moto ride to the place , which was a peaceful serene beautiful English garden with a genuine English cottage, dogs gardeners and about 4 kids (the others were all at school or uni) , It was an amazing place, where Gorillas in the Mist was partially filmed, miles away from My real home at Noel orphanage. Noel Orphanage itself is huge. 592 children call it home not to mention children of 'mamas' working there, all the mamas and staff. You see new faces every day, I meet people and think who are they. I have still Not seen , the manager of the orphanage, whether or not he actually comes to work is the big question? The director as one volunteer put is 'the scary old lady with the stick' , I don't think shes actually scary since she is 80 . Half the children go to school in the morning and the other half in the afternoon , it alternates every day . In the Mornings me and the other volunteers usually do crafts in the library we let in about 20 children at one time to do crafts and then as the children finish we let other children in, some days we may 'only' have 50 interested children other days its more like 100. We have done things such as paper aeroplanes, paper snowflakes (which we ended up putting elastic bands on and sticking it on there heads like fancy hats which could easily compete with the royal family's hats ), colour themes, these pipe cleaner flowers that ended up being bracelets, and bead necklaces. Our inspiration literally is whatever we catch our eye on first in the library store room. I usually go to visit Noella after this arts lesson. Sometimes I am there as they clean her wounds , but last time she was in so much pain I nearly threw up when I came out of the medical centre. Some days she has good days you can walk with her outside and play cards, other days I just show her pictures in my camera while she lays in bed. I am happy to say that since the beginning of this blog post ( I posted it and am now adding on things that I didn't have time before to right on ) she has improved. She got some local treatment what looks like a mud paste (and probably is) which covered her entire body , it was a type of clay mud so she literally looked like a Mazungu, we all had a good laugh about that. She also has to drink Honey, which I don't think she will mind since Rwandens are obsessed with all things sweet . After visiting Noella, I have lunch. Usually with the other staff , and the director, although it is usually rice and beans which I am definitely not a fan of at the moment , so sometimes I just eat at my place, we have a little kitchen and a growing supply of food. In the afternoons there are many things to do , I will visit the older children , or visit the special needs place. The last few weeks we have been dispersing the many donations that were in the donation room , so we might spend a whole afternoon dressing one group of kids. The last few days we have been dressing the girls 4-12 years, and they look so gorgeous in there new outfits. This is always very chaotic and we get mobbed, outside the house for kids asking for clothes and shoes and balloons and lollies. It is very frustrating when a certain number of kids always ask for things. Things they don't need, like you will see them with shoes and then you give shoes to someone who needs shoes and then all of a sudden they run to you in bare foot or with broken odd shoes and they say they also need shoes. Some of the children also steal , so we try to make sure we lock the house , and we don't let many children inside our house only the few that we trust. Its sad that not having parents screws up the morals of many children. Like they feel they have to steal , or get things to make themselves feel special. I really enjoy hanging out with the older kids, the girls are absolutely adorable , and wow can they sing. I am going to have a sleepover with them on friday. One exciting bit of news, the painters have officially started painting the special needs place , so hopefully in a few days it will be a bright happy place, and Joanna another volunteer that arrived last week can do murals , which is great. Some of the money people kindly donated is being used to fund the project, There is a lot of talk between us volunteers about other projects, so I will keep you all posted! Yesterday I went to Kigali , to sort out my visa, only the visa office was closed to applications so I had to stay the night. I stayed the night with two boys D'amour (my big little brother) and Jmv, they were two of the orphans from last years volunteer trip , I most likely wrote about them in my blog, who had to leave the orphanage in the most awful way. (I officially am never going to speak to the director of that orphanage again), their house is being funded by some other volunteers , it was a very clean and tidy house and they were proud of it , they cooked a very nice meal , and it was a lot of fun , the boys slept in a bed together (a completely normal thing to do here) and I slept in one of there beds, a pity that there were so many cockroaches in the 'toilet' or I could have considered living there. This morning , I tried and failed to get a visa, because I didn't have the right paper work (I got the paper work which the girl at the visa desk told me to get yesterday)so hopefully third time (or I think fourth time ) lucky later this week. It is an extremely frustrating process to get the easiest visa a tourist visa here. I mean why don't you want people in your country who are supporting the local economy are giving up there time and resources to help the unfortunate orphans, and who are financially supporting and assisting many people in Rwanda? Its a mystery to me. Anyway I won't try to let this get me down , There are worse things in the world than getting a visa.I hope you are all are having a successful time wherever you are.
Love Kim
Thanks for your update again Kim! You are an inspiration for us all... we will be praying for Noella and you. Love, Bex & Josh
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