TO-MAY-TO :-) & Kindergarten anyone?

Thursday night was quite enjoyable as we all settled down in a pizza joint in the city to enjoy some "American" food while we bid farewell to three volunteers. It was really a fun place to be, out on a patio with a sliver of an orange moon hanging in the distance, listening to their live entertainment, hearing music from Rwandan songs to country and even some song people refer to as the Cuba anthem...though it wasn't but apparently appears in a lot of movies or something... LOL That was something I was unaware of... Overall, it was a great time!

It is going to be interesting to see how people come and go. There were volunteers that arrived this last weekend, but the three of them were all placed in Gisenyi where FVA has just recently started some programs there. So our guesthouse is down to 4 and two of them leave at the end of this month! The other leaves in the middle of September, so I an curious to see who will join me here at the end of the month :-)

On Friday, we got word that Gisimba was preparing for some visitors that were coming that evening before the start of school today, so the kids were all going to be busy. Instead of going to Gisimba, the other volunteer and I went to watch a play put on by a departing volunteer's theater group. This was something they had decided to do during their 2-3 week break. They had worked so hard preparing so we thought it would be great to give them a little audience to perform in front of. The 9:30am "start" time that was expected to actually start at 11 did not end of beginning until shortly after 1pm!!!! When someone comments about "African" time or Rwandan time, they are not joking! :-) And people here already know that and expect it, too. There was a bit of a reason for the delay; waiting for the sound guy. Apparently, their play required the use of microphones and music during "scene" changes - which mostly consisted of 1-2 minutes while the teenagers gathered themselves in the back room :-) So yes, at any rate, around 1pm the play began! And what an intense topic it was. The students performed a story that one of the actors actually wrote about a young girl going from her rural life to school, meeting some girls who were with the "wrong" group, being introduced to a "player" and, after he guilted her to being with him using things like money, she contracted AIDS...Although the play certainly wouldn't have been worked out well enough to have been performed on a stage at any American school, it was actually a really interesting look into the lives of these teenagers, in more ways than one, learning about how they perceive "bad guys" versus "good guys" and getting to see what they do know about AIDS and battling some of the stigmas about it. There were only maybe 20 of their friends in the audience, but what I was REALLY impressed with, was through their nervous laughter, they were all paying very close attention to the story. And at the end, the "director" came out and talked about what everyone saw on stage and asked certain people from the audience to come up and talk about what went wrong with the girl, things she could have done differently, types of behaviors to avoid, etc....it opened up a dialogue. For that, I think, the play was a success - for them, it was both entertainment and educational.....just what they were looking to do....And I must admit, the teenagers playing the main girl who got sick and her mother, they were quite the actresses. When they were at the doctor and found out about being both pregnant and having AIDS, their shrills actually sent chills up my spine - I was moved....

By Saturday morning, three of us headed out to Nyungwe Forest National Park. Through all of my reading, we had decided that arriving in the morning would take about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. We decided we would stay two nights (although when we tried to call for reservations, we could not get through, so we decided to just, show up). And we knew we would be paying a substantial amount for 2-3 days in the park - a package fee. Nothing really went according to plan. Our bus was to depart Kigali at 8am, so with the three of us sleeping a little longer than we had planned, we found ourselves running to catch our first taxi-bus to get to Kigali....the 20-25 minute walk was a 15 jog, with heavy bags, loaded for a weekend away. By the time we made it to the bus station for our ride out of town, it was 10 til 8, and they hadn't even started loading yet! Luck was on our side :-) or so we thought... As we loaded the bus, the ticket-taker directed all three of us to different places on the bus - we decided he just wanted to have control because he was haphazardly placing people in different places all through the bus. Alright, no worries....

The bus takes off and a younger girl sitting the front became car sick. She must have been around 8-10. A rasta guy sitting next to her practically "adopted" her. Without any family on the bus, he was left to help nurture her while she continued to empty her stomach about every 20 minutes. The poor thing was dry heaving so badly! I could see her reflection in the front window and she looked just miserable! The roads here are very bumpy, going up and down and around and around - no wonder car sickness is so common here. At any rate, what I found so remarkable was how he took care of her. This is one thing we all have noticed - everyone looks after the children here, just as if they were their own - no questions asked. I guess all the billboards along the side of the major roads, declaring "Treat every child as if they were your own," really is serving its purpose!!

Throughout the bus ride, I tried so hard to sketch images in my brain of all the sights around me:
-- passing a wedding party walking to their reception along a dusty red-dirt road, the bride and groom smiling in front of a huge crowd, dancing and singing along the road;
-- the older woman working so hard in the rice fields in every valley we passed, bent over, with heads wrapped to keep the sun at bay and their bright colors reflecting off the mix of greens and browns in the fields;
-- the young boys and girls carrying massive heaps of sticks on their heads, more full and round than their own little bodies;
-- a man walking with 3, I said 3 bright red crates of Fanta/Coca Cola bottles on his head;
-- the young bicycle drivers, peddling hard uphill with young girls riding on the back, shuttling them from place to place;
-- the sharp edges of pick hammers, being heaved up and down as the men worked along the sides of the roads, digging into rock and dirt to place down fibre-optic cables; -- the way the hills glide up and down, rolling almost into each other...sort of like when you interlock your fingers and the shape your knuckles take - as soon as one hill is turning into a valley, another hills rolls in to take its place...

So...the drive to the front of the park took 3 1/2 hours.....then we had another hour to get through the park to the only place where non-camping accommodations were. As we arrived to Gisakura Tea Estate, I had told the driver to drop off the three muzungus. Exiting the bus, we found ourselves pretty much in the middle of nowhere - tea fields all around with the massive forest close behind. Following the only map we had in my guidebook, we were lucky to find the guesthouse, nestled behind a little driveway going to a Conservation Desk, which we were only hoping would take us there! We found out at the reception counter that they only had rooms for that night - no rooms for Sunday. We decided we would take the room and just figure out the rest as it came to us. By this time, it was nearly 2pm - so much for spending Saturday on hiking trails! We went to the reception counter of the conservation office to find out about the trails and were told that the two trails that we could get to without a car were no longer accessible that day - all trails require guides. However, there were trails near the Uwinka Lodge, 30 minutes back into the forest, but we would need a car to get there....after must debate and confusion over the fees owed for "2 days" which were to be less than 24 hours in the park, we ended up paying for the permit for both days and had to pay for a driver to take us into the park so we could at least do something that day! The drive and the forest really were incredible! It is one place where the rolling green hills of crops turns into rich, dark greens of forest trees! I loved it!! And the air was sooo fresh!

The hike we took that afternoon was about 2 hours and led us to a canopy walkway where the views were spectacular! We were able to see two different groups of Blue Monkeys, as well, so all in all, the afternoon was really quite enjoyable :-) The evening was so nice with the three of us bonding a bit and enjoying a nice "simple dinner" as the waiter called it, since none of us wanted any meat :-)

By Sunday morning, we were trying to make come phone calls to reserve seats on a bus coming from an hour away (there are no buses leaving this area). However, what we discovered when we tried to place the calls was that since school was starting on Monday, and many people send their kids to boarding schools, ALL of the buses were booked! This is not normal....usually if you check in the morning you can get something in the afternoon....so, we put this aside and headed out with an amazing guide to embark on the 4.5 hour, 10K, "Waterfall Trail." And my goodness, it was spectacular! The first hour we spent walking through the tea fields where our guide taught us about how the tea fields being near the park actually helps deter people from poaching and other illegal activities because tea provides such great economic benefits. He told us how they pick tea and all about the process of harvesting. It was really very interesting! After that first hour, we found ourselves in the forest learning all about the various trees in the forest and their ancient uses. We must have crossed over small streams a handful of times, each time noticing with relief how the temperature shifts so dramatically with elevation change as we neared water. Approaching the waterfall, we took a really narrow switchback trail down to the waters edge. As we walked up to face the waterfall, it took my breath away...I almost teared up! :-) Ridiculous, I know, but I just feel soooo at peace in a place like that, and it was really so beautiful!

The entire walk back to the conservation reception counter, our guide kept giving us phone numbers we could call to try and find a small bus to at least get us to the next major city - Butare. No such luck. By 1 pm, we were back at the main gate with filled water bottles and a sign in hand - "Going to Butare or Kigali??" (With the "or" in all three languages!!) We started what we thought was going to be a VERY long walk....From the moment we started, cars would pass and slow down to show us how full they were. One group stopped and said they could only take 1, which we knew wasn't going to work for us! However, within 10 minutes a truck delivering tomatoes stopped. There were three people sitting in the front and they asked us to go to the back. When they unlocked we back, our bags were gently set inside with the stacks of tomatoes due for delivery. We thought we were going to sit in the storage spot behind the driver's seat, but surprise surprise, there were two ladies back there already!! Myself and one other squeezed in the back with our knees to our chest, practically sitting on our heels while the third volunteer sat in the front, sharing a seat with three others, nearly sitting on the shifter! About two hours into the drive, we had our first "tomato drop." We actually helped them unload the bags of tomatoes, during which EVERYONE got a good laugh at us. :-) At that stop we lost one guy up front, making a little more room in back as we rotated seats. During two other stops, we lost the two ladies. The 4.75 bus trip there turned into a 6 hour adventure back to Kigali! During the journey, besides stopping to drop off tomatoes, there were numerous other "police checks" where we had to duck down in the back so as to not be seen by the police - it was really a bit nerve-racking....but we count our lucky stars that we made it back safe and sound....and the driver at the end wasn't even expecting any payment!! That was just plain crazy. We gave him most of what we would have paid for our tickets home and thanked him profusely!! Rwanda isn't exactly an inexpensive place to travel...so being able to make it home was really quite the blessing!

So today school started back up again all around Rwanda. Back at Gisimba, in the morning there are kindergarten classes. I was asked to help one of the teachers in a class of 5 year olds. It seems every time I start to get comfortable working with certain kids, then things just change! :-) I am definitely learning how to just go with the flow around here - my plans just go straight out the window! So I will see how this week goes. When I told the director I wasn't sure how to teach kindergarten, he just said to me, "Don't worry - just think back and remember what you did in kindergarten and do the same thing! Easy!" LOL Easy for who? The kids today did make me smile a lot, playing so many games and trying to see what they could get away with with me. Thank goodness another teacher was there - but I have no idea what to expect in the morning. We shall see soon enough! So yeah, if you remember what you did in kindergarten, feel free to share :-)

Hugs to all!!