Ancient Life is better than Modern Life

“Ancient Life is better than Modern Life” - the motion for the first debating competition between Wisdom Primary and its friendly rival Sunrise Primary!  I was very excited to secure a place on the Wisdom supporters’ bench for this important inaugural event, held at Sunrise.  And very professional it was too!  The teams comprised 8 boys & girls from each school, aged between 9 and 11 years old.  Both were dressed incredibly smartly (Wisdom children in their Sabbath uniforms of blue and white striped dresses / shirts) and were well versed in the rules and practices of professional debating including starting address for each speaker (“Madame Chairperson, Secretary, Judges, Proposers, Opposers and the House at Large”) and how to challenge the other team by making either a point of order; point of enquiry or point of information. 

Sunrise were great hosts and before the competition gave us a tour of their school (which is 10 years old, hence more established than Wisdom, which opened in January 2010) and had dancers and music to entertain the audience (I think the music was supposed to be background music pre-debate but in true-Rwandan style, as soon as there is music there is singing!).  The quality of the debate itself frankly blew me away.  Each child was able to stand up in front of what must have been 200-300 other children/teachers in the audience and raise many good quality points addressing health, community, technology, family and ethical issues.   I would have been surprised to see such a debate from secondary school children, never mind primary.  As the children got more confident, they started to challenge each other’s points (and members of the “house” were also able to challenge), sometimes quite harshly, but always politely.  Amazing to watch!   Slightly unusual judging system in that the judges comprised one Wisdom teacher and one Sunrise teacher, who marked independently then the scores were added together (unsurprisingly each gave their own team the highest!).  On an aggregate basis, Wisdom were the winners!!   And seriously (I know I might seem biased) but they did make better quality points, which was all the more impressive given that they were proposing the motion, which I think made it even harder. I was so proud of them.  And they were soooo excited!   My ears were aching with the din of victory singing on the bus on the way back to Wisdom.  What a result!  Both schools acknowledged the event as a huge success and there will be more to come.   And a great sign, that children of this age can debate so professionally – maybe some future politicians for Rwanda?

Life here continues to be good.  The rainy season seems to have started with rain most nights and often mid-late afternoon (and the very occasional rainy morning).  Not today tho, which was absolutely gorgeous.   Here is a picture of my walk to work from this morning – volcanoes in the distance and beautiful farmland along the way (newly ploughed – planting season has just begun).   I went to the deaf school this afternoon, and was in luck when a moto stopped as I waited for the bus from the primary.  I’ve wanted to get the moto to the deaf school for ages as the route is sooo stunning and I love the exhilaration from being on the back of a motor-bike somewhere beautiful (yes, Ian – I know you’ve been telling me this for a long time  - it’s only taken me about 15 years to acknowledge!). Usually the moto drivers don’t want to go to the deaf school as it’s the wrong direction from town and not so easy for them to get a fare back, but I was in luck today (they must have been on the way to collect someone).  Then more in luck, because I got to the school much earlier than I would have done on the bus and it was still lunchtime for the children, which meant I could join in the volleyball (my sign language is coming along but not great, but who needs language when you can knock a volleyball around?) 

I love hanging out with the children at the deaf school.  Just the loveliest group of children – so smiley and happy - and I love that they act like a big extended family with the older children looking out for the younger ones.  They even humoured me when I missed the shots in the volleyball game!  There are 68 deaf children at the school, which is one of only six in the country, so they are the lucky ones who get opportunity for an education, as so many deaf children don’t (and there is still stigma in Rwanda that deaf children are stupid so it’s a rough future for deaf children who can’t go to school and be supported by an organisation like FCYF).  Louis, the director and the other teachers (and the trainers that do vocational training for the older children in the afternoons) are absolutely amazing with the children.  You can tell that they genuinely love being with the children.  The children don’t have a lot but there is a lot of joy and laughter at the school.   Since I have been in Rwanda there have been 2 volunteer experts visit the deaf school, one an audiologist and one a speech specialist for deaf children, and both said that they did not have resources to work with every deaf school in Rwanda but chose to work with ours because they love the energy, enthusiasm and positive, open attitudes of Louis and the team.

At the weekend, I went to Nyungwe Forest National Park in southern Rwanda, one of the oldest forests in Africa.  Becky’s parents were still in the country so I was lucky that they invited me to tag onto their trip as you need a private vehicle to get to Nyungwe and it would have been difficult and very expensive for me to travel there alone.    It was incredibly beautiful – like an enchanted forest, sitting behind the tea plantations.  It took a day to get there from Musanze, via Kibuye where Becky and her parents were staying and a scary 4 hour drive down a slippery, deep mud road with sheer drops either side.  Good job our driver was experienced!   The lodge we stayed at was very pretty and friendly and the following day we headed into the Forest with a guide for a 4 hour roundtrip walk to see a waterfall.   Our guide was great, pointing out birds, plants and trees and the work itself through the Forest was fabulous with the added bonus that we didn’t see a single person so it felt like we had the Forest to ourselves (in fact it is more than 1,000 sq km so plenty of space to not run into other visitors!).  It had that fresh rainforest smell  - I realised how much I missed going hiking.  In the afternoon, Becky and I went to see the colobus monkeys, who were very cute, but unfortunately hanging out in the trees by the roadside – we had both fancied another walk into the Forest!   After another great meal at the Gisakura Guesthouse and my first glass of red wine in a month (very kindly supplied by Becky’s parents), it was time to pack up for a long journey back to Musanze the following day.

We stopped off in Butare on the way to Kigali, where we were dropping off Becky and her parents.  Butare is the 3^rd largest city in Rwanda and has a really nice feel to it.  It is home of the biggest university in Rwanda and a world class museum, which we stopped off to visit.  The museum was exceptional and could give any museum I’ve seen in the UK or US a run for its money.  It’s the national museum for Rwanda, but does not focus on the genocide at all.  Instead it has rooms on Rwandan geography, history, and its way of life, including model homes, background to agriculture, handicrafts, customs and culture.  Very impressive.  After lunch in town, we headed on to Kigali, then back to Musanze.

After 3 weekends in a row of travel, am looking forward to staying in Musanze next weekend and focusing on the schools and their activities.   And cracking on with the accounting!

Kibuye, Kigali and a Football Tournament

Apologies up front for writing an epic!  So much is happening; it is difficult to keep the blog up to date.  One of the reasons that things have been so busy is because Kat, who volunteered at FCYF for 10 months last year when the primary school first opened, arrived in Musanze for a 2 week visit.  In addition to catching up with the children, former colleagues and her many friends in town, Kat very kindly offered to show Becky and me some of her favourite places in town and was also keen for some company on a weekend trip away to Kibuye, a beautiful town on the edge of Lake Kivu, which separates Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).   I’ve been very lucky having both Becky and Kat around for my first few weeks and also that everyone I’ve met in Musanze has been warm and friendly.  Am feeling very settled in my temporary home.  So much so, that I’ve already decided that 2 months is not going to be long enough and have extended my trip so that I now head back to London in mid November.

Kibuye was completely breath taking.  It was a bit of a trip to get there as although it is south of Musanze, we had to get a 2 hour bus ride to the capital, Kigali, then take another 3 hour bus ride.  But it was worth it – we arrived about 5pm so had an hour of daylight to take in the panoramic view of the lake from our guesthouse.   In addition to being a beautiful place, Kibuye has a darker history – during the genocide, the prefecture of Kibuye experienced the most comprehensive slaughter of Tutsis anywhere in Rwanda, with 9 out of 10 being killed and whole communities being annihilated.  Over 11,000 people were killed at the church on the hillside next to our guesthouse.  Today, the physical damage has been repaired and the church has a simple beauty, together with a memorial built just outside. 

Despite being the start of the rainy season, we had amazing sunny weather for our weekend, which meant dining al-fresco and a great little boat trip out to one of the islands on the lake (there are 52 islands total in Lake Kivu).  Amahoro Island was very pretty, with a tiny restaurant, swimming off the stony beach and a short circular walk.   We could easily have stayed there all day, but headed back to the mainland to watch the sunset and grab a couple of drinks in a local bar. 

I returned to Kigali this weekend to explore.  The main genocide memorial in Rwanda is in Kigali, and is a very serene, moving place.  Outside, in addition to mass graves of over 250,000 people (many of whom have not been identified), there are several beautifully tended gardens, including a children’s garden surrounded by fruit trees; rose gardens, to symbolize the individuality of everyone who died; a “flower of life” garden for all Rwandan women, past, present and future; three gardens to commemorate Rwanda before, during and after the genocide (gardens of unity, division and reconciliation) and a cacti garden, the garden of self-protection.   The exhibits inside the centre, tell the story of what happened together with rooms containing skulls and bones of victims.  The idea behind showing these  (which is consistent with other memorials, including the memorial church at Kibuye) is to prevent anyone ever from claiming that there was not a genocide in Rwanda.   There is also a children’s room, showing pictures of individual child victims together with a simple plaque for each showing their name and information about them such as what their favourite sport was (swimming, football) and their favourite food, together with how they died.   A very poignant reminder of young wasted lives.

In addition to touring the city, I was also able to catch the England / Argentina rugby match.  Of course, the electricity went out part way thru, and we joked that when it came on again, England would have got a try – and voila, it was true!  Phew…

Life at FCYF has also been very busy.  I have been working with the accountants at the primary and nursery schools to implement some changes to how the accounting records are maintained, which will hopefully make their lives a bit easier.   The nursery school pupils are absolutely adorable and on nursery school days I try to get there for 7.30am to watch them sing songs and play games before classes start.   On Friday, they did a little baby “rap” song, where different children would come up individually and sing a few lines to a song, while the teacher played a drum to accompany them.  Soooo cute!   There was the scarier moment also where Kat, Becky and I got asked to teach them all (over 100 children) a new song – thankfully, my friend Cheryl had suggested Wheels on the Bus, which went down very well as the little ones liked the actions and all knew what a bus was (thanks, Cheryl – owe you one!!). 

We also organized a football tournament for the Primary School to play the Deaf School.  We bussed the deaf children to a playing field in town and walked around 600 primary school children, crocodile fashion, to the field, which was a sight to behold (and probably a health and safety nightmare but thankfully with all the teachers at the school plus Kat and I watching closely, all got there with no issue!)  The children had lots of fun although the matches were taken very seriously – consistent with pretty much every football loving nation on the planet, the players were very focused on winning.   The primary school boys beat the deaf school boys (who had won last time) and the deaf school girls beat the primary girls.  On the sidelines, there were lots of games and the frisbees I brought with me from England went down very well.  It was great to see the primary school children and deaf children play together – I was told they have come a long way from the first time the children all met last year, where the primary school children did not know what to make of the deaf children.   These days, some of the deaf children attend the primary school as part of our integration project – a big step to removing the stigma that deaf children are not capable just because they cannot hear.    A great afternoon was had by all.

The CHH children have also been on great form.  Thanks to all of you who donated blankets, clothes etc.  Together with some other donations, the centre had enough items for each of the CHH to choose a couple of items for themselves / their families.   Numbers were picked randomly by each child, and they could then choose two things, like a plastic bowl and a T-shirt or blanket.  It brought tears to my eyes watching them choose then giggle at their friends about items they had chosen, like a T-shirt with a funny logo on it.  They have so much responsibility and not enough things, that it always nice to see them have a chance to behave like the children they are.  My Mum & Dad had donated a cellular blanket that had been used for me and my sister when we were babies, and when I saw one of the girls choose it for her family and then clutch it with such care, it was such a lovely moment to know it was going to a great home.

Anyway, will wrap up for now.  I have a busy week ahead – we’re starting to build new management reporting this week, and I’m also doing some excel training.   Plus am trying to improve my sign language (which is coming along at a faster rate than my Kinyarwanda which has sort of stalled at basic greetings!)…hope everyone has a good week.