Farewell Rwanda

My walk to work

So sadly, today is my last day (for now!) in Rwanda.  Tonight I am getting the bus to Uganda and in less than 2 weeks I’ll be home in London.  School term finished just over a week ago at all the schools and the CHH have a short break from their training but there is still much work going on.    At Wisdom Primary, the school is getting enquiries from new parents about bringing their children to the school next year and the handful of teachers who have not yet left for holidays are conducting interviews and tests to place the children in the correct class.   Construction of the new school building is nearly complete.  The accountants have been creating files for next term while I am still around to advise if necessary and so that they are prepared before they also get to take a short holiday. 

Dressed for success

With the head chef and another member of the team

My favourite holiday work that I have seen is that two of the older deaf children from school are spending 2 months of their school holidays doing cookery training at one of, if not the most, exclusive lodges in Rwanda, based near the Volcanoes National Park.    The managers of the lodge have become good friends of the Deaf School.   Firstly, they have been bringing guests, who have expressed an interest in visiting local community projects, to visit the children.   The children love to have visitors and almost fight over who will go to the front of the class to write the name of the visitors on the blackboard once Louis or one of the other teachers has spelt it for them in sign language.  Then the children will come up with a sign name for the visitor, which is always fun.  Sometimes there is dancing too.  The children pick up the vibrations from the drum and are great dancers.  The visitors often bring gifts for the school, varying from crayons, pens and footballs to soap and toothpaste and nearly always buy handicrafts that the children have made from the shop onsite.   I still can’t believe the lodge came up with the idea of cookery training.  They could literally be changing lives.   Such a fabulous way for 2 children to get vocational skills training to an incredibly high standard, plus so generous of them to donate the time of their staff to coach them, particularly given that the staff can’t just yell instructions across the room to a deaf child – they have to face them and make sure they speak clearly so that they children can lip read.  The 2 that went were the perfect choice by Louis to pilot this training – not only do they both love to cook and help at school, but they are strong lip readers and also both have a little speech.    On day 1, Becky and I went to the lodge with the children.  The lodge sent a car to collect us as the lodge is several kilometres out of Kinigi at the base of the Sabyinyo volcano.  Before training started, we were all invited to have tea and biscuits on the terrace. The children are both outgoing, but were a little shy and nervous being served tea by waiting staff, fiddling round with their tea bags, not quite sure what to do with them.  The lodge staff were warm and friendly and I am sure they will make friends here.  Next stop was the kitchen, where they met the head chef and got their uniforms.  Cue for me to get watery eyes (again!) as I was just so proud of them that there they were at this 5-star lodge, dressed like professional chefs and would be helping prepare meals for guests.   I know they will both work hard and make the most of the opportunity.  I heard afterwards that one member of the kitchen team in particular had taken them under his wing, making sure that they understood what they were expected to do.   The lodge also used donated money to buy trainers for them, because for safety reasons in the kitchen, they need to have shoes with a grip.    To me, this exercise is community-based tourism at its very best.  The lodge already has a record of making sure that tourism from the gorillas / national park benefits the local community, but putting the extra effort in to help local deaf children, who still face stigma in Rwanda, in such a practical way is just amazing.  My experience while I have been in Rwanda is that people here don’t want to be given things for nothing; they want to be helped so that they can work and become self-sufficient.   There are also some smaller projects planned by the lodge to help the school.   I hope it is the start of a long, rewarding 2-way relationship.

Still smiling at the deaf school, even in the rain!

So now my 3 months has passed, and I’m leaving.  This country is amazing in so many ways.  Its history is dark and tragic but its future is so positive and optimistic.   I have learnt so much from the wonderful people who live here, who have made me so welcome.  At the primary, there are small signs scattered around the grounds with messages for the chidren and I always think about one that says, “What you have is enough”.   People here have so little but manage to find so much joy and laughter in their lives. They have invited me to their homes to meet their families and shared their food and their stories.   I will always remember the daily walk from home to Wisdom, 15 minutes up a dirt track road overlooked by the volcanoes, where children run over for a hug and to say good morning; where the parents watch their child chatting in English with the muzungu with pride and swap a smile and a “mwaramutse”.  So much community spirit here too – I hope that never changes.  I want to thank my family and friends for being so supportive and interested in my adventures and especially for being so generous donating funds to FCYF (work has started today preparing the school playing field!).  But mostly, I want to thank Elie and Bernadette for giving me this opportunity and welcoming me into their home and their family and all my Rwandan friends and colleagues for making this an experience I will always remember.