Day 25

Today is split into 2 groups. Alistair, Becky, Annobelle, Ruth and Yvonne decided that they fancied a more relaxing day and so, have been into Kigali town centre with Julienne to do some last minute souvenir shopping. To get there was an exciting experience. We were clambered aboard a packed Rwandan mini bus with whatever limbs we could out of the windows to get more space. When we arrived, it was the usual hustle and bustle of Kigali, using the busy roads to walk down the streets rather than they empty pavements which they don't seem to want to use. Following Julienne to three different boutiques Wooden figures, sandstone sculptures and banana leaf products found our eyes and some found their way into our luggage for the journey home. After this, we went to the Union Trade Centre for a much needed trip to the Bourbon Coffee Shop to fix our chocolate cravings after the month of going cold turkey! Another fun packed journey back on the bus and a short walk to the guest house, we spent then next hour sorting through the gifts from the various places we had visited, to distribute them through everyone's cases.
The second group headed to Butare for the day to visit the King's palace and The National Museum of Rwanda. We set out at 7.30 am and before arriving in Butare we stopped off in Gitarama to visit a training centre for pastors which Anastase had originally planted. On arriving we entered a small room full of pastors who were in the middle of their studies for the day. It was interesting to see a pastor who is a woman, which Fiona was particularly happy about. We were shown around the accommodation, which was very basic and were also able to hear the history of how Anastase started the church in this particular place. Although this was only a short visit, we all able to understand the importance of training within the Free Methodist Church. During the bus journey Anastase's two daughters taught us some Kinywanda phrases, which we all found very difficult to pronounce. The group expected the King's palace to be a building however we were surprised when we saw a selection of bamboo huts. Due to the construction of the huts it was evident that great skill was needed. The initial hut we were taken to belonged to the King himself. We were asked to remove our shoes before entering. The throne was significantly smaller than a comparative King's throne in England at the same period. It consisted of a wooden stool and was not decorated. Within the centre of the hut there was an open fire around which women would dance for the King. We were told that the King had many wives in each in province but only one wife would live with the King at once. The King's bed was extravagant in comparison to the rest of the hut with baskets surrounding it. The King's wife was only allowed to enter through the back door and always had to wait to be called. This was only a reconstruction of the King's hut but we were told that normally it would have been surrounded by sixteen smaller huts. At this reconstruction there were two huts to demonstrate the concept of them. One hut was for the storage of milk. The milk had to be protected by a virgin and must always be tasted before it was given to the King. She was also given the role of looking after the King's children although her hut was smaller and more basic. The final hut we visited was for the preparation of various types of beer for example banana and honey. The male in this hut had to be castrated in order to ensure he did not interfere with virgin woman. The King's son decided to be a Christian and only have one wife which meant that the Belgians built him a palace. We were shown around this building which was more modern and seemed very distant from the thatched huts of his father. Around this building there were bits of history about the development of the country through the centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries the territory which Rwanda governed included parts of what is now Tanzania, Congo and Burundi. Due to colonisation the Belgians split it into what it is today which meant that Rwanda decreased in size. There were various pictures of exchange visits between Belgian royalty and Rwandan royalty. Towards the end of his reign he decided he didn't wish to live under Belgian rule and so began to construct a palace of his own and make steps for the independence of Rwanda. The palace he was building was not completed before he died and is now used as The National Art Gallery. Next we travelled into the centre of Butare to visit the National Museum of Rwanda. To begin with we were entertained by traditional Rwandan dancing for approximately an hour. It was accompanied by traditional drumming and different types of traditional dress. It was amazing to see the life that was in their faces and the enjoyment that they got from dancing. The whole dance portrayed a story that conveyed the history of Rwanda itself. After seeing the professionals dance, we were all invited to join in which caused much hilarity. Inside the museum there was an in-depth tour of Rwandan history encompassing the geographical and sociological aspects of the country. There were different sections to show the different parts of Rwandan culture including agriculture, weaving,clothing and music. Throughout the museum there were visual displays containing artefacts from the different time periods which enabled us to better visualise the development of life in Rwanda at certain times. As a group we were struck by the skill that was employed in every aspect of their daily lives. We found the museum very insightful and was an excellent day to spend the penultimate day to our trip.

Day 24

We started our day by returning to PHARP to get the remaining gifts and clothes people had ordered. They welcomed us again with dance and song and we were told that the translation meant they were embracing us there and showing joy of our unity as God has bought us together again. People tried on their tailor made clothes and showed them off to the group, they all looked lovely. We attempted to sort out the gifts that were made for sale at St. Johns. As we were leaving Julienne presented us all with traditional Rwandan outfits. Skirts and tops for the girls and shirts for the boys. We proudly modelled them all for the workers of PHARP to see their handy work. Anastace then took us to see the new PHARP building which is in the process of purchasing. It wasn't far, it's 79 Um Inshuti not far from the national stadium. The building is much larger than what they have now and the grounds outside are more spacious. There was an overall good feeling about the new building and we were pleased to see Anastace showing it off so proudly.

We went for lunch in the town of Kigali to the Simba café. AT 4pm Bishop Samuel had asked us to go to Gikondo. However, he hadn't told us why so we were all guessing what may have lay ahead. He had organised a farewell ceremony with the closest people we were fortunate enough to form a closer friendship with. They offered us biscuits, muffins and refreshments. After giving a few speeches of their gratitude of our hard work and our thanks to them for offering us the wonderful opportunity we were all presented with a gift. This was a friendship basket, which is told to hold our secrets of relationships and friendships. We were all very moved by this generous gesture. We were then taken to the next building, which is the school for the mentally disabled where there was a large audience watching different performances. We were seated at the front and watched groups sing and two dance acts. A prayer was then said for all of us to wish us a safe journey and to express that our friendship, once formed will never be forgotten or broken no matter how many miles there are between us. This whole evening became very sentimental and will be cherished by all of us.

Day 23

Today was the day we have all been looking forward to for a while, the safari!! We awoke at 4 am in order to be at the park for 6 am, as most of the animals are visible at this time. After collecting our guide we were ready to see some animals and were raring to go. We went on a 4 hour safari however we were told that because of the dry season we were unlikely to see any elephants or herds of animals because they moved up north where there were swamps. Luckily he was wrong! As we travelled round we could see a herd of zebras and were lucky enough to be able to take some close up shots. In the distance we could see a giraffe's long neck and head towering over tree-tops. As we approached there were a number of giraffes together and we were again able to get close up shots on the camera. In particular the male giraffe was larger than expected. We were told that they could live up to 25 years, but in the last 5 years they live in solitude away from their family. There were then more zebras with their young. Behind a number of trees we saw some buffaloes, but were unable to capture them on camera because they were too far away. Further on there were a number of baboons and we were fortunate enough to see a family- a male, female and their 5 day old baby. As we headed down to Lake Ihema, the second largest lake in Rwanda, a large number of antelopes were crossing our road ahead. We were able to get quite close to them before they hurried off into the trees. When we arrived at the Lake we were able to get out of the vehicle to see the hippopotamuses which were bobbing up and down in the water. Although we were unable to see their whole bodies, from the size of their heads we could see that they were huge. It was hard to take a picture as every time we got ready they would bob back under the water. Our guide informed us that hippos can spend up to 15 minutes under the water without taking a breath. We then followed the track onwards and as we turned a blind corner, Tel (our driver), slammed on the brakes as there was an elephant. The elephant was enormous. We were told to back away as this elephant is well known for charging and tipping cars. He had previously tipped the French ambassadors vehicle. Chief, the elephant, is the only one that travels alone in this game reserve as the others travel as a herd. We had to take a diversion back as he had blocked our route ahead. As we passed the lake again, we saw some baby crocodiles that were approximately a meter in length. After our 4 hour safari we felt very lucky to have seen as many animals as we had and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. We headed back to our guest house for lunch before returning to Kigali in the afternoon.

Day 22

This Morning was the last church service of our trip. It wasn't far from where were staying. It started at 9am as the usual tradition. They played live music as the congregation came in and it was lovely to see all the children at the front dancing without a care. They looked truly happy. There were three choirs, which sang two songs each. It was then our turn and as our last performance we gave it our all! Fiona led the sermon, which was a change from hearing John and all the other male pastors. They presented us with gifts as a thank you for visiting them and helping and interacting with their children. At the end of the service we all gathered outside to meet the congregation on a more personal level. A number of them thought we could speak Kinyawanda as we had sang two of our songs in Kinyawanda. It was quite emotional leaving as this was our last village we were interacting with. On the afternoon we had a relaxing few hours and packing for our journey back to Kigali.

Day 21

The final holiday club was upon us. We piled into the van and set out on the short journey to the church where we were working. The children were ecstatic to see us. They were singing and dancing and wearing the bracelets, badges and hats which they had made. They seem so pleased with their new things, which gives a sense of achievement for us as we saw there faces as we offered them the gifts. They began by singing to us and obviously we returned the favour. We soon got down to business though and began our activities according to day 3 of the plan. These were the puppets, jointed people, sports games, team projects, team chants and the workbooks. The children enjoyed working on the workbooks as they were able to keep them once they had completed the tasks. It also helped to build up their English skills which is a key to the new education scheme as English teaching has only been brought in during the last 18 months. It is amazing how far they have come with their spoken English in a relatively short amount of time. Whilst we were doing the various tasks, a small audience of local people congregated around each of the tables watching what we were doing. At the end of our holiday club John gave a speech to the children on all of our behalf expressing how much we have enjoyed being with them and getting to know them on a more personal level. We left the remaining resources, such as sports equipment and paper with the school. We felt very sad to leave as we had all built up a relationship with the children in our groups.

After lunch we were taken on a 2hour drive to a well known waterfall on the border of Tanzania and Rwanda. After checking with immigration we were allowed to go half way over the bridge as we had to stay on the side of Rwanda. The waterfall was much more powerful and larger in scale than expected. From this point it flows to the Nile and then the Mediterranean. After lots of photographs we headed back to our Guest house in Kibungo.

Day 20

The second day of the holiday club and the two ill people were feeling much better and joined the rest of the group at the school. We followed the second day's plan of doing the wall hanging, insect gliders, prayer bracelets, sports games, scoobies, and then finished with parachute games and songs. We sang to the children, and taught them some of our English songs such as, “Praise ye the Lord”. We performed “The Wise Man and The Foolish Man” and Alistair and Becky were the Wise man and wise house, and Richard and Rachel were the foolish man and house. The dance to the song was learnt by the children and they copied the moves as we sang the song.

We returned to the guest house and had some lunch, soup and stale bread (again). After lunch we returned to the secondary boarding school to play a game of volleyball. 2 and a half hours later, some blows to the face and body, all the players enjoyed it! We soon came back to rest and wash the dust and muck off. A quick relax and dinner was served.

After dinner we inevitably practised our singing and musical instruments of “the International Band.” During this there was a power cut but this didn't stop us (unfortunately) and we finished our nightly meeting and went off to sort the resources for the last ever holiday club. A small group of us were still not tired so we took the opportunity to start making bracelets out of the left over wool. Stuart and Richard invented a new game and of Velcro ball! A source of great enjoyment for all that participated as well as those watching the game take.

Day 19

After a tough night's sleep, including 2 members of our group being ill throughout the night, we woke up for breakfast. We ate and then moved out into the car to go to the holiday club half an hour away. We stopped at the sector office to report to the authorities our presence in the area. We finally arrived at the holiday club where we were greeted by a classroom of 35 children who were singing for us. After a short introduction we began our activities in our teams. We followed the first day's programme similar to the activities we fulfilled in the last 2 holiday clubs. The children here spoke more English and so made it easier to communicate what we needed to do. 3 hours later, we returned to the guest house for a light lunch of soup and bread. The ill members were resting themselves and were planning to join the group for the afternoon. Unfortunately after lunch they weren't feeling too well so stayed behind for some sleep. The rest of the group went to look around a local secondary boarding school. It allocated for both boys an girls. There were around 350 boarders and 150 other day pupils. The dormitories were very basic for the amount of people sharing it. The beds were pushed together and looked very claustrophobic. We were then shown around the classrooms. 60 pupils are in each class. 3 to 4 share one desk which compared to our schooling system would not be allowed. It was hard to imagine how any structure is managed in a lesson of this size. As the lessons changed, the teachers moved but the children stayed in the one room. There was a small computer room which had 15 computers, not all had keyboards and the children were meant to be sharing the computers. The school had internet connection, however no longer have access to it. Per term for the day pupils it was 50,000 Rwandan Francs which is about US $100 and 80,000 RwF for boarders. Although this may not seem a lot, but it is still too much for some families especially those with more than one child of school age. The group played volleyball, rounders and basketball. The volleyball went about as well as the football game we played earlier in the trip. Rounders seemed too complex for them to understand. They would hit the ball and run to the first base where they asked Annie - “Good game, who wins?!” The basketball leaders coached the children.

This evening we returned, the sick pair were feeling better and the rest of the group were covered in dirt and grime from the dusty fields which we played on. We had some dinner, and then prepared for the second day of the holiday club and went to bed.

Day 18

This morning we relaxed and packed ready to leave for Kibungo. This journey usually takes 2 hours, however due to yet another tyre incident, it took 3 and a half hours. We were only 15 minutes away from our guest house when there was a loud bang and black smoke surrounding our vehicle. All we saw was the military police with their guns running away from our car. As the smoke subsided we realised the tyre had completely blown out. The car was then encircled with locals having a look at what had happened. Between John, Tel (our driver) and a few helpful locals, we jacked up the car to put the spare tyre on. After this we continued on our journey to the guest house. We arrived to find our dinner made and our rooms to unpack. Once we had a slight alteration changing our bed sheets, we settled in fine.