Cooking lesson

Sue and I thought it would be good to learn to cook one of the very Rwandan meals we eat on a regular basis at lunch time when we eat with the staff. Our teacher was a gorgeous young teacher that Mal and I met and loved last time we were here. We had our lesson in the home she now shares with a young American lady who teaches English to the school teachers at Kigali Christian School (the YFC school)

It's a Banana and Potato stew

Our raw ingredients were 

green bananas - not sweet at all and quite like potatoes

Irish potatoes - as opposed to sweet potatoes which are even more commonly eaten here

ground nuts flour - like our peanuts

dodo - a green vegetable a little like silver beet but grows quite differently

carrot

tomato

 

 We peeled and washed everything first under Christine's watchful eye

Then added it all in bit by bit to the saucepan

 

 Carefully adding the groud nut flour towards the end so that it didn't go lumpy

Our teacher thought we did a very good job. So did we! It sure tasted yummy!

After we'd cooked it we enjoyed eating it with our teacher and hostess.

Wow! What a fantastic day!!

Last Saturday the Rwanda YFC family went for an outing. Not just any old outing. This outing was VERY SPECIAL. There were about 90 of us!! That included students from the School of Leadership and Discipleship, RYFC office staff, teachers from the school, volunteers like us and our housemates.  Our purpose for the day was to bless some people widowed and orphaned by the genocide in 1994. The Rwandan government has built houses for many such people throughout the country. We visited a group of 10 houses, all neatly built in a row (as seems to be the pattern for houses built under this scheme).

 We came laden with gifts for our hosts. A goat for each household had been sent on ahead and the contents of the ute you will see later on.

We met and worked alongside the people who live in this small settlement at Remera Rukoma. Our aim was to build for each household a 'kitchen garden'. First we needed to clear the ground and remove all the stones. Dirty work but look at the great company!!  Who couldn't enjoy that?!

  

Each was made in the yard of the home and consisted of poles cut from eucalypts nearby,

covered with 'plastic hessian' bags sliced up to fit. Sue is pictured here cutting up bags with the director's wife.

Then banana leaves are stripped off trees and used to tie the hessian to the poles. Then the 'tent' is filled with soil, manure and other natural bits and pieces - but not the easy or quick way!

The first layer was then surrounded by a second made in a similar fashion. Here's my group showing off our finished product. Actually each household will need to add a third layer to complete their kitchen garden. The final requirement is for them to plant their vegetables not only on top of the soil but also down the sides of each layer, giving a large surface area for the garden.

Then it was cleanup time for our team in 'our' back yard, before we went to share food and gifts with our hosts.

We sat under the trees together and enjoyed some food and drinks - the obligatory sodas

and samosas

 

and then the ute was unloaded. 

Each family received a very large bag of rice (yellow), went halves in a huge bag of beans (white), a box of soap, and a very large container of cooking oil. RYFC asked for contributions of money and clothing towards all of this. Some folks from home had sent us with money to bless some people in Rwanda and so we were able to make a wonderful contribution on their behalf. 

The goats given to their proud new owners. Lots were drawn for the goats - a fun and entertaining way to be fair!

We went home tired and weary once again but we'd had a great day!

It was not only those people who were blessed, but we also. SO MUCH!

Washing Day in Rwanda

Doing our washing here just isn’t the same as it is at home! It’s jolly hard work and takes ages. And we don’t do nearly as good a job as the locals do. Saturday is usually washing day for us. Here’s a picture of Kathrin doing hers in the ‘kitchen’ 

When it’s all done we hang it on the bushes as the Rwandans do. It takes only a couple of hours to dry as the weather is so sunny and beautiful for drying clothes. It’s the dry season here at the moment. The wet season starts in September.

I took a photo of my washing last Saturday so you can get the idea.

And then a photo of Mareike and Kathleen hanging theirs as well.

Dowry Ceremony

What a fantastic cultural experience! We were privileged to go to a typical Rwandan dowry ceremony last weekend. We were honoured guests and treated accordingly. 

When Rwandans marry the man must pay a dowry for his bride. This is usually in the form of cow/s and the number is decided by the bride’s family. In the city the bride price is usually converted to Rwanda francs because there is nowhere to keep cows in the city!

Traditionally there are three parts to a wedding.  And they can proceed in any order! For Christians the last is usually the church wedding.  For this young couple, they began with the Civil Marriage two weeks ago. We didn’t go.  The second for them was the dowry ceremony full of lavish tradition – the photos tell some of the story. This was far from Kigali in the north east of Rwanda along some VERY bumpy dirt roads - they leave Aussie dirt roads for dead! We left here just after 7.30 am and arrived at our destination at around 4 pm with many stops along the way to co-ordinate with fellow travellers, eat lunch, fix a puncture and take pics of the children along the road etc. 

change into our ‘umukenyero’s

and buy sodas (soft drinks) for the ceremony!

Peace had decided that we should hire matching traditional outfits, as is the custom, and she wanted us to look very special. We were not disappointed and neither was she! We hired these just across the road from the meeting place on Saturday morning, just before we departed, as you do! We look stunning, don't you think? Pictured here with the groom (right), one of his aunts and a couple of his groomsmen.

 
During the ceremony men from both sides (bride and groom) discuss, in very lighthearted fashion, with bribes and banter, whether or not they can agree on the price and arrangements for the couple. A lot of fun for everyone. As I was taking photos (what's new?) of the bride's family they fined the grooms' side (our side) and I was brought to the front of proceedings to apologise. They were impressed when I thanked them for their lenience in Kinyarwanda - their language.

When it was all sorted, grasses were lit and the cowman came to entertain us all with poetry about the beauty of the cows!

And dancers entertained us.

The groom greeted the bride's family

and received gifts with his bride.

 

We were all fed traditional Rwandan food and the day ended very happily indeed.

And we arrived home very weary after another fantastic day! I'll post on the blog again after the church wedding in a fortnight!

You'll think that our life is one long touristic experience. Let me assure you that we do work. Our role here involves building relationships with the YFC staff so that we can share life with them, serve them, pray for and encourage them. And so we live a very varied and interesting life as we live with and serve them.

Our home in Rwanda

Sue and I live in ‘the dorm’ building at Rwanda Youth for Christ.

We inhabit a very large room at the end of the corridor, with two double beds (with mosquito nets),

three lounge chairs and two 2’ x 4’ tables – one of these is most of our kitchen, the other is between our beds and we keep books and ‘stuff’ on it. That’s it for us. Here we sleep, eat, entertain visitors, compute, read and relax.

Other regular inhabitants of the dorm are Mareike from Germany, Kathrin from France and Kathleen from South Africa. These young women are volunteering with YFC here – two as a GAP year and the other is an accountant who wanted to volunteer. They are great company and really easy to get along with.

The remainder of our kitchen, which we share with the girls, is one of the dorm bedrooms where there are 4 plastic chairs and two tables - one of them houses a two-burner gas cooker. It does all that we need, especially as we eat fresh fruit for breakfast and salad for tea most nights. Here we boil water for 10 minutes for drinking and cook meals for visitors who come for lunch at weekends.

Land of security and hope

The Rwandans seem to be generally very happy with their government and what is being achieved in their country.  Several YFC staff members that we have spoken with are very happy with what is happening here. They told us that they now feel secure and hopeful. That’s pretty good considering what they have endured in the past. People would be happy if Paul Kagame, their president, remained after his 2 X 7 year terms, but it would be unconstitutional and they trust him not to change the constitution (as many African leaders would!!!). They proudly tell us that their roads, water and electricity are far better than the neighbouring countries of Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania and Congo. And when we have complimented people on their good roads, they say ‘Thank you’ as if we are thanking them directly. They appear to be very proud and patriotic.

When we drove to the dowry ceremony with several young men - an airline pilot, a lawyer and an aeronautical engineer - they confirmed our thinking that a large percentage of Rwanda’s population is very happy with the present government. I mentioned to these young men that I thought some of the children in rural areas would not have the opportunity to become airline pilots, lawyers or aeronautical engineers in the future. They disagreed and believe that Rwanda’s children have hope and opportunity to do anything at all. It is encouraging to know that they are all so hopeful.

I am noticing lots of change, especially in rural areas, since Mal and I were here in 2007. There are power lines, bank branches, industry, and fewer people carrying their water long distances. The government is making lots of effort to ensure that all people have running water and electricity to their homes. This has made a huge difference to the rural areas. They have also introduced education for every person up to 3 years of secondary school and will increase that to 6 years of secondary schooling in the next year or so. Such an improvement.

Some of us think that Australia is over-regulated. Well, how about being fined for not wearing shoes in public? And a fine if you do not have a mattress to sleep on! And no-one is permitted to marry before 21 years of age! But the people we speak to are even happy about all this regulation because they see their country moving forward in leaps and bounds. It’s just part of the deal!

Masters of the Overload

You wouldn't believe some of the loads these people attempt and succeed in carrying. Thought I'd just give you a glimpse.

Akagera National Park

Last Thursday we had a fabulous time visiting Akagera National Park. We left here at 4 am in order to arrive at the park by 6 am as many animals are easier seen in the early morning. We shared the day and the expenses with three young women who are staying at the YFC dorm building with us – more detail about them later.

The Kagera River forms part of the border between Tanzania and Rwanda. Before the genocide the park was over 2000 square km, but when thousands of refugees returned to Rwanda after the genocide in 1994, the government divided the park in half and gave land to those refugees who had nothing. Akagera National Park is now just over1000 square km in area.You might like to check out what Wikipedia says about the history of the park.

These are impala, one of 14 varietes of antelopes found in this park. Aren't they beautiful?

We had a brilliant time and saw many animals including giraffes, zebras, impala, water buffalo, elephants, baboons, velvet monkeys, topi, water buck, reed buck, hippos, crocs and many different varieties of birds.

 

Is he not very old and gorgeous?!! Just lying in the middle of the track!

There were so many highlights that it would be difficult to say what was the best, but probably it was towards the end of the day when we stood at the north of the park, only metres from a family of giraffes and looked out across the plains to see zebras, water buffalo, topi, impala, reed buck and oribi feeding peacefully together. Awesome! What amazing diversity our God has produced in His world.

 Giraffes - they spell serenity!

Topi - antelope also

These two baboons are abviously having a cleanup session, picking out ticks or whatever!

After many hours on very bumpy roads in the park, we came home at 8 pm VERY weary but fully satisfied with a really wonderful day at Akagera.

Building a house in Rwanda

We went to visit the house building project at Matimba in the eastern province of Rwanda on Tuesday last week. It was a long and interesting drive to a village close to the Ugandan border. It was in the area sliced off the Akagera National Park and given by the Rwandan Government to refugees returning to Rwanda after the war in 1994. See what Wikipedia has to say about that.

This house is for the family of a young woman who is a teacher at Kigali Christian School (the YFC school here).

Peace has been sponsored through her university education by a Victorian couple who came, with their two daughters, to help build this house. The old house was in very bad repair! I told you a little bit about this adventure in an earlier blog post.

 

First the mud is mixed for the bricks

 And then it is put into the mould where it will stay until it has hardened and then moved to dry out.

Here Brian is standing alongside drying bricks, discussing the building with Luc from Rwanda YFC

We are photographed here in front of the house with all the family and the Aussies who are building. They have been doing a fantastic job and must now leave it in the hands of the Rwandans as they head back to Aus.

On the way home we stopped to buy some bananas and pineapples at a roadside store and found some other umuzungus (white people) there. As we talked we discovered that the gentleman was the manager of Akagera National Park, where we intended to go two days later. He was so helpful to us with making arrangements for our BIG DAY OUT.