Working again ;-)

Hello from Kigali. We’ve been here for just over two weeks and our dream of living and working in Rwanda has come true….and we’re not disappointed.

Kigali, a compact garden city where eagles soar overhead, is characterised by steep hills and red earth roads - except for the immaculately tended dual carriageways which form the main arterial routes through the city. Its hills and valleys are often shrouded in cloud and smoke from the charcoal fires – not to mention the diesel fumes pumping from the numerous NGO 4x4s. It makes trudging up those steep hills slightly unpleasant and usually completely knackering!

We have begun our work for Centre Marembo - the main Rwandan arm of rYico our chosen charity. The Centre is an information resource for the young of Kigali and 26 (ex) street children live in accommodation nearby. The Centre runs courses in English, computers, mechanics and karate amongst others. It also offers a drop-in facility for other street kids who are fed, can wash their clothes, gain information on urgent health issues such as AIDS and HIV as well as gaining companionship from all those who visit the Centre. The enthusiasm of its directors, unpaid volunteers and street kids is both amazing and infectious and they are a joy to work with.

Most of our work to date has been with the directors and volunteers. We seem very much to be working as management consultants advising on the Centre’s strategic direction and analysing their business processes as well as looking at strategies to raise much needed funds. It’s amazing how much corporate crap… I mean essential business methods learned at both BAA and IDX, has flowed back. And it’s been refreshing to work with an organisation so open to new ideas.

However we have also spent time with “our boys” as they are affectionately referred to by the Centre. It is often simply a smile or a joyful expression from these rehabilitated boys that makes this experience so rewarding. Trying to remember all their names is a nightmare!

On the last Saturday of every month in Rwanda “umaganda” happens – a practice where the “umudugudu” (local groups of about 150 families) come together for community work and a social get-together. Last Saturday, the Centre’s boys enthusiastically joined in, helping to cut communal grass areas with blunt machetes and entertaining the crowd after the manual work was complete. These ex street boys are now viewed as a real asset and part of the community, rather than a potential menace – testament to the success of Centre Marembo.

Hopefully we’re off to see the mountain gorillas in the west of the country at the end of the week. We should get some great piccies as we’re travelling with professional photographers. (Mowbray – we’re being kind!).

Bye for now,
Andy & Viv x

Muraho Kigali!

First impressions of Kigali are all good although this was possibly influenced by a number of the local beers (Primus) imbibed with a couple of Kenyans at the hotel bar. We’re both very excited to finally be here.

Slip sliding away….

Now that we have arrived in one piece, we can finally admit how we came to be here despite our solemn promises to give Burundi a wide berth. There were very few options open to us at Kigoma: 1) via cargo ship (illegally) up to Bujumbura – and Andy would have had to drug me to get me on another boat after our Liemba experience; 2) Chance our luck with los Banditos and skirt around Tanzania; or 3) hoon up and chance our luck with the roads & the stray bullets on a direct route up to Bujumbura. We had thought we could get a flight out of Kigoma but no joy. Straight answers from locals were difficult to get. The Hotel Manager in Kigoma assured us that option 3 was perfectly safe as the Tanzanian roads are monumentally crap but there were “no problems at all in Burundi…..none….well, maybe just a few….ermmm, possibly the odd stray bullet…..but not for a long time”. Fortunately, we met Maggie from the United Nations who reassured us that the UN only took option 2 in an armed convey with military backup in a 4WD and radio contact all the way because of the bandits and that the option 3 would be best - the UN were about to down grade security on that road. So, off we went with a recommended taxi driver and slipped and slid our way through appalling roads out of Tanzania. It was like driving through porridge and after our second breakdown, it’s a real shame we didn’t get the picture of the entire village trying to push our car up one of the numerous hills. After 10 hours, and not that many kilometres, we reached the Burundian border and gave a huge sigh of relief at the sight of the tarred road. The drive up to Bujumbura itself was stunning. Very lush green steep hills with roads and hairpin bends even the Swiss would be proud of. The route took us along the shores of Lake Tanganika, where we saw hippos basking in the sunset and then we finally arrived after 14 hours and 500km in Bujumbura.

Tanzania Ahoy!

Adventure may not well come in neatly sanitised packets but our naval experience of the last few days on MV Liemba is one I would not wish on my worse enemy. The relief of arriving here in Kigoma, Tanzania is indescribable. The luxury of a clean flush toilet is not one to be taken for granted, ever. Mpulungu is a quiet, underdeveloped port at the bottom of lake Tanganika and in the few days we spent there, we’d kept the locals highly entertained with our attempts to speak the local language (there are only 73 in Zambia and the few words we’d learnt in Lusaka weren’t really that useful). Being “Muzungu” – white - most people wanted to shake our hand, perhaps to see if we were really real rather than just a ghostly vision and when we answered in the local dialect, the usual reaction was one of intense amusement. Even the army boys were warm and welcoming and tried to encourage Andy to have enough children to front a football team. And then the rains came and came and didn’t stop. Having already stayed an extra day waiting for the boat to arrive, we were delayed leaving by yet another day while they unloaded the cargo but by that time, we’d seen the boat and the hideously filthy toilets and were already plotting alternative routes. Sadly, none were feasible. How best do I describe the conditions in polite company? Both of us have travelled far & wide and experienced too many unpalatable places but those on the boat took disgusting to a new level. We entered them in full combat gear – complete with lavender scented face mask (we felt a bit like grave robbers during the bubonic plague). Washing was out of the question – we would have ended up dirtier and smellier than before. Our first class cabin was a necessary survival tactic not the luxury you may imagine from the comfort of your armchair….& that were grim enough. Only the thought of clean water and a nice hotel in Kigoma sustained us during the 4 days of floating hell with the constant stench from the toilets mingled with the delightful aroma of rotting fish. Still, we took the opportunity to brush up on our Swahili and bring the game of yahtzee to Central Africa. The best part of the trip? Getting off!

Lusaka

It’s a 7 hour bus ride to the capital, Lusaka from Livingstone in the west. And we paid a whole £1 extra to travel first class. The seats are something the National Express should be envious of and we enjoyed a very comfortable cruise through the many potholes interspersed with the occasional bit of road. Lusaka brought the promise of a bed instead of another night under soggy canvas which was extremely welcome after 4 nights of torrential rain. Then it’s another numb bum as we catch the less luxurious bus for the 13 hour trip up to Mpulungo at the bottom of Lake Tanganika tomorrow.

Botswana weddings, hippos and fireworks….

The groom was attired in what can only be described as a blue boiler suit, bearing a close resemblance to Tom Cruise in Top Gun….Christmas Eve 2006 will go down as one of the most surreal we have ever spent. Joining a group trip, we left Windhoek in the early morning and arrived 700k later in Ghanzi, Botswana, to be told our campsite was the location of a wedding reception. The groom, looking like a rabbit in the headlights, extended an invitation to join in some booty shaking dancing, Botswanan stylie and the guests delighted in showing us some local moves – the chicken, the antelope and snake to name but a few. We responded in kind by dredging up long forgotten do-si-do and other strange folk dancing manoeuvres best resigned to the cupboard. Needless to say, we did not destroy the myth that white folk can’t dance. The Botswanans know how to party. Our campsite turned into a car park and it was one of the worse nights of Charlie’s (our guide) life.

There were too many highlights in the 8 day trip to mention all. The mukoru (canoe made from a tree trunk) trip through the Okavango Delta, an elephant charging our truck in Muhangu - or perhaps he was only joking – hippos playing in Chobe national park, traditional dancing in the Caprivi strip all experienced on the way to Livingstone, Zambia and the great ‘Cloud that Thunders’ otherwise known as the mighty Victoria Falls.

On a serious note, it was fascinating to hear the other side of the Zimbabwean story, according to our fabulous Charlie. Being from there, he had a unique insight denied to us outsiders and unknowingly, he had convinced us that it would be ok (as in, the right thing to do) to cross over the bridge into Zimbabwe, despite the political situation. It was sad to see that compared to my (Viv’s) last visit 9 years previously; the Zim side of Vic Falls was so quiet. The markets were full of beautiful carvings and souvenirs but there was a distinct lack of tourists. The Zimbabweans we met were charming, friendly and welcoming.

New Year’s Eve in Livingstone was mad. The trick to lighting fireworks was apparently to see how close you can get to them after letting them off and to always point them into where the most number of people are standing. So 2007 really did start with a bang!

Special hellos to Charlie, Troy & Angela, Gerhard & Angela, Martha, Tilley, Marcus, Andrew, Judith & Ben.