Going loco down in Nyabugogo... if u stay too long

Just finished another day at the centre. Its funny although we can relay various anecdotes of what we’ve been up to here through our blogs, it’s the little everyday experiences of just living and working here that make being here so enjoyable. Our card making classes are really progressing and some of the students are actually producing cards that are of a professional quality! Its really exciting because one boy called Eric Thomas was one of the boys who really struggled to use a ruler at the beginning, in all honesty we’d completely ruled out him having any artistic potential what so ever but to our great surprise he’s now one of the best! As clichéd as it sounds one of the most rewarding parts of working here is watching our students develop their skills. They’ve all got so much potential, its just many of them have never been given the chance to express it before.

So besides work we have been keeping ourselves very busy. Last week we met our friend Kina for a drink at ‘Sky Hotel’ a new bar we’d never been to before. Our choice in venue proved to be an interesting one. It was a karaoke bar like no other! Basically the Rwandan version of karaoke is to mime into microphones that aren’t on while a record plays over the top…. I might like to add that the lyrics were in English and therefore 99% of the acts didn’t actually know the words! They did however certainly compensate with their costumes! One guy wore what can only be described as a 80s bodysuit with a significant amount of stuffing around his belly and bum which resembled a very heavily pregnant woman…. Combined with a white beard and a pair of little round 1920s glasses… confused? We were!!! He then proceeded to gyrate around a pole at an alarming rate of thrusts per minute! What made the situation even more surreal was that we had been ushered (by a very insistent lady) to the middle of the front row and therefore his thrusts were very much directed at us! It also meant that Kine had the unfortunate experience of being dragged on stage and sung at in Kinyarwanda. We were the only muzungus in the place, which also didn’t help matters, and when a guy in his late 60s brought us all drinks and incessantly talked over the show we felt it was time to make our exit. We also had another eventful night out at Cadillac where we were inundated with declarations of love; Nell in particular had a classic which went as follows…

“I’m not looking for love, I’ve got a girlfriend, but you should give me your number because even your parents had to meet for the first time somehow!”

“Somehow” Nell managed to resist the desire to give him our number. At 6 we caught a taxi home and were well and truly shamed as dirty stop outs as we passed a group of about 15 guys out for their early morning jog, and could hear our landlords family having breakfast just as we crawled into bed!

We’ve also attended a Hip Hop festival, which our friend was staring in, and another club called KBC…we are officially Rwandan socialites! We’ve also been on two stunning weekends away. The first was to a town called Kibuye which was amazing… once we actually got there. However, in true Rwandan style after driving for only 10 minutes the front of our bus filled with smoke and we proceeded to be stuck at the side of the road for an hour and a half in a part of Kigali called Nyabugogo. Feeling very hung over and uncomfortable we were then infuriated to find that when they eventually fixed the bus we drove no more than 100 metres and were told to swap buses! What was their logic I hear you ask?… there was none. Kibuye itself is situated in the west of Rwanda and nestles at the edge of lake Kivu. We spent the weekend with Kine, Andrew and a couple of his colleges, Keith and Steph. Keith was certainly a character and after a few beers he proceeded to tell us in great detail the meaning of life. According to Keith we are all wheels with many spokes, each spoke is a life and we live out all our spokes simultaneously. Apparently we also choose our parents before we are born and make a contract with them… at this point I (Jasmine) made it perfectly clear that in my case I felt that was unlikely! Never the less he certainly made an interesting conversationalist! But after such deep and meaningful philosophy a cheeky skinny dip was definitely in order. The rest of the weekend was mainly spent relaxing, although Kine and Jaz exerted themselves by swimming home across the lake instead of walking.

We spent the following weekend in the popular town of Gisenyi which is also situated on the shores of Lake Kivu. It might be worth mentioning at this point that Lake Kivu is the size of a small country! It stretches over 60 miles long and marks the border with The Congo. In fact if you didn’t know that Rwanda is landlocked it would be easy to mistake it for the sea as its so large it even has waves and beaches. This area encompasses some of the most spectacular scenery in all of Africa. It is surrounded by a lush mountainous region with peaks at an altitude of nearly 5000 feet. The drive alone was a feast for the eyes with each hairpin bend revealing a patchwork quilt of fields ascending the mountain slopes. The air was filled with the intoxicating scent of eucalyptus and the shores of the lake were dotted with a profusion of dainty flowers of a variety of colours. Gisenyi itself is a bizarre little town. It was incredibly popular during the colonial times and therefore still hosts a large tree lined avenue with a selection of magnificent old houses, however the area hasn’t really been maintained and most of the houses are now deserted and run down. It was one of the areas worst affected by the genocide and although the population has grown again it feels a little like a ghost town. However, we managed to find the most perfect guesthouse in the whole of Rwanda… if not the world! It was called Paradis and it quite literately was. It was a 15 minute drive outside of town and set right on the bank of the lake. We sat and ate lunch watching a kingfisher sit happily on a rock and at night we fell asleep to the sound of the water lapping at the shore. We spent the evening sat around a small bonfire with our waiter, Fidele, mulling over life and the following day he served us a feast of a breakfast. We then decided to swim to a near by island formed from molten lava rock, we estimated that it would only take us about 15 minutes but after about 40 we realised we were a little off in our predictions. In truth we both thought we were going to die! It wasn’t until we had swum back and were safely on dry land that we admitted to each other our various fears of being eaten, drowning or just never making it! Never the less it was incredibly rewarding and when we stood in the middle of the Island (in front of a rather confused looking fisherman!) we really did feel like we’d conquered something. We then faced an hour and a half long walk back to Gisenyi but with the stunning views and small gaggle of children that accompanied us we certainly weren’t complaining. Walking in rural Africa really is the only way to fully appreciate its beauty and charm.