Gorillas In The Mud

We are now into the last three weeks of our time here, which is a very scary thought indeed, and also means our schedules are all of a sudden jam-packed! We have concocted a plan to steal our favourite babies from the orphanage which involve smuggling them in our rucksacks… not that we should really be admitting we have favourites! We have also begun a four week project working for a friend at The Prison Fellowship, which works with the families of prisoners, victims and ex-prisoners on a basis of reconciliation. The project that we’re involved in is basically the same as our card project at Centre Marembo but working with adult women instead. The idea is that after we leave Ashild (our friend) will be able to continue the project herself. On the subject of cards… the project at Marembo made huge progress last weekend. Nicky and a few of the volunteers attended a Christmas fete held at one of the big hotels in town and managed to sell 62 of the cards made by the boys at £1 each, which is big money in Rwanda! Not only that but Graeme La Saux was there and he brought 5 cards! Claim to fame! We will be holding a meeting next week to discuss the project’s future, in which the boys will be setting up an association in preparation for when we leave, allowing the project to continue longterm. The other piece of exciting news from the centre is that a film crew have arrived, well when we say crew, we mean two very dedicated volunteers by the names of David and Elspeth. This means that all of a sudden our English classes have doubled in size with keen faces wishing to appear on camera. We held a competition on Monday during the ‘Nell and Jaz club’ whereby the kids were meant to design a picture, which will be painted onto the library wall in February. The kids were so preoccupied by the possibility of being famous that most of them just about managed one snake under the heading ‘jungle’ or a lone sun under the heading ‘sky’. We are thinking a collage may be necessary!

So the reason why we couldn’t attend the Christmas fete ourselves was because we had a very important date with a family of mountain gorillas!!!! (Jaz: thank you soooooo much to Mum and Mustie, you have given me a Christmas present I will never forget)
The trip started on Saturday with a bus journey up to the north of the country to a town called Ruhengeri. It’s quite a large town by Rwandan standards and the base from which the large majority of people go gorilla trekking. However, in true Rwandan style it is not in any way geared towards tourism. We ventured out of our guesthouse for a look around and discovered one gift shop stocking some badly made t-shirts and some extremely ugly wooden gorillas. Considering the number of rich foreigners passing through we couldn’t help thinking the town was missing out on an excellent opportunity to make some serious cashdollar!!
Sunday morning was an extremely early start, 5.10am, not what we’re used to but the incentive was great enough to get us out of our beds. We headed of to the ORTPN head quarters where the treks are organised. The drive towards the Volcanoes National Park was stunning, travelling through a banana plantation with an enormous volcano looming up in front of you is certainly enough to wake you up! We arrived at the head quarters and after a little hanging around, we had to decide on the group we wanted to see. There are 8 groups in total, some with a relatively easy hike to see them and others which are a little more challenging, the groups also range in size from about eight to nearly 40 gorillas. We wanted to get our moneys worth so we decided on seeing the biggest group, called the Susa group, which also has the most challenging hike, they warned us we could be on the mountain all day and if we were too exhausted to make it to where the gorillas were then ORTPN would not be held responsible! We had just enough faith in our fitness levels to rise to the challenge. We were then introduced to our 3 other trekking buddies and our guides, Cyprian and Emmanuel, who were very friendly and knowledgeable, and who both spoke perfect English.
So all raring to go we piled into a jeep, four on the back seat, two on the seats in the boot and set of to the park entrance that we assumed could only be a short drive away… an hour later, after bumping around on mud tracks we reached a stretch of road even a land cruiser couldn’t tackle so had to do the last bit of the walk to the park entrance on foot, even at this point we could feel the effects of the altitude and were short of breath before we’d even reached the foot of the mountain. At this point we thought maybe we hadn’t paid enough attention to the park warden’s warnings! At the entrance we were given a talk about gorilla etiquette, no pointing, no flash photography, try to maintain a distance of at minimum 3 meters and if they come towards you back away slowly, and if one of the males charges at you- Don’t Run! We were also told that there could be elephants and buffalo in the forest, which could be dangerous and for that reason we had a few armed guards with us… in fact with the guides included there were more of them than there were of us!
So at around 9 am we set off up the slopes of Mount Karisimbi, the highest of the 5 volcanoes that make up the park, with a peak at 4507m. Luckily we weren’t expecting the gorillas to be at the very top, and the guides informed us they anticipated the trek to be around two hours. The path up the mountain cuts through a dense bamboo forest, and what with it being the rainy season the path was far from dry. The mud only got worse as we headed up and the path also got extremely steep in places, we were very glad to have been provided with sticks to help us and frequently had to grab on to the bamboo at the edge of the path to stop us falling over or sliding backwards! The guides were in constant radio contact with the gorilla trackers and after about 40 minutes walking we were informed that the group had moved down the mountain, so we were at most an hour away from them. Big relief to the whole group as the mud and the altitude were beginning to take their toll. A little while later we heard some strange noises and rustling in the bamboo to our right, our guide stopped dead and we had thoughts of being charged by elephants or buffalo when from the bushes emerged an enormous male gorilla who strolled majestically across the path in front of us. His posture and size left no doubt in our minds of his pure strength and might. It’s impossible to describe the feelings of exhilaration and excitement that swept through us at that moment; we were on a pure adrenalin high.
We moved up the path and found the troop in a clearing, munching bamboo shoots, the head silver back in the centre. The group is made up of 37 individuals, and has 4 silver back males (males over the age of 12 yrs old). One of these silverbacks is in charge, and the others all know their place in the pecking order. There are also 2 black backs, (males aged between 8-12 yrs) numerous females, including Poppy the queen of the group at 35 yrs old, various adolescents, a few babies and a set of twins who were nearly 2yrs called Gift and Happiness. This group was one of the groups originally studied by the late Dian Fossey, (Sigoney Weavers character in 'Gorilla in the Mist' which was filmed on location in Rwanda). We spent around 45 minutes there, whilst more and more gorillas of all shapes and sizes emerged from the undergrowth and joined the rest of the group or just wandered past. It was extremely tempting to reach out and touch the nearest ones as the 3 meter rule went out the window and at times they were only an arms length away but we managed to resist. At one point a guard had to shoo one of the twins away because it was becoming too inquisitive and trying to touch us.. these creatures are not shy! Generally they all just sat around munching and eyeing us in a vaguely interested manner. On one occasion a black back of 10 yrs appeared and clearly wanted to show off to the visitors, he started by running through the clearing beating his chest and making a lot of noise, then snapped an entire bamboo plant in half and made a kind of nest from the branches, he was also seen to kick a couple of the smaller gorillas- typical surly teenager!! What was really incredible for us was the fact that we were so close meant that on many occasion it was possible to make eye contact with gorillas near us, we really felt like we were being studied as much as we were studying them.
At some point the chief silverback decided he was bored so got up, beat his chest and ordered the whole troop to follow him off up the path. They obediently trailed after him, sticking to the edge of the path to avoid the mud, which apparently they dislike. We followed close behind and found them in a very large clearing lying around and chomping on balls of rolled up goose grass. They were all making deep growling noises, which we are told means the food is good and they’re very happy. At this point the sun came out and they all looked extremely relaxed and contented, we could have stayed with them all day but unfortunately you are only allowed and hour and ours was up. Reluctantly we said goodbye, took one last look and set of down the mud river that was posing as a path. In certain places it was easier to ‘ski’ down than walk and on many an occasion our feet were completely enveloped in mud up to our ankles; our shoes and trousers will never be the same again!! By some miracle Jaz managed to stay upright the entire way down and Nell only fell over once, although if it wasn’t for clinging on for dear life to the bamboo, we have no doubt our rear ends would have suffered a lot more! We made it down to the bottom of the mountain by about 1.30pm and were very happy to be offered a lift right back to Kigali by our trekking partners.
Whilst the experience was a brief one it was also one of the most exhausting, exhilarating and rewarding of our lives. There are only 600 mountain gorillas left in the world, all of which exist in Rwanda or Uganda, and we feel incredibly privileged to have spent an hour in their company.

Creative Chaos

First and foremost, we want to say a huge thank you to Shae for the package and card you sent us- it's the first package we have recieved and the Jaffa cakes were a real treat! The sweets have been used as prizes for the kids in our art club and English classes and have been very much appreciated by all the kids so far!!

So, a few more observations as to why life here is just a little bit different and special:

The local bank is currently running a genuine ‘win a cow’ competition. Unfortunately you have to be a permanent resident of Rwanda to enter.
We recently went to a bar called Carwash, it is open 24 hours, and guess what folks…. By day they wash cars!
The concept of fast food quite literally doesn’t exist here. Not only are you guaranteed to wait at least an hour for anything you order, this is one of the few countries left in the world that McDonalds hasn’t penetrated.
However, you can fill up at a milk bar at 10p a pint! But despite the abundance of cows there is no local cheese or butter that is even remotely passable as edible.
A self proclaimed pop star who goes by the name 2-10 lives on our street and insists we must be in his new music video as ‘his white girls’… unfortunately we have been unable to oblige due to our incredibly busy schedule.
Last week Rwanda celebrated ‘tree planting day’. This was explained to us by the volunteers after a procession of over two hundred motos passed us on the street, and all of the shops were mysteriously closed. Apparently if you are seen to be going about your daily business you can get fined for not planting a tree.

So the rainy season is most definitely here which means that pineapples are out and mangos are in…. much to our excitement! What other news do we have on the food front… ah yes I, Jasmine, tried goat and shamefully quite enjoyed it! No nightmares entailing blood curdling bleats yet though so my conscience can’t be feeling that bad! We have been using jerry cans filled with rain water for washing and general house hold use which is great because its free. The other day we were debating how bad it would really be to drink the stuff… we would of course boil it first. However, on closer inspection we discovered an abundance of mosquito larvae swimming in the bottom of our pan, which may explain a few of our bouts of illness!

The last couple of weeks have been non-stop in relation to work and play. We’ve had various friends round for dinner, including an evening with all the volunteers from the centre which was a brilliant way to get to know them better and gave us a chance to show them how much we are in awe of their dedication and hard work. We have also been to Gahini a few more times which has involved more long distant swims and a big celebration of Lawrence’s 31st birthday. It turns out that Laurence is rather popular, with over 80 guests attending his party. However we still managed to prove to be the most hard core of all his friends by being the last on the dance floor. We spent the last hour dancing to Congolese music with the bar staff! Jaz had a very surreal moment while Kine and Nell were elsewhere, when three members of staff embraced her and each other in a rather bizarre head lock and proceeded to dance for an entire song in this position! We were even brought drinks by one bar maid who was particularly impressed with our moves! Our stamina was actually very strategically linked to our awareness that we were camping and therefore knew full well that we would have to be truly exhausted to survive a night on the cold hard ground.

Last week we witnessed Centre Marembo give Greenhills Academy (the most expensive private school in Rwanda) as ass whipping at football – the final score was 6/3 and although the referee is in Jaz’s English class we refused to believe this had anything to do with it. We also took the boys swimming which was another glorious day for the kids from Marembo. The boys Marembo houses attained some excellent exam results, many of them coming top of their class, such good behaviour was rightly met with much praise and encouragement. The volunteers provided them with a day we doubt they will ever forget. It was such an honour to be able to witness the delight on their faces and although the majority of them can’t actually swim, they still spent hours playing in the shallow end until their toes went wrinkly. They put great faith in Nicky as she tried to teach them how to float and we had huge amounts of fun challenging them to piggy back races across the pool. The day was also in celebration of Marembo’s first anniversary. It was fascinating hearing Nicky describe the way each boy had developed and the sorts of problems they’d encountered with them in the beginning. Nicky’s and the volunteer’s tolerance and patience with them has evidently paid off.

Another addition to our time table has been the “Nell and Jaz Art Club” this is pure creative chaos… and we love it!! With around 50 children attending, trying to keep track of sequins and glitter glue can be a real challenge, most of the kids end up going home with very sparkly faces! So far we’ve completed self portraits, by drawing around kids on wallpaper, and also face masks made from paper plates, most of them covered in sequins and feathers, some of them actually a bit scary looking! We gave out some lollies as prizes for the best 5, which we had a hard time choosing. We also had a hectic game of ‘Bring Me’ which included “bring me some water”, “bring me a stone” and “bring me a volunteer who works at Marembo”. Innocent and Espoire looked a little surprised to be suddenly dragged over to us with 15 children on each arm! We have some exciting future projects in the pipeline but unfortunately we only have a few lessons left, our time is running out far too fast! Neither of us has ever found a job so satisfying and rewarding and in truth, we are a little terrified of coming home as it means facing the reality of getting a ‘real’ job! But for now we are happy to embrace the moment and surround ourselves with children, feathers and glue.

Feedback and Clarification

This entry is just to say thank you for all the feed back we have received about the blog, we really appreciate your comments, and value your opinions about our style of writing. Due to a couple of recent concerns raised we feel it is necessary to clarify a few things about our intentions behind writing each entry. Firstly our aim has never been to follow the generic codes of an Oxfam advert. While Rwanda is clearly a ‘developing country’, desperately poor and in need of resources, it is also doing an amazing job of progressing and we believe it shouldn’t be portrayed purely on a basis of its suffering.

The pace of life here is no longer based on emergency, and development work is not as simple as seeing a problem and finding a solution to it. Our job at Centre Marembo is our number one priority to us and the also thing that brings us the most happiness while here. However, like any job, we have a routine that is repeated weekly, therefore we feel that solely focusing on the ins and outs of our work would make a bit of a dull read. Our motto while here is to ‘work hard, play hard’ and naturally we want to get the most out of being here so we pack as much into our free time as possible. We believe for example that to sit and dwell on how difficult a morning at the orphanage has been simply wouldn’t be productive. The aim of writing this blog is not a declaration of the suffering we witness here. While we could go into detailed descriptions of shoeless or skin diseased children, this would paint them purely as victims and ignore their independence and unique personalities. To focus the blog on suffering would do the people of Rwanda a great injustice and to be quite frank would be incredibly patronising.

As for those of you who very generously donated to our fund before we left we would like to make it very clear how essential your donations have been to the centre and how much we appreciate them. We can assure you that on a weekly basis your money is put to good use, an abundance of art equipment has been purchased, along with daily expenses such as photocopying of English work sheets and the card we use during our art lessons. We have also recently purchased £150 worth of furniture that the centre was in desperate need of. We have also been able to contribute towards taking the boys swimming to celebrate some excellent exam results and Marembo’s first anniversary of being officially open.

If you would like a breakdown of our expenditure feel free to email us but be sure that the purpose for your contributions are being fulfilled, and know that we would never abuse your good will to fund an ‘extended holiday’. Many of you will know that we both worked long hours to be able to finance this trip ourselves in terms of our flights, accommodation, food etc and have made a conscious effort to keep the fund and our own personal finances separate.

Our love for this country is quite immeasurable and although we have witnessed real hardship, we have also witnessed real happiness. The children at the centre have nothing in the way of money or possessions yet they are rich in friendships and personality. To focus on their neediness would in no way reflect our experience of meeting them. Our main intention for this blog is simply to note the funny little everyday differences between here and the UK and a few quirky anecdotes of the things that make living and working here so unique. To paint a picture of a quintessential African country based on poverty and arid landscapes simply wouldn’t represent reality. We hope this has clarified any concerns you may have had about our representation of our time here. No doubt we will have many conversations with those of you that are close to us about what we have found difficult and troubling while here but for now we will continue to write in a style that we hope will make you smile.

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.