JUNE/JULY 2011

Here we are, mid-June and also about halfway through term two at school.  I sometimes have to stop and adjust my reality settings lately.  The seasonal rhythms here do not correspond to the ones I have been living by for so many years. Whereas June = hustle to get the garden planted and school's almost out for the summer back in B.C., here we're heading into the dry season, harvesting is underway, and we're still shoulder to the wheel at school. 

At virtually every smallholding families are threshing large masses of beans and sorghum which have been laid out to dry  on the swept ground in front of the little mud brick or wattle and daub houses.  When they've dried to a crisp they are beaten with a long stick or paddle to break up the pods and seed heads. (I have always wondered what the heck sorghum is.  Turns out, it grows on a plant almost identical to corn, and the seed head is at the top.)  Then the bean vines are gathered up and the beans are left to continue drying before being put up for storage.  There's also corn, peanuts and cassava, all needed to sustain families until the next planting season which starts in September.  Many people here are almost entirely dependent on this seasonal plant/harvest cycle. 

At school I have a busy teaching schedule, English and methodology, and the "Resource Center" is still a work in progress, or lack thereof, depending on how you look at it.  UNICEF has provided generously for furnishing  and upgrading the room but I am still waiting for administrative paperwork to be completed and stamped (oh, yes, stamps are BIG here.  Sorry now that I didn't bring my happy face one :-).  Meanwhile, I'm making and gathering up what I can and we've received some books and a whole load of lovely teaching materials from a small Ugandan company…rice sacks with maps, diagrams, alphabets, games, stuff made from materials easily found here.  They will be available for loan or for copying to teachers and student teachers. Now that our new computer lab is up and running perhaps the ball will start to roll. Yes, we are finally connected.  Still mainly accessible only to teachers, but it's a start.  Last week there was major hoopla with the Minister of Education and other dignitaries and a delegation from Burkina Faso, all in a day-long downpour…so much for the dry season. 

I've got my bicycle at last, having ridden it to Zaza from Kibungo where it was dropped off  a couple of weeks ago. Must be old white women on bikes are a rare sight in the villages, based on the open-mouthed stares I got as I pedalled serenely along.   Yesterday I took a ride to see if I could find the place where I've been told a person with a boat will take people across the lake.  I'd never have found it by myself, but along the way I was joined by two friendly boys on bikes who showed me the way, down a series of pathways to the lakeshore where sure enough there was the boat.   There's another volunteer living on the other side of the lake and I've got this notion that I might cycle there some weekend for a visit.  To go by a main road would be very roundabout, not to mention terrifying.  In three hours of cycling, I saw not a single car and only one motorcycle the entire time.  Just lots of kids, chickens, goats, cows, bananas and one really cute little piglet.  I had to stop occasionally to allow myself to be greeted and interrogated, in the friendliest possible way, by villagers.  On Sunday afternoons in the villages a lot of folks kick back and get into the banana beer, become quite mellow and socialize under the nearest shady tree.  

My own garden is still producing and I've harvested my own beans…a proud moment for this short-season northern gardener!  And okra - another first. Word is out that I eat strange things like lettuce, without cooking it, and one of my co-workers has expressed interest in trying some, after being reassured that it won't harm him.  VSO...Bringing cutting edge culinary diversity to the developing world!
Last week I bought a fish from a woman going door to door, thinking of my generally protein poor diet.  It was a fairly hideous fish, with a huge head and whiskers, kind of a cross between a snake and a  catfish.  But I tried to see beyond that and appreciate its inner beauty. On the way home I received lots of cooking tips from passers-by.  So, I cooked it but, sorry to say, it had a kind of bottom of the lake flavour.  Think I'll stick to beans and rice.

This draft has been ripening on my desktop now for a couple of weeks and needs to be sent without further delay.  First though….
Sad news from home. My dear kitty Amina, who was being well loved and enjoying a pampered life with Daphne in Edmonton, died the other day after becoming sick a day before Daphne's birthday and on the eve of their move to Vancouver.  They did what they could, but she's now in kitty heaven.  She was a first rate cat and we will miss her sweet presence in our lives.

This first weekend in July is a long one in Rwanda too, celebrating Liberation and Independence.  First, there was a party at the American embassy, carnival style with hot dogs and balloons for the kiddies and games like throw the bean bag through the hole in the board or break the balloon with the dart.  I did particularly well at the no skill required "fish pond". My Dutch friend, who has made it his mission to attend as many foreign embassy events as possible, was there so we played games and won lots of shiny trinkets, mainly in red, white and blue. 

Next morning five of us, two of my closest volunteer friends and their visitors, set out for Akagera National Park in a rented 4x4.  The park is located in the east, not far from Zaza as the crow flies, on the Tanzanian border, and while not on a par with the Serengeti it is absolutely wonderful.  In some ways it's better despite not having quite the same range of diversity of species.  We meandered happily all day and saw only a handful of homo sapiens.  We saw warthogs, zebras, giraffes, loads of different kinds of ungulates (they could use a lion or two) an elephant, water buffalo, storks and fish eagles, hippos and an astonishingly huge crocodile.  There were also a zillion biting flies which we spent a fair amount of time swatting, but it was all part of the fun.  If anyone comes to visit me here (and please DO!!) a visit to Akagera will be on the agenda for sure.

The end. Till next time.  Hope everyone is doing well, wherever you all are.
Greetings, peace and warmest wishes to all.

P.S. Yes, web wizard that I am, I just for the first time located and read a bunch of comments from various and sundry.  Thanks one and all!  And especially a huge thanks to those of you who got together to support my student.  I don't know how to adequately convey it.  Just know you have done a really good thing. Will try to add a photo of him and his mum, who made a special and difficult trip to the school just to say thanks.  So, I'm passing it on to you all.   She gave me a kilo of ground nuts which she grew, so if you get over here double quick there should still be some to share.