Cassava Balls and Animal Friends

Over the past week we went back to Byimana in Ruhango to help this family finish building their house. We were meant to go help a different person but at their meeting the self help group had decided that this families needs were greater than the other and so an umuganda was organised for them which is what we were a part off. This umuganda meant that the family were able to save money on labour and use it to buy slates for the roof and a mental door which would otherwise have been impossible. As usual byimana was welcoming and it felt like the team were returning home. Unlike some of the field days we have had we were all optimistic that this would be a lovely day and indeed it was. We made some new friends, one of whom even invited us to her house and fed us avocado and cassava croquets which the boys loved and anyone who knows me knows my love for avocados. Yummmmmie.

How beautiful is Byimana!

Lol. this is so much a part of african culture and you are bound to see it happening whatever part you are in, be it South Africa, East Africa , West and North Africa. Carrying a child on you back is a beautiful thing except in this instance when the child is terrified of white people since she has never seen them before in her life and i am there asking Lauren.. My very white african sister to take a picture for me. As soon as Lauren would walk away or i would turn the poor baby away from the muzungu's she would be happy and smiling again. She is such a beautiful little girl even though she did wet herself whilst i was carrying her thus peeing on me in the process.

 The majority of the building on the house had been done the first time we had gone there and so that day we had to level out the house and ensure that they would have a flat surface. This was harder that it sounds since some of the rooms had a steep gradient. 

 When the work started finishing me and Lauren decided to walk around the village a bit and just meet some of the local people, We came across Billie the goat (yes i am so original) and he was such a sweetheart that i immediately fell in love. How adorable is he?

Not to be left out Lauren also made friends with this cow and to hear her say it, "it is the most beautiful cow ever". She was so in love with it that the owner and our friend offered to sell it to her to take back home to Scotland with her or maybe it could become her sponsor cow and she could makes several trips a year to visit it! Seeing and meeting all the animals both wild and domestic has been one of my highlights of being here in Rwanda. #veggieforlife #yogilifestyle

Our friend showed us the avocado trees, rabbits and pigs that help her earn a living since ever husband unfortunately passed away a few years ago leaving her to raise her four kids alone. She was so happy and welcoming and even fed us avocado and cassava balls. I dont know whether it was the love behind them but they were some of the best avocados i have had. Seeing as how i have one a day that is saying something !

All the community member that helped us make the umunganda for the  improvised family.

 On the way back home we also stopped off to see the Kitchen Garden that we had constructed in the first few weeks here for one of the ladies of the community. Though they had not started using it yet its was looking fantastic and lovely and ready for when planting season started.

 How have you guess been? I hope you have enjoyed catching up with what i have been up to here in Muhanga. I only have a short time left and though i have had some ups and downs, i have enjoyed my time here and i will be a bit sad to leave. I am busy trying to finish up all the projects that we started and also saying some tearful goodbye to my new friends.

I will talk to y'all soon and love y'all

Issie xox 

Laying Bricks

One of the things i have really enjoyed being here in Muhanga has been the different projects that we have been engaged in. The most fun and the one where i can see a visible difference in the work that we have just completed has to involve the making if the bricks and throwing mud on the houses which i will share you guys in a post to come. We visited this house three times and the pictures below show the first time we went to built the bricks

I dont know if i will ever use the manual skills that i have learnt whilst being here but i know that the welcome that the different communities have shown us and the way that they all come together to help the poorest of that community try to better their own lives will stay with me throughout my life and hopefully i too will try to help the poorest in my community when i am back in England. Its really is inspiring when you see 10 or more people come together to do a sort of Umungada for the local poor people and they are all so happy to see both the UK volunteers and the Incountry volunteers getting involved. I think it amuses them a bit to much though sometimes seeing the muzungus playing with mud.

Some of the local children came by to see what we were doing!

Right from the start i was determined that i was going to contribute my all and would give all that i could. When push came to shove though i succeed in my mission, i have to admit that it was hard. The sun was scorching and it was barely 9am when we started and so that in itself meant that combined with the high altitude the difficulty level rose by at least 3 or 4.

We started with digging up the soil so we could get it ready to be made into mud thus enabling us to make our bricks. This was hard since the surface we were digging was made up of mostly stones and the hoes that we had kept on breaking so there was a fear that it might just fly of and hit some one thus taking of an eye.

Once there was enough soil dug up we them mixed it with the water that some of the boys got from the river to 'cook it' as the men there told me. I was really good at this thanx to my thunder thighs and trust me its a work out. It felt like i was doing about 100 swats that day and the next morning i was feeling it in my thighs. You have to hold on to a stick of a hoe in order not o get stuck in the mud and you just kind of do a funny dance. :)

We were then given a would rectangular wooden box which we filled with water and the 'cooked' mud to make the bricks. After a bit of a shake and wiggle , they come out looking good and by the end of the morning i was working at it like a pro.

Not going to lie i was almost sad to go home when we left since i had been having so much fun. But they had promised that they were going to take us to see the artificial lake. It is called Idel. Legend has it that it was actually created by the former Rwandan Kings and that there lives in it a snake that used to guard said King.

The lake it self whilst pretty was not that impressive when you consider it was built by a King for future Kings. But our group being the 'athletes that we are decided that we would use it as an opportunity to practice our jump shots and hence the following pictures.

I am quite proud of this one since the majority of us actually managed to get of the group if you discount Lauren and Hubby.

Its was an amazing experience and thank you so much to the community of Shylgwe. And thank you to Apaulinet, the man who allowed us to help build his house. Its was humbling meeting him and hearing his story and may God continue to bless him.

I will talk to y'all soon and i love y'all

Issie xox

Team Night

A while ago we decided that since we were leaving here as two teams we wanted to have some alone time for our team so we could get to know each other better and just bond by ourselves like the other teams get to do everyday.. and so the idea of team time was born. The majority of them we spend chit chatting and playing .. jungle speed, uno and monopoly (which i am the reining champ :P) or watching a movie but i decided to change things up a bit so i wiped up some face paints and had fun with my team mates faces. I have to say i am pretty proud of the dog,witch and pirate AND I CAN see why people are scared of clowns now!! What do you guys think? shall i quit my day job.

Patrick, Lys,me, Rueben and Lauren

She makes such an adorable bunny rabbit!

Am i the only one who thinks that hubs look a bit like bradley copper here?

Lys decided that she didn't want to be a nice bunny nomore and so put on some scary teeth for added effect.

I dont know why but Emmanuel makes the scariest clown i have ever drawn!

But team night is an awesome concept and i would urge you all to incorporate it somehow into your lives as its time to decompress and just have fun the good old fashioned way. This could be with your family to reconnect or some housemates for some innocent fun. Please tell me if you do this or even if you try it just once.

I will talk to y'all soon and love y'all

Issie xox

Chicken chicken chicken.

Whilst here in Rwanda, we have all had some foods or drinks that we have missed from home.. me its an Soy Iced Caramel Latte, Green Juice and Japanese food and for Lauren its a nice glass of cold orange juice and anything made by her mummy the infamous Peggy Martin.  But the one thing all the Uk volunteering myself excluded seeing as how i am veggie are missing is Nando's or chicken in general. It would seem that Africans and  Rwandans in particular whilst loving chicken can't really afford it so we haven't been fed chicken the whole time that we have been on placement, unless you count the time that we had our team lunch at Chantelle's.

A.E.E we kind enough to want to supply us with dinner and when they asked what we wanted my answer was straight forward, Orange Fanta, Chips and Avocado with an omelette for protein. My wish was fulfilled as well. yummy!!!! The rest of the teams screamed for chicken and A.E.E doing the amazing work that they do actually managed to supply chicken that tasted as good as the Nandos chicken at home. Though i suspect this might also been due to depravation leading to no taste buds.

How amazing does this food look !!

My avocado and chips as ordered.

lys cheeky smile as she realises she is first in lincs for the chicken!!

I think we all had seconds as well :/

Thank you so much A.E.E for providing us with such amazing opportunities such as learning about and constructing kitchen gardens, building a house or two for people and most of all for treating us like family.

I will talk to y'all soon and i hope you are enjoying you weekend.

Issie xox

Umuganda

From as far back as i can remember my dad has always talked about how through Umuganda he helped build all the main roads leading up to his town. His blood, sweat and tears forever drained for this purpose. It was very interesting and rewarding for me to many years later to take part in my very own Umuganda. Be it in a different community.

Umuganda can be translated to mean 'coming together to achieve a common outcome'. It normally takes place on the last Saturday of every month. This is when all the members of the community; friends, family and guests all come together to do something that will better improve their community. Be it making roads like my dad did as a young man or simply clearing the watering well like we did.

More often than not all Rwandans between 18-65 are obliged to participate in Umuganda and even expatriates living in Rwanda are encouraged to take part. Umuganda is a very special part of Rwandan culture and one that i hope will continue on for ever since the value of it is evident to see and is immense.

At the end of umuganda we all came together to pray and give thanx for everyones hard work. A local village court also took place since one of the village accused another of intentionally throwing his clothes down a toilet. The village found the accused guilty and she was fined 50,000 Rwf as well as told to leave the village since the other village member were scared she might throw their children down the toilet pit.

After doing the Umuganda we had out first team lunch away from the other group. We all got dolled up and made our way to chantel's for chicken and chips. This being africa the food took 2.5 hours to arrive but at least it was fresh and tasted amazing, though this might have been due to the fact that we were so hungry and tired.

As you can all tell i married a comedian or an idiot. I will leave you all to decide.lol :)

Reuben aka Hubby being his special self :P

I am off now so i will have to talk to y'all soon. Love y'all

Issie xox