Hannah in Rwanda: Up Hill and Down Dale

The wind has suddenly swept up, throwing birds off their course and laundry off fences promising an imminent rain shower. And so I am briefly trapped inside, giving me the opportunity to finally get around to writing my blog. I am so sorry to have neglected you for so long, but more has got going around here than just the weather and I have been rushing about like a made person trying to keep up with all the work that needs to be done.

So what, I hear you ask, is that work then? Well, mostly I have been harnessing myself to my moto and jetting off around the district (jetting might be optimistic as its hard to get up a speed on dirt tracks riddles with craters but you know what I mean) to visit the 14 Secondary Schools here, all of which have Anti AIDS Clubs which the project has been supporting for the last year. Amidst many a bumpy ride, rocky road, sudden rain shower and of course ridicule of bemused Rwandan I have had the chance to see how all of these clubs are getting on. And with the odd exception this has mostly been great fun and incredibly encouraging with huge clubs squeezing into tiny classrooms with no electricity performing fantastic songs, dances, theatre and poems carrying messages about HIV and AIDS. Sadly at times I was roped into giving a little shimmy myself - yes, yes, highly entertaining for everyone but not a pretty sight to be sure, the Rwandan cow dance is not something I am yet able to do justice to as you will see below!

But this was not just a show for me to enjoy (although clearing my ear to ear grin gave away the fact that I was thoroughly entertained!), it gave me the chance to find out how the clubs were doing, what difficulties they face in meeting their goals and to think about how we might solve them. Of course we wont be able to solve everything but hopefully between their enthusiasm and my tiny pot of money (with a giant thinking cap and lots of brilliant colleagues) we might be able to comes up with something...

But it hasn't been all work! Two weeks ago one of the youth volunteers had a birthday so this was a great excuse for a group gathering and off I trekked to the Southern Province and a town called Gikongoro where Samira (birthday girl) works. There I met up with the other 6 youth volunteers for a weekend of creative culinary activity (it comes from loving to eat!) and walking in the stunning hills of Southern Rwanda, where we were never alone for long (see Mel below sharing her photos with some of our excited companions!).

All of this did remind me how lucky I am to be working in such a beautiful country where just wandering in the countryside is breathtaking.

And what now? Well we are working towards the events in Nyagatare for World AIDS Day then I am off to Kigali for training in a couple of weeks then down to Kibungo to train new facilitators who will support the Anti AIDS Clubs. So it doesn't stop and time is flying by. And of course I have gone on for far too long again without telling you about my friends the geckos, my race against the rivers of water entering my house every time it rains, my guard turning my garden into a small subsistence farm and the road of cuddles (where children dive out of anonymous doorways to hug the approaching Mzungu!). But this is enough for now...