02/07/2012
After a small lie-in and a bit of clothe washing, the team
walked to Byumba market where two local friends (Kwizera and Christine) helped
us to buy some fabric. We saw people making shoe soles out of disused tyres and
some people scavenging through rubbish. As well as fabric, we stocked up on
coffee, biscuits and ‘akabanga’ (a VERY spicy peri-peri sauce) and Heather and
Stephanie ordered jackets and skirts to
be made by Friday.
We then headed back to have some lunch before we went to
Kibali parish to take part in some further practical work. We left Stephanie
behind at the guesthouse, as she has not yet had any time off, and she seemed
to be content playing with ‘Pineapple’ the puppet…
The practical work was more mudslinging on the walls of a
newly built house for a gentlemen named Damascene who had lost both legs, one
eye and most of his teeth after stepping on a mine shortly after the genocide. There
were many people working on the house, including Pastor Justin who is now in
Kibali parish and his three year old son Joshua who sang ‘Jesus love is very
wonderful’ to us as we worked. Pete Nadin mixed the mud in the traditional way,
ankle-deep – he’s still trying to get the dirt out of his nails! The rest of
the team were busy getting mud not only on the walls but on each other too, as
well as entertaining the children that were transfixed on these six muzungu
(white people). Hazel and Pete Nadin also spent some time having fun teaching all the cute children songs such as heads, knees, shoulders and toes which they quickly learnt all the words too!
The team were truly humbled by Damascene’s story and were
motivated to work as hard as possible as he said that whether or not the house
was finished he and his family would sleep in it tonight. It is interesting to
think that so many people in Rwanda who do not have as many physical scars as
Damascene are just as severely, although less obviously, scarred on the inside.
P.S. Heather found a cockroach in her pajamas before (not whilst she was wearing them luckily)!
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