My Week

It's been a while since I last posted! The internet hotspot has been pretty terrible, so getting online has been a bit of a pain. In the past week, I have had a trip to Kigali, some Congolese music, lots of Congolese food, wine and a mysterious disappearing towel...

On Sunday, Libby and I went to Kigali to meet the Treasurer, Fundraising Officer and HIV Programme Director of RVCP, who are all currently on placement in Kigali at the University Hospital. So we got a bus at 7.30am, and journeyed for 2 hours through the beautiful landscape of Rwanda.

We arrived in Kigali about an hour early so decided to have a snack at a milk-house. I have decided that I actually really like the ikivoguto (sour milk/yoghurt) which is so popular here. At first I never thought I would be able to drink half a litre of the stuff (which is how you buy it - asking for any less is unheard of!) but at breakfast this morning I did. Turning into a proper Rwandan now!

We met Thomas, Theoneste and Richard at the hospital after an adrenaline filled moto taxi ride from the bus station. Kigali is pretty chaotic and there don't seem to be any rules on the road, but we made it in one piece. Our training session focused on Communication Tools, and aimed to recap the things that Emma and Eleri, the previous long-term BVDA volunteers, taught.

Richard, Libby and Theoneste deep in a GoogleDocs conversation

The training session, which lasted most of the day, was really successful. Thomas, Theoneste and Richard were engaging and remembered everything that Emma and Eleri had introduced. We had a really great discussion about how RVCP can be stronger and how each of their roles can contribute to this. It was also very interesting to talk about the Rwandan government's Vision 2020 strategy, to turn Rwanda into a middle-income economy and to reduce poverty, and how this kind of long-term strategy could be adopted by RVCP. Vision 2020 not only details a plan for Rwanda's development, but also shows the international community that Rwanda has strong leadership and a strategic governance, and this same idea could be applied to RVCP. A long-term strategy would not only provide aims and intents, but also make RVCP more attractive to international donors. It was inspiring to see how Thomas, Theoneste and Richard could identify this and to try and think of ways to make it work for RVCP.

Richard, Thomas, Theoneste and Libby

Me, Richard, Theoneste and Libby

We have also had some great food. Miri invited some Congolese friends over on Saturday evening, who cooked us some traditional Congolese food. This also involved listening to Congolese music and of course our favourite Rwandan music from The Urban Boyz...

The food was incredible. We had omelette, rice, dodo (leafy green vegetable), ubugali and a pea/vegetable casserole. 

On Sunday evening, we also made Mexican - guacamole, salsa, spicy cabbage and butter beans, chapattis and caramelised carrots. The power was out, so we sat cooking and drinking wine by candlelight.

As for the mysterious missing towels: Libby and I both had towels stolen (from our locked compound...) the other night. This is seriously frustrating, but at least the market sells second-hand beach towels, so my new project is to find the most hilarious beach towel possible....