Puncture

This week I had one of those experiences that, as you live through it, you are hoping you can remember some of the detail which made it seem such fun at the time.  I’ll see if I can do the event justice.  It was only a small thing really, but something about it got to me!

There I was, on my way to one of my schools, which is about 40mins away by moto.  Safari and I were heading down the Rusumo road (one of the reasons I love this journey so much is that over half of it is on tarmac – the only school I visit that involves a tarmac road!).  We were flying along and I was watching the world pass by.  I was enjoying watching the variety of people walking towards Kibungo (it was market day) with piles of goods for sale; basins full of tomatoes and mangoes, bikes loaded up with plantain...some people don’t seem to make it as far as market as stop to sell to anyone who wants to buy along the way (I always find this very useful if I am having to head in the opposite direction to the market!). After about 10mins, Safari pulled over to the side of the road.  We were next to a small row of houses/shops.  An exchange occurred between Safari and the people at the front of the shops and then he turned around and said “I am sorry Alice”  And then added something in Kinyarwanda that I did not understand.  The situation seemed grave, so I asked in my best Kinyarwanda “There is a problem?” “Yes – tyre”.  I looked down, and sure enough the tyre was flat.  Not surprising really given some of the terrain those wheels pass over!  I got off the back of the bike and Safari explained that he would get his friend to take me the rest of the journey and then he would collect me from the school later.  I said this was no problem at all and began to wait patiently by the side of the road for his friend to arrive.  I was thinking about how stressed this would probably make me feel if I was at home.  All the people I would let down, who would be cross that I had not arrived at work.  I did not get the same sense of panic here – I just got in touch with the head teacher and explained and he said it was no problem.  They would wait. He even laughed. 

Several negotiations took place over the phone and with the surrounding people. Then Safari said his wife was there and it would not take long to fix, so would I wait?  I said yes.  So he took me over to introduce me to his wife and it turns out it was his shop we were stopped next to – he knew all of these people.  We exchanged greetings all around and Safari’s wife told everyone who I was and what I did and then I tried to join in with the conversation (always keen to seize an opportunity to practise my language skills!).  I sat down inside the shop and she offered me a soda (I declined on account of the fact I was full of “Quaker”).  I quite enjoyed watching everything go on out on the main road – it is a busy road as it is the Kigali to Tanzania road.  Many people peered in as they passed as they had heard there was a muzungu hiding in the shop.  Several small children came to shake my hand and I had a brief exchange with an older man who came in for some tea and bread.

P4 learn to tell the time

A small child walked past chewing on some packaging.  This always strikes me as funny as I think about how much she is enjoying it and what we would do if a small child had plastic and cardboard packaging in their mouth at home.  This same child came into the shop with her mother and kept hiding behind her legs if I looked at her.  Eventually it became a bit of a game and we played together for a while until she left.  Then two young women came in and we had a chat about my work.
At one point I looked out to see there were nine men and a boy standing around Safari’s bike trying to fix the puncture.  Everyone was offering advice or lending a hand – one of the men came to get some matches from Safari’s wife and then I saw some flames from behind the bike- were they melting the rubber to fix the hole?  I did not ask.  The final tally of observers was 11 men, two boys and two women.  It struck me as being quite nice that this event had become such a community activity.  No one was in a rush to get off anywhere, they all had time to stop and exchange a few words or lend a hand.  So different to the hectic pace of life in many more developed countries.  Time really is different here.  Sometimes that is frustrating as I want to get things done.  Other times I quite enjoy it.  Another thing I learnt this week about time, is that many schools have a problem with students being late for the afternoon school session.  I was surprised by this – surely if your school day starts in the afternoon you have plenty of time?  But the Head teacher explained, patiently, that the families did not have clocks or mobile phones, so they did not find it easy to keep track of the time.  It is most likely that the children will have been out working the fields or doing other chores for the morning and then get delayed.

P6 students learning about Rwanda's physical features

And an explanation about time...here in Rwanda they use a different way of telling the time to the UK.  The day starts when the sun comes up, so 6am is effectively zero; 7am is one; 8am is two and so on...this leads to me counting up on my fingers when I want to arrange for someone to meet me at a particular time!

P6 students posing for the photo

Other interesting things I have seen this week include the fact that many schools have their own crops.  Many of them grow coffee and some also have bananas, pineapples and carrots.  The children help look after these crops (at the end of the year, the profit from the crops funds a school celebration) and in one school I noticed that as the children arrived they were towing huge bundles of banana leaves behind them.  The entire outside area was full of banana leaves.  There was no one around to ask at first, but at break time, I got a chance to see the reason...all of the children came out of the classrooms at the bell and headed towards the coffee trees.  They lay the banana leaves all around the base of the trees.  Why?  To stop the plants from drying out in the hot dry season we are now in and to hold as much moisture in the soil by providing shade.

As for the puncture, it eventually got fixed and I made it to the school without further incident.