Happiness, pineapples and coffee

Well, it’s been quite some time since my last blog post, so sorry if you have almost given up on me!  Things have been very busy for both good and bad reasons, and it has been hard to find the time to sit down and write all about it.  I shall endeavour to catch up on some of the events in the next couple of weeks.

Rainy season has at last finished and moto commutes are now a dusty affair once again.  However, they are also spectacular in the scenery they offer.  There is something so beautiful about the green hills of Rwanda set against a beautiful blue sky – even at 7:30 in the morning.  That’s not to say the rainy season views are worse – they offer their own beauty – for example, in the way that you can be riding above the clouds on a cool morning or to see the spectacular force of a downpour upon nature.

I have noticed changes as I ride along.  Firstly, the crops which were planted some time ago are starting to be harvested.  Beans are once again being carried in huge bundles on the heads of men, women and children.  Ready to take home and dry out and then release the beautiful coloured beans within.  Coffee cherries which have been slowly ripening since I arrived are starting to be harvested.  Coffee trees have been stripped naked in some places and the beans are now ready to be sent away for manufacturing and packaging.  Rwandan coffee really is incredibly good, so if you find some – try it!  As I look at the bare coffee trees, I wonder how much money the farmers got for their crop.  I wonder do they know how much coffee sells for in places like the UK?  Sometimes I tell people here how much we are willing to pay for a cup of coffee and it almost seems vulgar.  They always look at me in shock and disbelief.  It’s the same when we discuss UK prices for mangoes, avocadoes and pineapples – all of which are incredibly cheap here.

Talking of pineapples...today I went to visit a school I had not been to yet.  The Head Teacher invited me as he would like me to come and work with the staff at the school.  I arranged my meeting and set off this morning.  It took over an hour to reach the school, but the scenery was spectacular.  I travelled through parts of the district I had not been to yet – passing Lake Mugesera and Lake Sake in the distance, and finally stopping near Lake Rweru – which forms part of the border between Rwanda and Burundi.  The school is one of the largest in the district with well over 2000 students.  It is set in really beautiful grounds with plenty of shady trees and nicely landscaped gardens with neat paths leading up to the classrooms.  Most of the buildings are very old, but they were very well looked after.  There was even outside space for a football pitch and a volleyball pitch and the Head Teacher is trying to get the money to build a handball alley.  They also grow crops of soya beans, maize and keep a cow (which has recently had a calf).

Anyway...back to the pineapples briefly...along the way we passed field upon field of pineapples.  I had wondered where they all came from on market days – they are so plentiful – yet I had only ever seen small patches of them growing.  To my own shame, I have to admit that I had not seen a pineapple plant before coming to Rwanda.  Nor had I wondered what one looked like.  For those of you that have not seen them, there is a (not very brilliant) picture of them here.  The pineapple looks completely incongruous – as though someone (maybe the pineapple fairies?) have come along in the night and plonked a pineapple on top of the plant.  People were busy working in the fields harvesting those that were ready and there were plenty for sale along the roadside.  Looking at all this and thinking of all the crops I see as I ride about the district something struck me for the first time...absolutely no one puts a fence around their crops.  And no one appears to steal their crops from the fields.  At home we are so fiercely protective of what’s ours that it would have walls and gates and all sorts surrounding it.  But not here.  That’s one of the other beautiful things about this country.  People are so honest.

Along the way, I saw lots of houses.  In one area, the houses were built in very straight “side streets” off the main dirt road.  All of the houses were identical and had a neat garden surrounding them.  In one small village there were three streets like this, each with about 20 houses along them.  It was so different to anything else I have seen.  A bit later on I saw more of them and then saw a sign to say that they had been built by the UNHCR.

A bit dusty and dishevelled after the moto ride
 - but still getting stares!

Back in the village, I created quite a stir.  I was apparently the first white person (or “white man” as many of the children were calling me) to visit the school (I am not sure this can be true), and the children were completely fascinated.  The Head Teacher walked me into town at lunch time to buy some brochettes and along the way it was not just children that were startled by me – it was the adults too.  But then, this is a place that is over an hour from the nearest main road, so not many people will pass through.

And so with our first meeting complete, I was back on the moto home.  It certainly wasn’t the most comfortable of roads, but I think I was smiling all the way home thinking what a privilege it is to be having some of the experiences I am having whilst I am here.  The commute alone is always incredible and the people I meet nearly always make me laugh or smile.  There is a lot of hardship in Rwanda and a lot of things are not perfect, but it seems quite easy to be happy here.