Settling in

Sunday 22nd January

A couple of things I forgot to mention in the last post.
The Community is building a school opposite the Community House, it is due to open tomorrow with the first intake of 25 children. last week there were exams for teachers, English, French and maths. The English paper was not well written, apparently produced by someone in Uganda, the questions were ambiguous and with words spelled incorrectly.  It will be interesting to learn who the successful applicants are.

One day Marilyn and I were asked if we knew what a certain large yellow object was, a pumkin we declared, is it fruit or vegetable was the next inquiry....veg we said, is it betther cooked a sister asked.  Apparently they´d tried it raw!  We showed how to cook it.

Friday, as planned we were ready before 6 to journey north, but as breakfast was prepared it was some time before we left Masaka, so were caught in rush hour traffic, then a stop at another Community house where we left some passengers and collected others.  It all got rather confusing.  I knew the journey would take some hours, and it did, with stops for refreshment, phone top ups and passing the time of day with known folk etc along the way.  Eventually we reached Gisenyi and parked  right by the border with DRC as some of the sisters were going across to visit people in Goma.  Then to Busasamana where we were greeted by the sisters and postulants beating drums and singing a welcome.

We didn´t know what the program was but were treated to lunch, rabbit, then I unpacked whilst Marilyn watched until called to return to Masaka.  After dinner the postulants wanted to sing and dance, I was dragged to my feet and managed a few minutes leaping, I was tired so glad to go to bed.

Monday 23rd Jan

The weekend I´ve spent getting used to the routine here, I decided I´d go to Evening Prayer but using my C of E liturgy. It´s nice to hear the religious and postulants singing, all their choruses are extremely high, wouldn´t do for me. Two of the postulants have only been here a fortnight, it must seem very strange to them, they are from Congo and have very little English.
The sisters keep trying to press more food on me at every meal, they are perplexed by my chosen small portions, although I pigged last night on salad and the best chips ever.  The sisters like to chat and play cards after dinner and before night prayer. I had to teach them how to play snakes and ladders which they enjoyed hugely.

Internet or lack thereof is a headache, Marilyn says she´s given up but I shall soldier on and visit the village today in the hope of finding someone to help
It´s a lot cooler here at Busasamana, need jumper and very glad to have 2 blankets on the bed, what a difference to Masaka which is basking in the mid 30s.

Thursday 26th
First week nearly over, the students are so quiet in class that I can hardly hear them, but when we go outside to play a game they lose all inhibitions.  Tomorrow they will have a test so I can gauge just how much English they know and aren´t just repeating what they learnt last year.

Outside one of my windows are two large graves, in 1998 there was a resurgence of trouble post genocide and five sisters were murdered.
This is a very peaceful area though, but very wet!  It rains heavily every day.  From the other window I can see the Volcano Nyiragongo across the border, it´s active and has been rumbling lately, at night the red glow is visible, quite exciting really, although of course I´m not wishing for a full blown eruption.

Tuesday was washday, all the sisters and postulants were in the garden with bowls of water scrubbing away with much chat and giggling.  After lunch they all went into the fields harvesting beans, they were very tired after so no games, straight to bed.

My room is a good size, it has a wash basin also a bucket and bowl.  Apparently the sisters ask when you want to wash and they bring hot water which you use in one of the showers with much sloshing.  I´m ok though with the shower, albeit cold and not too comfortable to wash hair under at 6am.  But I´m afraid the lack of a flushing loo I find difficult. You hve to fill a bucket with water to flush....added to which the loo is in the shower block along the corridor, not good in the night for gentlefolk of a certain age.

I´ve walked into the village several times this week, primarily to spend spend spend on printing and internet access.  The phone man was startled as I´d used one months internet in 2 days!  I´m feeling embarrassed!  Walking back on Friday I was concentrating on not slipping on the wet track and managed to walk miles out of my way, I thought the surroundings looked different!  Eventually managed to converse with a chap who pointed me back to Busasamana.

I have booked a room in Gisenyi next weekend and have a driver more or less sorted so something to look forward to....hot shower and hot bath, flushing loo, g and t and a glass or two of something, but no beans,......also the Anglican Church Sunday morning for the Communion service.

Think thats enough for now.  Will try and upload some pics later.