Chick Chick Chick Chick Chicken

A good night’s sleep followed by a good breakfast of omelette and pancakes with jam (not salted) and we were set for the day.

Today we headed into the hills to visit families who had received piglets from the diocesan project. There are no roads to these homes, but we love to walk the hills, the tracks are steep, the surface often loose stones but the local population climb like mountain goats in bare feet or flipflops. Not so sure footed are the two old muzungu in their sandals, the sheer drops were a whole different challenge for Carmen who is not a fan of heights.

As always, we were well looked after and reached the home of Venuste and his wife Jose Marie safely.

Venuste was enthusiastic about the benefits of receiving a pig and gave thanks to God as he told how it will help him keep his two children in school.

We learned that he had been orphaned age 7years, and was left to raise his 4 year old brother. He finds casual work where he can and is proud to work alongside his wife for the benefit of his family.

Despite his early challenges Venuste has managed to purchase a small plot of land to grow crops and construct his own home.

We were shown his pig which he was very proud of, and he told us how he would care for it well and hopes to have many piglets in the future, which will bring long term benefit to his family.  The first piglet will be passed on to another family, another opportunity to spread the gospel and another blessing shared.

Having welcomed us into his home he then presented Bishop Jean Pierre with the gift of a bag of mangos, hopefully some will appear for breakfast tomorrow.

Unusually, going down the track proved to be easier than going up and all to soon we were back at the car which had been left in the prettiest little ‘village’. Sadly, despite the government directive that every child must go to school, there were many playing outside the houses who had obviously received no education.

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Next stop, not quite so far up the hills, was the home of Daniel and his family, they too had received a pig, and he was also delighted to have the opportunity to improve the life of his family.

A quick stop at the guest house to wash our hands and then we wandered up to the school to see the very successful piggery, partly funded by CHI and run by the diocese, which is distributing pigs to the local community.

They currently have 8 grown females with around 50 piglets expected in the next month. The bishop is very fond  of pigs and we spent a good while watching them. They are beautifully cared for and all looked very fit and well. They hope to distribute 300 pigs in three years.

The bishop kindly took us to the town for lunch, the restaurant appeared to have an event and was busy, we ordered chicken kebab thinking it would be a quick option until we were told it would be 1½ hours, no fast food here, we decided to pass on lunch although it took nearly an hour for our pineapple juice to arrive, it was very kind of the bishop to take us out but very frustrating when there is so much to do.

Back to the guest house where we were told we could rest for another 1½ hours (bishop JP is not a fan of the heat and obviously wanted to protect us too) and we would then visit some of the homes where the children had received hens as part of the school feeding programme supported through CHI, which included seeds for a cottage garden and the provision of hens for eggs to the poorest students.

We used the time to begin writing the blog, but as the electricity is off, we may not be able to post it tonight.

Our first visit was next door to the church where we met Maria, she has 3 children and lives in a rented house with no land. We discussed growing veg in a pot or sack outside the house but were shocked to learn that landlords may not allow it, although it seems it is ok to share the home with the hens!!!!

Maria expressed her joy that her child had been chosen to receive a hen, and how excited and thankful her children are when she has an egg to cook for them, such a little thing to us but a real luxury for many here. She thanked God for the gift, and that He had bought us to her home.

Then on through the village, it takes a long time as we are greeted by so many who want to shake our hands, eventually we reached a small house perched on the edge of the hillside, why oh why are there so many sheer drops in Rwanda?

We were once again greeted and invited in, small traditional stools and a bench were hurriedly put out for us to sit on, this was the home of Emmanuel, Saphine and their four children, the eldest is 15, the youngest 3, there was some debate and much laughter over the age of the middle children. This family had also received a hen but sadly it has not yet laid an egg, we requested this situation be monitored and the hen replaced if it does not lay very soon.  

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We were soon joined by Emmanuel’s elderly mother who lives nearby, she was delighted to meet the muzungu who had bought this blessing for her grandchildren.

We were shocked to discover in the course of conversation, that the mother was only 6 years older than Carmen.

Prayers were said and we moved outside for photos, Carmen stayed very close to the wall of the house!!

Walking back to the guest house took a very long time as the children were just leaving school, some were eager to shake our hands, others stood back nervously, one teenage boy was dared by his friends to touch the muzungu, we shook his hand and said hello, he won the bet, whether he received his money we will never know.

The electricity was still off when we returned to the guest house, jerrycans of water were fetched and delivered to our rooms (no electricity equals no water here), as we sat on the veranda typing up notes and continuing the blog to the sound of bleating goats, lights began appearing across the hill, then Pauline had a bright idea, perhaps something had tripped the fuse. A visit to the fuse box and hey presto we had electricity, we hope we didn’t cause the problem!!!

Bishop Jean Pierre is staying at the guest house with us and we took the opportunity to further discuss the work over a delicious spaghetti bolognese which was a welcome surprise for dinner.

Returning to our rooms we bug proofed the gaps around the doors and set to finishing the blog. Unable to reconnect to the internet posting it may have to wait.