And so another visit ends. Thank you Rwandair for an excellent flight, albeit a day late!! After a month on the road it is good to be reunited with our families, and we are both looking forward to sleeping in our own beds. It has been an informative trip with slow days, tough days, laughter and tears. Lots of ideas and so many prayers offered, and still needed. Now we are home and the work startsof analysing all we have seen and trying to prioritise where our support is most

Our last night, our last breakfast, our time in Rwanda is almost over. There was just time for one last meeting this afternoon with two further ex-prisoners who had agreed to come and tell their stories. Jean-de-Dieu and Gajo spent 3 and 7 years respectively in jail, Jean-de-Dieu was charged with embezzlement whilst working for the government, Gajo did not share that information. We heard again harrowing stories of prisoners having been abandoned by their families, walking ar

After a quiet day Sunday, we were delighted when Robert, our field assistant from Byumba arrived to visit us at 7pm. Unable to get to Byumba on this occasion we were delighted to see him. The evening flew by as we put the world to rights over dinner. We had arranged for Robert to stay overnight, and as we headed to bed we were looking forward to meeting with him again at breakfast. Whilst enjoying a leisurely breakfast and discussions with Robert about some of our children in

Yesterday we asked Pacific if he could take us to the service at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kibagabaga as he doesn’t live far from the guest house. He is a lovely, intelligent man who would like to become a pastor, and we have become friends over the last few days. We asked, will your family be coming? Normally they would, he said, but as I will be driving you it will be difficult, he has an 8 seater car and three children!!!! But there is room we said slightly puzzled. The surp

Umuganda is held on the last Saturday of each month from 8-11am, a time of community service when nobody can go out but must stay in their communities and tidy, repair and generally maintain the area, today was Umuganda and so we had a leisurely morning. Pacific collected us at 11.20 to take us to Kibagabaga where we had arranged to meet with some of the sponsored children. Those in boarding school or required to attend Saturday lessons as they prepare for their national exam

Our early start was delayed slightly by breakfast, who knew it would take 30 minutes to produce a boiled egg and fruit, ok, we probably should have known!!! Pacific, our driver for our time in Gasabo was waiting patiently, and we headed to Kibagabaga Cathedral to collect Josiane for the one hour+ journey to Rutunga Parish to visit 7 of our sponsored children, including Pauline’s child Sonia. First, we joined the Gasabo team for their morning devotions and had a surprise meeti

Still no water when we awoke this morning, not a great start to the day. Having received no contact from our partners in Gasabo, and with no idea of the plan for the day, we arrived for breakfast about 8.30am, the table was bare!!! The young lady who seems to run the café came and announced we could have toast, having confirmed they had jam we settled for that and some fruit. It’s a pity I don't like watermelon, but Pauline generously donated her apple. Around 9am our toast f

Our final day in Shyogwe started with a visit to Gikomero Clinic, a church run health facility which has been supported by CHI for many years, in addition to equipment the salary of three nurses are supported. A tour of the clinic revealed a number of areas of need, not least a laboratory without running water or a fridge. There is a great need for additional water tanks as already, just 6 weeks into the dry season, only one of the three tanks has water remaining. The baby in

A long day lay ahead of us today and Bishop Louis Pasteur collected us at 8am for the one hour drive to Nyarutovu School. He had been a pastor in this area for around 10 years, as well as head teacher at Nyarutovu School. He confessed to wondering at the time what he had done to upset the then Bishop, that he should be moved to such a poor and out of the way area. However, he set to, approached and secured funding from overseas partners and made huge improvements to the sch

Cases packed and omelettes eaten we were still none the wiser about the plans for the day, but we still needed to tackle the accounts compliance, so we wandered round to the offices. Fortunately, Odilo who we have known for many years, was already in. His English is good and it was lovely to catch up with him. He is due to retire in September so we may not see him on our next visit. All was going well until he asked what our plans were and how we were getting to Shyogwe!!!!

Not being at all sure what today would bring, only knowing today’s service started at 8am, we headed for breakfast at 7.15 (as requested last night) to find the café not yet open, the young man just recovering his bicycle from the café did his best to help and between us we managed to find a roll and a couple of bananas each, he even made us a cup of coffee. By the time we finished eating the café was beginning to open but it was time for us to head off to church. The bishop

An unexpected Synod meeting left us to fend for ourselves today. Nehemiah’s Coffee Shop is the diocesan catering facility where we had a leisurely breakfast. Sadly, the avocado and omelette we had ordered was just omelette and had probably been cooked when we ordered it the night before. The plate of fruit was tasty though and we finally managed to post yesterday’s blog. The internet in our room is awful which makes working difficult. We have discovered that we can manage wit

This morning we were met by Valerie, Archbishop's wife and head of Mothers Union in Kigeme Diocese, we were off to meet a group of single mothers being supported and mentored by M.U. Arriving back in Karambi Parish (we were at the Health Centre there yesterday) we found Rev. Innocent waiting for us again, this is his parish after all. These young girls are often shunned by their families and communities and find themselves isolated and struggling to survive. Bringing them tog

A civilised start this morning, breakfast at 8am and a short sit in the sun in the car park while we waited for our lift. It was a short drive to the local diocesan Health Post in Karambi Parish (not to be confused with Karambo where we visited yesterday). Opened in October 2024 offering basic level 1 services, they upgraded to level 2 services in February 2026 and now have a maternity room. We were shown the waiting room, the laboratory, where we learned the biggest number

Despite the rather dubious signs on the guest house walls we survived the night. A 6.30am breakfast for a 7am start saw us a little bleary eyed but ready to go as we left the ‘Ubumwe Hotel’ diocesan guest house for the 2.5 hour drive on murram roads to Karambo Parish. Choosing our song title was easy today. The mountains in Kigeme Diocese really do seem to reach the sky, and we found ourselves at the top of so many on our journey, looking down not just into valleys but on to

A leisurely breakfast followed by a short meeting with the diocesan accountant and we were free for the morning. We had scheduled a morning off, time to catch up with reports and take a short break. Contemplating a swim in Lake Kivu we took a stroll down the track to the boat jetty, but not finding any steps to get out again we decided maybe that was not the best plan. The boats were being watched over by a young man with limited English who appeared to be living in a tent on

Kabahire Parish was our destination today and as it is only half an hour up (and down) the road it was a relief to not have an early start. We arrived at Kabahire just after 9am to the most delightful welcome by Rev Vincent and the ladies of the Mothers Union, singing, dancing and drumming. We were presented with beautiful bouquets made from freshly cut leaves and flowers, sadly they had little chance of survival in the heat of the car. The Nursery School children were alread

If you failed to find last night’s blog we are sorry, we really did try but the internet here is slow and by 1.30am we had had enough and gave up. We now have a modem in our room and have managed to upload the post, better late than never. The desire to meet our every need here is second to none even if they are not always able to solve the problem. Ishywa Island is one of our favourite visits, not least because it is accessed by canoe across Lake Kivu with the most stunning

Today we headed to Cyangugu, a 2½ hour drive from Karongi. Bishop Jean Pierre told us he had arranged to meet the team from Cyangugu halfway as we were going to visit a small remote parish before reaching the guest house. After a lovely breakfast we bade a sad farewell to the Karongi team who presented us with bags of Rwandan coffee to take home. We left the guest house at 8.30am, the road is good and there was very little traffic to hold us up as we wound our way along Lake

Howling dogs, cockerels and large magpie type birds on the balcony did not make for a good night's sleep, however a delicious breakfast of avocados, eggs and potatoes soon woke us up. We passed on honey in our coffee after the bishop spooned out the ants, some were still enjoying their feast. At 10am we were to meet with a lady’s group at the church, these ladies are just like us, they meet for prayer, bible study, discussion and to share their challenges, which may not all b

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 sand

Every day brings another surprise here, today’s was certainly different. A delicious looking bowl of porridge arrived for breakfast, a welcome change from omelettes we thought, tucking in enthusiastically proved to be a mistake when we discovered it was flavoured with mushroom and onion, maybe due to the fact that we didn’t finish all the soup we were served last night!!!! We tried to think of it a soup but try as we might we just could not manage more than a spoonful or two,

Up at 6am ready for an 8am departure saw us ready if a little bleary eyed. Last night’s challenge of no bathroom light was not a problem once the sun came up, and we were delighted to find we had hot water. Not so cheering was the discovery that we had mixed up our days and we were not leaving until 9am, we could have had another much needed hour of sleep. Oh well, just one of those things!!! Our first visit today was to Mwali Parish where 100 goats had been gifted last year

Today we moved on again, this time heading south to Shyogwe Diocese where we were to meet Bishop Louie Pasteur for the first time following the retirement of Bishop Jered who had been our partner and friend for many years. We were due to be picked up at 8.30 by Leonard, our main contact, and a driver. As we sat finishing our breakfast a very smart car pulled into the compound, Leonard jumped out to greet us followed by ‘the driver’ none other than Bishop Louis Pasteur himself

Day 7 and we are blessed with a day off, it would be inappropriate to ask our partners to transport us on a Sunday and so we have enjoyed a relaxing day in Kigali. There is an English service at St Etienne’s Cathedral at 8.15am. We are staying in their guest house, so after a breakfast of samosa, boiled egg and fruit, we wandered over to the Cathedral and joined the worship, a little late, although as church filled up slowly during the first half hour we realised we were actu

Ready before breakfast with cases packed, we went in search of the beautiful singing we could hear floating across the hills. It didn’t take long to find choir practice underway in the Cathedral, we spent a lovely half hour sat in the church just enjoying the music, it is hard to imagine why the government would wish to try and muffle such a wonderful sound. What a lovely start to the day. Heading off for breakfast, we were a little surprised to find the dining hall locked u

Today started with the largest omelette we have ever seen and half a loaf of bread….. each, they seem to think we need feeding up, delicious as it was we just could not finish it all. It was a morning of meetings today, all of which start and end with a time of prayer. After a brief meeting with the Bishop we joined the diocesan accountant, the headmasters who oversee the sponsored children, and some of the diocesan team. Increasing accountability requirements which we have a

For anyone who might have been concerned, yes, we did get our omelettes last night. The lights did not come back on but with a torch balanced on the table our faces must have looked scarily white as we ate. There is a fair sized group staying here at the moment, and they joined us in the restaurant, sadly, as we could not see them there was no socialising to be done. We awoke this morning to a bright sunny day, and the electricity was back on, prayers answered. We learned lat

A change of plans this morning allowed some time for reflection. The city of Kigali is changing at an alarming rate, unrecognisable from the Kigali of 10 years ago, Tarmac roads now serve vast areas which once required long journeys on rough murram roads, public transport has improved and bus lanes have been added during the busy periods. New hospitals have been built, slums have been replaced with blocks of flats, and a huge amount of construction continues. The city would n

When you've been up for 36 hours!!! If you couldn't find the blog post from yesterday we're sorry, a technical hitch (old people and technology) saw it posted in the wrong place. All rectified now so do catch up. We left Heathrow at 9.20pm last night, right on time, a direct flight, on a clean and well maintained aircraft. An almost 9 hour flight is never fun, but top marks to RwandAir who looked after us very well, not just efficiently but with smiles and good humour. Cleari