Huye Talking To? Week 2

Week 2

The second week has come slowly, time seems to slow down when you’re up at 7.30am, at work for 8.30am and home for 4.30pm. By now we’re just about finding some kind of routine/structure with the project-work, we split into two groups Adult’s Team and Children’s Team but more on that later...

Some of us were more comfortable with our host families by now, but others still struggle. The weekends and social outings involve a trip to town to some of the local restaurants which provides an opportunity to see more of the beautiful landscapes that Huye has to offer.

For one UK country volunteer week two was a struggle, spending the first week being ill proved to be a challenge, however reading the bible to the children at AMU cheered her up, the lack of resources also hindered a lot of projects, for this volunteer her host home was very different to the UK, the routine and size of the home she was living would take some getting used to.  The language barrier also came as a shock especially since everything needed to be translated.

Another UK volunteer found, that her experiences had been “very good” and with some structure the teams had developed a good understanding of the kinds of expectations that are await us.

For one in-country volunteer, week two was slightly different….. “The second week wasn’t easy” she says, “the best part was that I was getting closer to my fellow volunteers  and we accomplished so many things with the children including creating team spirit between them and teaching them new things. 

We even went to a Sunday school at EPR (Church) with UK volunteers” similarly another in-country volunteer shares her experiences of the second week, “The second week was very active for me, especially when we started meeting the adults group at the banana plantation, it was interesting and felt like I was making a real change.”

Food. Rwandans love the stuff. Particularly carbs. Can’t get enough of it. Plates full, spoons ready, steady, spaghetti, rice, potatoes is what they enjoy the most. Prepare to eat more carbs than you have ever seen in your life. Some of us were lucky enough to enjoy cake for breakfast, I can just about hear mums everywhere gasping at the thought of cake for breakfast. 

Lunch generally consists of rice, noodles, potatoes, cooked bananas and some mushy vegetable stuff. Dinner generally consists of rice, noodles, potatoes, cooked bananas and some mushy vegetable stuff. Meat is available at lunch too (almost always beef) and if we’re lucky the host family will put on a bit of meat for the evening meal. And if you get bored of the rice, noodles, potatoes, cooked bananas and some mushy vegetable stuff, feel free to eat an omelette with chips and beef in it.

UK volunteers have strange eating habits according to the in country volunteers, for one portion sizes are always small, how can they eat so little? Also why don’t they ever add sugar to their tea? What’s wrong with them?  And what’s all this about eating bananas with bread and porridge? -#Ya’llbecrazy

Stay tuned for week 3...