Postcards from Gitarama

Looking across the big stadium to the hills beyond. Somewhere beyond all the hills is Lake Kivu (see later photos)!

From near my flat, looking across to the Catholic church in Rwanda's headquarters at Kabgayi. Besides the cathedral here there are at least four schools, a seminary, workshops for the maintenace staff, a printing workshop, and craft workshops as small business startups.

Looking towards the small stadium. This is where the Tuesday Gacaca courts are held.

This is the Bureau du District de Muhanga, otherwise known as my office. I work in the new extension on the left; far left hand window! This shot taken at seven o'clock in the morning; in another hour the place would be heaving with people coming to get forms signed, ask for jobs etc. And it stays like that till about four in the afternoon.

The street outside Karen's house. This is pretty typical of a back street. Unpaved, and with a storm drain a good 2 feet deep. It's unlit at night, and the drain is a lethal mantrap for the drunk or unwary! Further up the hill the drain runs in the middle of the road and is covered with dubious planks which move beneath your feet and feel as if they'll give way at any moment. Also, they're treacherously slippery when it rains; you've got wet wood coated with a vener of mud. Lovely.....

This is Karen's house. You can tell she works in Special Needs education because of the coloured blocks on the front porch. We use beer and fanta bottle tops for teaching counting, so every time we have a drink we keep the tops. It's also a good excuse to go to a cafe for yet another drink!

The Catholic church has a broadcasting station with national coverage. Fortunately the studios are here in Gitarama. We're wondering if we can get them to help us compile school broadcasts so that we can have native English speakers heard in even the remotest primary schools.

A long shot lookign down past the matata park towards the town centre. Most signs and hoardings here are in both Kinyarwanda and French, and a lot are in all three languages with English.

This is the main central crossroads in Gitarama in the middle of a hot Saturday market day. The main market is out of sight in front of you (I haven't dared to take any pics there yet). The lorries park by this building site waiting for people to hire them.

This sight is so common that after a few weeks you don't even notice it. Most of the long distance lorries passing our flat will have hands of bananas draped over the girder frames.

P.S. until you've tried picking up one of these, you've got no idea just how heavy they are!

Deluxe, secure local transport.

Home-made wheelbarrow used by market porters. The wheels squeak like crazy. Note the rubber straps (recycled cycle inner tubes) used to tie on heavy loads.

Rwandan beehive in a tree. Unfortunately you can't get the honeycomb out without breaking up the entire hive.

Traditional round hut and rectangular modern hut side by side. Took this at Claude's weddign reception on long telephoto, so picture may not as clear as it should! Round huts are now very rare indeed.