Kagitumba
Friday: today's trip was right to the northern border of Rwanda... and home in time for tea.

James picked me up at 7.30 and we stopped off at Kabuga where he is planning to build a hostel for secondary school girls. He's also started building a bio-digester there. At Kayonza we met with 3 AIC pastors. None has any training but the Kenyan church visits to encourage them from time to time. Their leader has been accused of involvement in the genocide and this has become a real problem for all of them, not to mention his wife with 7 children to care for (4 of their own plus 3). We discuss the orphans I visited last year and (hopefully) convince the pastors that the way ahead is to invite the government to take over the orphan schools; that way, the schools will be for everyone, the orphans more integrated and the teachers will be paid.

At Kagitumba the school is coming along nicely. James has also been working with the community on encouraging kitchen gardens - a mound of earth with kitchen waste in the middle that takes up very little space and should be really productive.

Bugasera
Monday and off to Nyamata. Stayed in a convent right next to the genocide memorial. Didn't manage to visit - there's no escaping the genocide even without visiting memorials. Spent the evening with Timothy the water technician. We speak in Swahili, but most of the time I'm nodding politely as his is much better than mine. Over the next couple of days we travel with Emmanuel by Land Cruiser and Timothy on his Yamaha 100 to look at wells and spring renovations. I show my confidence in his work by tasting the water. Then Timothy explains how he tests it: first by taste, then they leave it overnight and next day try washing with it and cooking with it. If it lathers up OK and doesn't turn the food black then it's OK. He thinks his water testing kit is for swimming pools. We checked on Wednesday and, sure enough, there is a domestic pool testing kit, but also a couple of proper kits left by the refugee organisation from whom we're taking over. All he needs is instructions. We managed to visit most of the sites over Tuesday and Wednesday then returned to Kigali on Wednesday afternoon. Much relieved; it had poured most of Tuesday evening and the car got stuck visiting one of the wells. Also hungry... the restaurant in Nyamata ran out of food after it had served Timothy and our driver while Emmanuel and I looked around the local market.

Our furthest visit was to Embyo where the Arch Deacon, Pastor Stephen thanked me for the rainwater catchment tank that CED had organised. It's a dry area and the nearest 'proper' water source is the lake 35km away. They're keen for a couple more tanks; if tanks are available the government tanker would fill them in dry season. This is a famine area and the children in the primary school are provided with lunch to help them along.

Wednesday evening I went to a Bible study with Karen and Doreen. Mainly professional people from their pentecostal church; well read and fun to be with.

Rwanda
Wednesday morning was off to the airport by taxi in the rush-hour traffic. A couple of hours later the most suspense-filled part of the trip... will my case (originally booked on the evening flight) arrive? Out into the sunshine at Kigali airport and no, there's no-one to meet me. Taxi to the episcopal church then on to Signpost's house on a Kigali hillside (a bit too like a street from Hotel Rwanda... a huge area of the city is red murram roads along the hillsides with houses to one side). The Signpost house has its office downstairs (where I am now) and rooms upstairs (where the t.v. is).

The Signpost Team is headed by Nathan who's always running about, Caren runs the show; she's lived in USA and is great fun, and Doreen from Uganda who just started a few weeks ago. A couple of boys stay here during term time and Caren's cousin Sylvia is visiting. She's a journalism student, 22 years old and knows more about world affairs than I do (OK so that's not hard!). They have a land-rover called Miss Daisy but that's in the body shop because a mechanic tested it a bit too enthusiastically when it was in for service. They're a fun crowd to work with.

Child Headed Households
This morning we visited the Child Headed Household villages that the church is building. Janjagiro is right on top of a hill. Beautiful view with Lake Mchazi in the distance... and that's the nearest water source. So we need to work out some temporary water arrangement to collect from the pastor's roof, then plan tanks for each house.

Next we went to Ruhanga where there are 31 houses built by Signpost. www.signpost-international.org Nicely finished houses with beautifully kept gardens. Not many people about as most of them are at boarding school or local school. It currently takes 3 hours to get water in a jerrycan; of the few people we met, one was ill and one had AIDS, so they could really use a local water source here... they could also use some help improving pit latrines etc. though that's not in CED's project proposal... yet.

Final stop was Kabuga where there are 18 houses; more will be built when finances allow. This settlement is funded by Christian Hope International. www.christianhope.org.uk

This afternoon met the archbishop; at present the church is in the middle of '100 Days of Hope' following the '100 Days of Mourning'. It's now 12 years after the genocide. They've had Joyce Mayer over and the Hillsongs people are coming in July. He's keen to get CED more involved with the church.

So far, the plan is for me to go down to Bugesera for Monday - Wednesday... don't think the internet's reached there... I'll have 3 days to teach Timothy, the water technician who runs the programme, all I know about wells (possibly only need 3 minutes, but I'm sure we'll find other things to do too). Emmanuel who's responsible for the project department will come with me, but probably return here after the first day as his wife is due her first baby any time now.

Next weekend I'll travel with James of RHEPI to visit the school at Kagitumba, his girl's hostel site, then go with him to visit the Kayonza orphans. The last bit I'll really appreciate prayer for. There are 3 or 4 groups of orphans cared for by poor families and we helped them a little last year. Now the leader of the help organisation is in prison and the teachers have given up having not been paid. James is keen that we see whether we can give them a bit more support; if they can be integrated into the general school system (government is keen for orphans to integrate) then they will have free education, but in the past Emmanuel has resisted that idea. I'm hoping to visit him with James to discuss all this, but will take guidance as to whether it would be appropriate.

After going round 5 taxi companies Dominic finally found someone foolhardy enough to take us. We nearly got out of Nairobi before he had a front tyre blow-out. After that things went fine and we saw the Kyalui site before it got dark.

I'm back in Africa. Lunch was fresh fruit salad... we don't food like that at home.
So far I've arrived... a day late because the plane broke down in Glasgow. A comfortable 3 hour sleep in the Schiphol Ibis courtesy of KLM and I arrived in pouring rain last night.

Am staying with Dominic, a Kenyan with a heart for community projects. Strange watching t.v. with people in Mombasa knee deep in flood water, then the next item showing the drought in Somalia. Disturbing to hear reports of a baby getting raped in UK. Kenya now has about a dozen t.v. stations. The country's changing. Plenty criticism of politics and loads of political parties.

Right now I'm waiting for a car to arrive to take me to a dam site; with the rain Dominic is out looking for a four wheel drive... It's 1.30 pm so I'm a little concerned we'll be very late back... but it's Africa and you're not supposed to worry about these things!

Tomorrow it's off to Kigali to see the people there...