Here we are again

Our 20 minute view over Lake Kivu before departing

Those of you who follow the blog regularly must have wondered what has happened to us. Are we still in the land of the living? Why has Stephen stopped writing? What’s going on? Where are we? Well, it’s been somewhat a hectic seven weeks since the last time I wrote. Great happiness with a visit from our friend Helen (she was in Guyana with us) followed by a rush home for two weeks as Mary’s father was very ill and we wanted to see him and then a week of preparation for workshops.

Our rush home started when, after a week of Helen’s visit, we had planned to go to Lake Kivu over in the west. It’s two buses away via Kigali, through the rolling hills and you eventually get there after 5 or 6 hours travelling. We booked our tickets back for Sunday and were walking to Home St John, a beautiful hostel nestled in an outlet on the lake, when we had the call suggesting that we might come home as Dad was very ill. A difficult decision to make but one that had to be done. So, one hour later we turned round, got the bus back to Kigali and a taxi to Rwamagana where we got our passports, packed and got the plane out the next day. VSO had done a brilliant job booking the flights and because it was last minute we got an upgrade to more comfortable seats and a smaller cabin (both ways actually). We arrived home, a little shell-shocked but in one piece! Dad is doing better now and out of hospital so after 2 weeks we made the decision to return and try to finish our placements. It took over 32 hours to get back to Rwanda because our plane from Nairobi via Bujumbura in Burundi, couldn’t land in Kigali due to fog and had to make the journey back, again via Bujumbura again, where we waited for hours, getting back to Nairobi after six hours on a plane and not travelling an inch

Our House left to Helen and Cam

We’ve decided to come home for good when the third term ends in the beginning of November which means we have 7 weeks left. We are determined to have the maximum impact even though we are returning a little early and so we have planned 7 more Methodology Workshops, 14 Planning Workshops, a two day Deputy Headteachers workshop and have been asked to contribute to a Conference for all Headteachers in the District, delivering sessions on Strategic Planning, School Finance and Performance Management for Headteachers – a tall order, I know, in just five weeks because not much can be done in the last two weeks of term due to exams.

We’ll be flitting about on motos all over the place and delivering workshops almost every day.