Rwanda from our eyes

Lake Mugesera from a distance

Visualising the Placement

Rwanda from the roadside

One of the questions you might be asked when you apply for VSO is about your vision of what your placement might be like. Actually, unless you have travelled a lot or done a placement before, it's really difficult to visualise the setting that you might find yourself. We had been to Guyana for two years and we knew that Rwanda would be totally different and we were right! I don't think we were ready to acknowledge before we went how stunningly beautiful both countries are. Shortly after our 60th birthdays, whilst on the back of a moto, heading to a school with Lake Mugesera on the horizon, Mary commented on the view, the "thousand hills" and the amazing panorama and especially how luck we were to be doing just that instead of just settling for the armchair at home.

This section of the blog is just a series of photographs to give you an idea of life in Rwanda as seen from the roadside.

Waiting for the matatu

Shops by the wayside

On their way to the wedding

The best way to carry

Passing the time of day

Work in the fields after school

Construction from local materials

Collecting water

Wash day

Stunning views

Water Pump

Mille Collines

Passing the time of day

Never too young to work

Land of a Thousand Hills

But in the end it becomes home and so familiar during the time you are there. It gets in the blood and under the skin and it's never to be forgotten.