Wednesday 1st February 2017
So after a fabulous road trip, on Monday it was time to drive back to the small community in Rubuguri. I was looking forward to seeing all my friends again but at the same time a little apprehensive… was worried that it wouldn’t be able to live up to my very fantastic (as they say here) experiences of last time.
As I was sitting in the car with these thoughts, it made a terrible noise and we were not able to go any further. I have no idea about cars and not sure what happened but was pretty sure the wheel was not supposed to sit like that!!
Luckily we were not far from town so Amos phoned his mechanic friend who came on a boda after about 40 minutes… he attempted a fix, but after an hour had to give up because he was missing a size 24 spanner – his tool box was not much bigger than a lunch box so not surprised to be honest… Amos phoned another friend who came on another boda from the other direction with the right spanner. Off came the broken part, the mechanic had to take it back to town to fix and then come back to affix.
As you can see from the photos this was the event of the week for the local folks – especially the children found it hilarious! And they stayed there, watching, for the entire four hour ordeal. Whilst we waited we entertained with a bit of music from Jim Reeves! (read back a few posts to understand why!)
It was late when we got back so everyone had gone to bed… I quickly unpacked and did the same. But didn’t get much sleep as one of the most respected men in the community had passed away that day and the burial process had started. Here the community members will go and sit/stand/lie outside the house of the deceased to keep them company until they are buried… And to make sure that people are not bored there’s beers and loud music… VERY LOUD music…. ALL night! Felt a little like they wanted to see if they could wake him up again!
Anyway, the burial was today – attended by around 500 people (he was 80 something with over 100 descendants apparently) – so this should be the last night of music – fingers crossed!
So, today was my first day back volunteering, and already yesterday I knew it is going to be different from last time because of lots more volunteers and a change in management.
But what has not changed is that it’s still incredibly beautiful here, the local people are still very welcoming and friendly – it feels nice and familiar…
We do have some power and hot water challenges though, so ‘shower’ this evening was a bucket of hot water to pour over myself with the torch in my phone lighting up the shower room… This Is Africa (TIA) ☺️
BETINA IN AFRICA 