Back in Byumba

It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve blogged. I have always thought quite carefully about what I’ve posted on here and tried to keep the focus on the wonderful people I’ve met during my travels and perhaps have less of a personal focus. Last August my daughter was born and now, at almost one, she’s with me in Rwanda. Life has changed enormously and it seems only right to include more of my own thoughts and reflections now.

I’ve been back in Rwanda for three weeks. There are many things that have happened over the past few weeks that I’ve been too busy to write about; I’ll try my best to catch up a bit in the next few days. When I signed up for this trip, with bub, I knew it would be bit trickier than traveling on my own, but really, I had no idea. No idea.

For starters, I have ten tonnes of luggage. 95% of it is hers. The logistics of moving from place to place are a bit of a nightmare. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have befriended the brilliant people at the American Refugee Committee who have helped a lot with getting us (and luggage) from place to place, but traveling is *far* more stressful than as a singleton. Last weekend we (that would be me, the bub, and The Cripple, a friend and former au pair who joined us 8 days into the trip to help look after the bub and see some of Africa) took a trip to Kibuye which involved local buses. Thank goodness we were the first to load on the bus otherwise there would have been no room for our (small, weekender) suitcase.

Then there’s the problem of keeping clean. Even staying in Kigali (the capital), with hot running water, there is an awful lot of washing to do. Instead of being able to get away with wearing clothes a few days and then washing, virtually everything must be washed each time it is worn as the lovely little miss has a habit of grinding food into my leg while she eats.

For the last couple of weeks we’ve been staying in Byumba, the nearest town to one of the largest refugee camps in the country. Since we arrived here there has been no running water. We are given a bucket of hot water in the morning (and if we’re really lucky in the evening) and have a big container full of cold water. I feel as though only now do I have *any* idea of the difficulties in managing water usage the women here have. With my bucket of hot water, first I mix some of it with cold water. Then I bathe the bub. She hates me for it and screams blue murder the entire time. Then I bathe myself – face first, then smelly bits, then feet. Then I soak the clothes that need washing while I get the two of us ready. Then bub crawls about on the floor, puts dirty things in her mouth and tries to come into the bathroom while I get down to washing. The dirty water is poured in another bucket to flush the toilet. The rest of the bucket of hot clean water is used to first wash up the baby bottles then to wash the clothes. Then the dirty water is poured into the bucket to flush the toilet. I use some of the cold water to rinse the clothes, wring them out and try to find places around the windows to hang to dry. The remaining cold water, already used for rinsing, is left to wash my hands in for the rest of the day.

Did I mention the bub is using four or five washable nappies a day? Plus muslins for cleaning her, plus both of our clothes for the day. It's an awful lot of work. No wonder I haven't found the time to blog until now!

Comparatively though, I’m very lucky. I have hot water (on occasion). I have just one child (not 7-9 as is average here) and no husband to keep clothes clean for. And I have no cooking to do. I have no idea where the women here manage to find time, energy and ability to keep going with such grueling responsibilities.