I am now home from Butare after enjoying a wonderful weekend
there. Pam and Prince were my travelling
companions for the weekend. Friday was
full of rain and we all arrived in Butare soaked through and through. After a quick bite at Faucon, a hotel in
town, we resigned to our own sleeping quarters.
I stayed at the Catholic hotel in town and splurged for the room with
hot water. Prince settled in to his new
home, he is beginning university in Butare next week. Pam resided with a pastor friend in town. Saturday I began my day with two
breakfasts. The first restaurant I went
to had no tea, but we had worked so hard to put my food order in I couldn’t
bear wasting the effort. So I took some
bread at the first place then found another which served tea. After which I walked about 2.5km down the
main road to the National Museum. The
museum grounds were beautiful, unfortunately I did not bring my camera along,
and the exhibits were done very well.
There were some very intricately woven baskets on display; baskets are
the main arts and crafts item here. Most
are made with banana leave or papyrus.
They also had a traditional hut which visitors could walk in to and
explore. The traditional housing is very
different from the traditional houses I saw in Ghana, it has been very
interesting to learn the differences between the two countries. Visually they appear similar at first;
however, I am learning culturally they are quite different. In the afternoon I visited Expo Vente which
is a souvenir shop that buys from the local cooperatives. There were many beautifully carved items as
well as some bags and banana leaf pictures.
I attempted to learn more about the cooperatives which made the items
but language and culture proved to be a barrier and I was not able to obtain
too much information. In the evening our
traveling trio reconvened and enjoyed a lovely evening together.
Sunday was the day of churches. Prince and Pam were both in the worship team
for the Sunday morning services. I
attended the English service promptly at 7:30am, then ducked out during the
Kinyarwanda service so I could find some breakfast. Pam spoke during both services; her talk in
the English service was about time.
Something I have struggled to get right.
When people ask about Canada I say we are always out of time in
Canada. In honesty, part of the reason I
returned to Africa is because I had time when I was in Ghana. I was able to spend time with the kids I was
teaching and talk to people in the market because my life wasn’t so
scheduled. This time around I am feeling
like I have a little too much time mainly as I am not working on a project
yet. Not having my day scheduled means I
get less done each day. I hope that I
will be able to find a balance between being productive and being available to
the people around me. Carrying on with
Sunday, we also attended Heart of Worship in the evening. It was a casual worship filled with young
people who wanted to additional praise time on Sunday. The service was followed by tea and
fellowship.
Monday I travelled home to Musanze, about a five hour
trip. It rained briefly but mainly when
I was on buses so I managed to remain dry. The photos included in this post are from the drive home from Butare. Rwanda is often referred to as land of a
thousand hills and it is very true, the drive took us though valleys and over
mountains. The scenery here is
incredible. The full impact does not
come though in my pictures so to truly appreciate it I would recommend a
visit. 
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