First though, these are some shots of the inside of the house.
The back bedroom that I use as a walk-in wardrobe. I hang items in loops in the line or wrap the line around the hook part of hangers.
I use a bedroom at the front of the house, it is slightly smaller, but it does have a mattress on a bed frame!
My Kitchen – Diner is off the lounge. Two of my three jerry-cans used to get water twice per week can be seen. This costs me 400RwF (c40p) for collection and delivery.
I leave the house and make my way down the drive to the locked gates.
The view to the left as I approach the gate is
With the houses opposite mine as shown below
From the gate I join the dirt track road turning right out of the gate towards the main road and town centre and join those going to work or to school at 7 a.m..
To my right as I walk along is my next door neighbour’s home.
I walk further along and pass the home that has many goats and grows bananas, plantain and other crops behind their rudimentary house.
I approach the location where there are two major groups of artisans who produce furniture in wood, see the huge pile of shavings and sawdust at the back of the workshop.
Opposite on the LHS of the track there is another workshop that produces furniture and also metal doors and window frames. The welder also repairs bicycles and welds new fittings to them as well.
Here, just in front of the white van, I turn left off the track onto the footpath past the water pump, there is also with a huge pile of sawdust.
Beyond the metalwork is the place where the moto taxi drivers get their motor bikes washed until they gleam. This is hard work but the cleaners always seem busy. Keeping your moto taxi clean is both an issue of pride and to encourage passengers to use a clean moto.
I walk to the right of the water pump, always a place where they greet the muzungu and, I suspect, try to make fun knowing that my Kinyarwanda is too insecure to realise when they are joking. Tone of voice gives it away and I make light of it!
Once past the pump the path weaves its way through small holdings
behind the Adventist church
Past the communal long drop toilet
To a junction where I turn left.
I walk towards two buildings, second is the local party HQ, bearing right towards a T-junction with wide dirt track that to the left leads up the hill towards the District Office.
At the corner on my left is the basic home one of the families that always greet me each morning, lunch time and evening. Here washing is out to dry on the hedge.
As I walk up the hill I pass two kiosks that sell all sorts of produce. On the right
And to my left
Having passed the kiosks I take the right hand fork, the left hand one goes off to Nyaburuye Primary School and Gabiro High School (secondary).
By this time the road is getting steep. It is not too bad in the morning as even on hotter mornings I can keep left in the shade of the trees for much of the climb.
To my right here is an open space that seems to be common land. The local driving school has a route set up and the instructor sets out cones to drive between, a parking space bounded by cones to reverse into, etc. The learners get to learn off road to the benefit of others! Especially useful as I have seen many flatten cones!
I walk towards the recently constructed restaurant on the RHS of the track. They are still adding extra buildings. At present they are building the small cubicles that are used for private dining in Rwanda often with a curtain of beads, wood, etc at the entrance.
On the side of the entrance there is the Mutzig advert – “The taste of Success”
Continuing up the hill towards the “ibiro”
I decide to show the view of the garden behind the restaurant on the RHS. This is quite unusual as there are flowers laid out in beds. Most of the work on the land in Rwanda is to cultivate food crops.
The house on the LHS has two little children who always say “Good morning” and ask “How are you”?
This usually alerts the children from the houses opposite and behind the kiosk to ask the same. They always also say “bye –ee” when I walk home at lunch time and in the evening.
This is their home with the rendering having fallen off showing the mud bricks and tree branches used as supports for the walls and roof, their goats are always in the area eating!
Across from the top of the road up the hill the education office is visible as the LH end of the building in the centre.
At the corner the road up the hill meets a substantial and wide dirt road. This is a turn off from the main road as it enters Kabarore, and as it comes up the hill it passes the old Health Centre and new hospital (opened in April just after I arrived). The now vacant health centre is to be used as office space for some of the district staff as more office space is needed as the area is developing rapidly. The sign for the newly created office of the Rwandan Revenue Authority (equivalent to HMRC in the UK) can be seen pointing left. This avoids having to travel to Nyagatere to conduct tax affairs or pay for a service. You pay the fee get a receipt and then take this with the inevitable 2 passport photos to another office / location for the service.
Walking up the hill you come to the office of the bureau for women’s services
and then bear right past the newly built toilet block – a significant improvement on the previous “facilities”
As you approach the “ibiro” the large plastic water storage vessels used to collect rainwater from the bureau roof can be seen.
Finally the District Education Office is reached.
The building has a sign showing its purpose in Kinyarwanda
Frédéric Rutebuka the DEO can be seen working at the office PC with me behind no doubt just having shared some IT point with him!
The office is small and Claudine manages to organise the filing despite the shortage of space. She always seems to know where things are. John Gatete, HR can now be seen at the PC.
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