It's an Azizi Life!

This post marks the start of team RDIS Muhanga's 10 week adventure with Tearfund ICS.  We've nearly spent one week living the Muhanga life!

We arrived in one very humid Kigali for our in-country orientation training which lasted for four days. After much anticipation, the Rwandan volunteers and the UK volunteers finally met and we all bonded instantly. This made it very hard to say goodbye so soon after meeting each other when the teams left for their separate projects. We're looking forward to meeting them again in Kigali to share our different experiences!

During the hour's journey from Kigali to Muhanga we were amazed as the cityscape morphed into the beautiful rolling hills of Muhanga Province. On arrival at our guest house Azizi Life, we received an incredible welcome from the lovely staff and were excited at the luxurious prospect of hot showers after a week of an unreliable cold trickle!

Our first few days were spent exploring Muhanga, including visiting its vibrant market where we were bombarded by unfamiliar smells, strange stares and mutterings of 'muzungu, muzungu'. We also had our first experience of attending a local church called Gahogo Anglican Church, where we received another enthusiastic welcome. We've also been invited to help lead worship there this Sunday.

So far we have been getting closer as a team and we have already shared many funny moments. To name a few -  Ed's daily political "banter", being asked whether or not we're "single and searching" during introductions at the school, a certain team member's failed attempt at frying an egg *cough* Joel *cough*, Allen's ground breaking use of paracetamol for cleaning irons, Honore's distasteful "Oh no" when we placed a pot of good old macaroni cheese in front of him, hilariously competitive games of uno... The list goes on!

'til the next post!