Last month I received an invitation to go to Kamembe in south-west
Rwanda to offer advice to Music as Therapy International (a UK-based charity) who
are considering starting a project very similar to the CBO I run in Gulu; Music
for Peaceful Minds (see MPM blog musicforpeacefulminds.blogspot.com). Gareth and I decided that we would drive down
there en famille and stop on the way at a lake we have been longing to visit. Lake Bunyoni is a tranquil, restful place
where the water is clean enough for swimming and there are no crocs or
hippos. People move around on dug-out canoes
and go from island to island going about their business of fishing or tourism
or just going to school. One of the
islands used to be a leper colony and is now the lake’s primary and secondary
school and one of the islands (only a few metres squared) used to be called ‘Punishment
island’ where pregnant unmarried girls were sent with no way of getting food or
shelter. If they were ‘lucky’ they would
be rescued by a man who didn’t have enough money to buy a wife in the usual
way.
So we spent two days floating about on canoes and enjoying
wearing trousers and jumpers because the weather was so beautifully cool. Then we picked up my MPM art counsellor,
Vince, from the border town of Kabale and carried on to Rwanda. As we crossed the border it was as if order
suddenly came out of nowhere. The hills
were sectioned with terracing and each crop had its own boundaried area in
which to grow. The roads were being
built with hundreds of diggers that Sam was thrilled to watch and the roads became
so windy that we began to get dizzy as we drove! We drove through the capital, Kigali, and
continued for what we thought would be a few hours to Kamembe. Several
hours later, just as it was getting dark and we had spent an interminable
amount of time driving through the biggest forest we have ever seen, we arrived
in Kamembe. But the next day we saw beautiful
Lake Kivu and ate dinner watching the sun setting over Congo and felt relaxed
again.
I met with Nicky, Caroline and Jane from Music as Therapy
International and the following day we presented a variety of themes at a
family day for a special needs centre.
Some of the themes that we taught included how to interact and
communicate with their disabled children, how to do certain music therapy
techniques at home and at the school and to encourage the parents to continue
to support their disabled children. It
was also hoped that these parents would inform other parents of disabled
children of their rights and responsibilities and advocate for their children.
It was a fascinating two days in the Rwandan special needs
schools where things seem to be more organised than in Uganda yet the following
still happens: if you beat a cow drum children will start dancing! We enjoyed learning the Rwandan tribal dance
and playing games with the children and staff.
I was even able to use my Swahili with the staff because they are so
close to the Congo border that many of them can speak it.
We dreaded the two-day mammoth car journey back home but it
went much quicker this time, since we knew where we were going and knew the
roads a little better. We got caught up
in a political rally on the way home and the motorbike drivers were doing
acrobatics on their bikes. I held my breath wondering when the next pot-hole or
hair-pin bend would make them fall to their deaths. After an over-night stay in Kabale where we
made the most of our last night of blankets we travelled back home to Kasese
where everything was as it had been and life picked up from where it had left
off a week ago!
