A brilliant morning of fun and games at Baho Neza Mwana

The weekend has arrived but there is no rest for the team. After a little lie in we all set off en masse to Baho Neza Mwana (the street children project).

As usual, we had a very enthusiastic welcome and some of our team, who have been out to Rwanda before, were delighted to see some familiar faces, including brother and sisters Zidane, Samaia and Medina. 

We quickly split into three groups to run a variety of activities, including making animal spoons and face painting take two and a Justin Timberlake inspired dance class run by Ruby.

Claudette, who runs Baho Neza Mwana, with Steph P

Face painting took on a more  professional twist today with the standard considerably raised from our earlier session with the nursery children at Nkombo. The fact that there were fewer children may have had something to do with it.  Maddie, Jenny, Noelia, Andrea, Charlotte and Stephan held fort with this activity. The demand for blue bats, safari animals, Spiderman, crocodiles and robots came swift and fast and pushed us to our artistic limits. The sea of colourful faces and arms brought forth many smiles.

Ruby, Mara, Steph D, Beth and Alex danced the morning away. We were blown away by the boys' natural rhythm and impressive catalogue of moves, then everyone got involved in learning Devonshire House Junior School flash mob to 'Can't Stop the Feeling'. The enthusiasm and energy was infectious!

The craft session creating animal faces on wooden spoons was very successful for all ages, even the 17 and 18 year old boys in particular took it very seriously. Mark from King's House did a fabulous job as Chief Scotch tape dispenser (a much more important role than his headteacher job back home)! We ended up with some beautiful pigs, chickens, frogs, lions, goats and cows and even a fantastic frog/lion hybrid which Miranda and Emily named frion. 

The Muzungu band were in full force, playing the Cups Song and making castanets from folded cardboard and bottle tops.

Dave, Mark, Maddie and Emily played music teachers to a group of the children, trying to teach them the Beatles 'All you need is love', which it turns out has some rather tricky lines with a few too many words in them to sing easily in English! Although the boys didn't manage quite so well with the verses, they definitely got the hang of the chorus. Alysé, who was in charge of the kids today, did a grand job of translating the song into Kinyarawanda.

After the great variety of activities in the morning, everybody headed down to the big field for lots of races - the space hoppers were a huge hit, though some people were more successful with them than others!

Once everybody was exhausted from games and football, the boys headed up for lunch, though made sure to remove all their face paint first - the older ones all helped the younger ones. We were also treated to lunch, before a team photo and big goodbyes. It was a brilliant day which we will all remember very fondly.

Umuganda, Painting at Ngwino Nawe and Lunch with the Street Children

This morning brought an early start for a Saturday. Every last Saturday of the month the Rwandans celebrate 'Umaganda', a morning of national community service. All cars have to be off the road between 8am and 12pm, during which time the local communities all donate the hours to a village project. The word 'Umaganda' can be translated as 'coming together in a common purpose to achieve an outcome'. This is part of the Government's efforts to reconstruct Rwanda and nurture a shared national identity. 

Blink and you won't miss it.

 This, however, was very convenient for Stephan to ensure that we were all out of bed and ready to go to Ngwino Nawe to finish painting the mural. After a hasty breakfast we drove through the quiet roads, hoping we didn't have to pull the 'mzungu' card if the police saw us out of time. The day may have been drizzly, but the spirit was eternally sunny. In the action packed few hours Maddie completed the learning wall with an alphabet under the giant chalkboards, and whilst Francine drew the pictures she was continually asked about the imaginative creatures and fish she was drawing.

The new learning wall.

 After she had been at her community service, Therese returned towards the end of our session and jumped straight in with painting some tropical fish. 

Many hands making light work.

Colour decisions on the outside wall.

Once the sounds of motor vehicles returned to normal very rapidly after midday, we jumped back in the car and were swiftly on our way back to the Street Children project.  On our arrival we were greeted by the excitable faces of the children all ready to go to their family and foster homes. Very quickly we were ushered into the main hall, where we were presented by Claudette with a wonderful lunch and sat down with the children to have their end-of-term meal. 

The most wonderful lunchtime.

Gentle, respectful conversations arose between children that filled the room with a calm hum. Just before we finished eating, it was time to celebrate the children's achievements. It was wonderful to see that 7 of the children had reached the top of their class, and 5 children were leaving to permanent new homes. The care, devotion and concern Claudette feels for these children was evident in her emotionally charged address to us all. The children are being equipped with skills to give them a bright future. 

Loom's newest entrepreneurs.

Another session of loom bands ensued, with both boys and girls getting snazzy with the patterns and with a deftness that was remarkable. Spirographs also were thrown into the mix, with the teachers leading the way in order to try and persuade the boys that they didn’t quite need to produce 4 bracelets…each! 

Concentration.

We are all so excited to see what the next year brings for these very special children, and their equally inspiring, driving force of a director Claudette.

Francine teaching 'Baby Five!'

Nkombo Nursery and Baho Neza Mwana Street Children

After a short boat ride across the dewy morning Lake Kivu, Team Rwanda 2014 arrived at Nkombo Nursery. The children were ready for us, with even the littlest in their uniforms waiting to see what we had in store for them. Inside Jo, Francine and Maddie had a range of pens and paper set out for the future Picassos, although by the end of the session it was doubtful  as to whether the faces or paper saw more of the action… Sparkly hearts were also adorned in unusual places that they definitely weren’t designed for, but just showed the creativity and eagerness of the children. Stephan, Bridget and Natasha led the others with games outside. After a tentative start with a rework of ‘Duck Duck Goose’, tunnel ball became a firm favourite with the children showing their competitive side with a few well placed elbows. We were then escorted back to our boat with multiple helping hands and a very friendly inkoko (chicken) who had accompanied us both ways across the lake.

Stephan organising 'Duck Duck Goose' 

Hard at work

Lake Kivu

A highlight of our trip so far was this afternoon’s visit to Baho Neza Mwana, a refuge for the region’s orphaned children who would otherwise be living on the streets.  Here we were given a tour of the village and shown where the children sleep, learn skills like sewing, eat and play.  With today being Friday, washing day, sunny spots on grassy banks were covered with clean clothes and linen left to dry.  Two bags we brought over from the UK were the source of inexplicable delight; one contained loom bands and the other a collection of nail polishes, nail art pens and nail art tools kindly donated by Models Own.  

Girls will be girls 

The most demanding customer!

Stephan gave Natasha and Bridget a quick tutorial on how to use the loom bands after which they demonstrated the technique to the children who quickly picked it up and effortlessly made bracelets, necklaces and other colourful accessories.  Meanwhile, Maddie and Jo had great fun painting nails and adorning them with glitter and patterns.  Some of the girls then took to painting their own toenails and even gave a few of us some interesting manicures.  

Bridget's new business...

When we had exhausted our supply of loom bands and everyone was happy with their painted nails, the children performed dance routines for their guests before heading down to a football pitch the size of, well, a football pitch, set on the banks of Lake Kivu.  The Rwanda Aid staff members led some warm-up exercises after which a competitive game of football commenced.  Bridget and Maddie were brave enough to participate in the game and we’re still not sure whether the constant calls of ‘mzungo’ (white person) were the children’s way of telling each other to pass to or kick well away from them.  Francine joined some of the others for a game of volleyball and once both these matches were finished, the children all carried firewood (mostly on their heads) back up to the village.  

Jonas dominating the football field

Shortly thereafter, Stephan arrived with crates of cold drinks and a big bag of sweets which everyone enjoyed after this busy but brilliant afternoon.  The wonderful children (and staff) of this village sent us off in such high spirits; they have left an impression that will not easily be removed from our memories or our hearts.