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Day 23
Monday 10th March 2008
Rest Day
Today I stayed in my Hotel and completed my blogg from the previous week and generally rested. I received a call asking whether I would be interested in watching the Buffaloes train that afternoon. Obviously this would be my first time of watching one of the senior sides train, this would give me an insight into the rugby standards in Rwanda and the rugby standards in the UK.
They did their warm ups and I was asked if I would like to take the back division whilst the forwards trained together. This I did and the backs were very impressive with their passing and switching between the centre and the fly half. I worked with the back line until the decision to bring the backs and forwards together. I had watched the forwards and made certain suggestions which appeared to be taken on board. A game between the backs and forwards was refereed by me which was good fun.
One of the guys took me to a local restaurant where Emma, Deena, Jo and a number of their friends were having a farewell meal as two of their friends were returning to Australia for five weeks. A good evening was had by all, we then all returned to our different abodes.

Day 24
Tuesday 11th March 2008
Byumba
A visit had been arranged to travel and coach some of the schools in the Byumba area. This is the area where a young guy by the name of Alex Sibomana travelled to Kigali to collect two rugby balls, at the time he said that he was training a number of schools in that area.
I was travelling with Alphonse who had been with us on our trip to Ruhengeri, he was to coach, interpret, and generally get the best prices whenever we wanted something ie: - taxis accommodation, or motorbikes.
I met up with Alphonse in Kigali and purchased our tickets on the taxi bus (oh good) and arranged to sit in the “suicide seat” again. We travelled for about one and a half hours where we alighted from this bus and got on another which would take us to a small group of businesses close to the Ugandan border. Unfortunately, it sounds wonderful but, in reality it doesn’t work we sat on the bus for about two hours waiting for it to fill up. When ready off we went to this collection of small shops.
Alphonse asked the way to the school and we were informed that the only mode of travel was by the ever faithful motorbike. Alphonse and I were carrying our rucksacks with all our gear in so on the bikes we got, thinking it was only a small distance to the school, these motor bikes have a 125cc engine capacity and the beautiful tea growing area is very mountainous and the roads are just dirt tracks with massive ruts where the rain runs down. The distance was seven kilometres which meant that on one or two occasions I had to walk up the hills as the there was no power in the engine to take me the rucksack and the driver. What a way to get fit and lose weight I recommend it to anyone. The other problem is breathing, as the altitude is higher than Kigali which took some getting used to.
After many trials and tribulations such as when these guys are travelling down hill they disengage the gears turn off the engine and coast, relying totally on their brakes, (talk about a brown trouser job) when tearing around corners on loose shale. It had also started to rain which added to our total discomfort.
We arrived at the school to be greeted by Alex and the assistant headmaster. Introductions were made and agreed that we would attempt to coach some of the players, as it was raining heavily we agreed to try to teach in a classroom. We waited whilst this was being set up and then went into the classroom to be confronted by approximately 50 children all eager to receive information on rugby. Meeting these children is an absolute delight a) because they don’t see many muzungus and secondly they are so polite.
We tried to demonstrate the positions on the field, people within the scrum, and passing the ball correctly. Following on from the classroom it had stopped raining so we were asked to go to their playing field to coach another school.
At this playing field there was a number of players but at the same time the primary school children finished school, this meant that they all wanted to touch the muzungu, total chaos. We attempted to coach but gave in under the pressure. A game was held between the two schools (seven a side this is what they had been taught by Alex) it was very much basket ball with a rugby ball at least they tried to pass backwards. This completed we made contact with the headmaster who is so committed to playing rugby mainly I think because he wants to beat the schools in the surrounding area. We left promising to return tomorrow and continue coaching. Alphonse contacted the two motor cyclists to return and take us to a recommended guest house, which was about 12km away from the school.
We arrived at the guest house to be greeted by an old guy who found the people to sign us in to the guest house. We hadn’t eaten or drunk much all day so we asked for drinks the old guy sat by us and ordered a beer (I thought that he was the owner) anyway we asked if they supplied food and the answer was positive.
We ordered brochette and chips and sat down to wait, and wait, and wait. After about an hour they came to us and told us that they had no brochettes so would we have omelette. This was accepted so they went off to cook our meal. We were then shown our rooms, followed by this old guy, the rooms were £6 and £5 respectively. As we came back out of the room the old guy asked for money and I gave him a very small amount by our standards (in Rwanda a lot of the smaller children ask for money all the time and it becomes a nuisance). We then waited and waited for our meal about two and a half to three hours later our meal arrived. The first lot of eggs were ‘off’ so they had sent for some more, I think to Kigali. The chips were freezing cold and the omelette was mildly warm yuk! But we ate it.
To describe the room is to say the bed and sheets were OK I had en-suite this comprised of a small room with a shower head (no water) which pointed to a large hole in the ground to which you can imagine. I was brought a large plastic bowl for flushing purposes. The bed was cold and felt damp (I am told this area of Rwanda is always like this) but I was so weary I would have slept anywhere.
At 5.15hrs I am brought upright by the wailing of a woman’s voice calling everyone to morning prayer, what a shock to the system!!!

Day 25
Wednesday 12th March 2008
Byumba
As you can imagine we had an early start, breakfast consisted of a number of chapaties and tea. We then requested the bill only to find that the old guy had charged his beer to our account after deep discussions it was removed.
We then waited for a taxi bus to take us back to the small area of shops where we were to get motor bikes to the next school.
The bus arrived but turned around and headed for the Ugandan border where a number of passengers got on carrying a large number of items which took ages to load, we then start driving down the road only to be chased and stopped by a police vehicle, the driver (who carry guns) insisted that the bus returned to the border. At the border everyone, with the exception of Alphonse and myself were made to get out complete with their goods so that they could be searched for none payment of taxes or contraband banana beer (I am told that this stuff is lethal and the government are trying to ban it from Rwanda). The bus proceeded without most of those passengers, the way that the bus driver was acting it seemed as though he was in charge of the smuggling, anyway, it was nothing to do with us. The journey that should normally take about 15-20 minutes took nearly an hour.
At the drop off point we got two bikes to take us to the next school the distance was 16km over dirt tracks once again, this time I had given my large rucksack to Alphonse which meant that the bike that I was on was able to take me to the top of these hills. When we arrived my backside was so sore and painful.
Alex met us at the school gate and we asked the bike riders to wait for us, as once they had gone we were so far out in the bush that we would have had difficulty getting to the next school.
The time was now about 10-30hrs we were introduced to the headmaster of the senior school who said that he wanted his school to play rugby, after meeting his staff we walked to the field to start coaching, we had about 20 students, these we through the passing and scrummaging exercises with some deal of success. This was all watched by the headmaster with great delight. They then asked if they could play a game, once again seven a side rugby, this was refereed by Alex. Whilst watching the game I was introduced to the headmaster of the primary school who said that he wanted his school to learn rugby as well. He then invited me to see a class of his children, this was an honour to me to see the way the children aged about 9 behaved and they also sang a song to say ‘Welcome’. It was a very moving event for me.
I returned to the game which was being watched by lots of children who were cheering their side on.
Due to the time restrain we had to take our leave, as we had arranged to return to the first schoolboy a certain time. Once again back on the bikes for a 9km ride.
Back at the first school we had to go to their sports field where there were over a hundred students, we took photos of about 15 teams including two teams of girls.
Alphonse and I tried to coach as many as we could, this was very difficult but what was surprising was the headmaster started to help with the coaching (he got much more aggressive than we did) obviously there were too many students to be effectively coached by just the two of us. The headmaster asked for us to organise four games four teams of boys and two teams of girls. By this time I think that I was suffering from the heat and lack of water and felt unwell, I sat the games out. They were once again playing rugby basketball with tackling, which was enjoyed immensely by the watching crowd. Because the headmaster’s team won he was on cloud nine. After nearly two and a half hours the motor bikes came to take us back to the crossroads. As an observation Rwanda and this area in particular they want to play rugby, they are enjoying playing and also the students watching are giving it their total support, fantastic!
We travelled back to the cross roads on the bikes.
When we arrived here the army were in force stopping everyone carrying goods once again checking for contraband. We stood for ages waiting for the bus and I was tired we had quenched our thirst in a small bar, but I still felt a bit low.
The Rwanda army have vehicles where the seats in the rear (on a open back truck) face to each side of the road, and there was one of these vehicles at the crossroad. I went up to the Major (I found out later) and asked whether I could sit on his truck which he said it was OK. I had a discussion with him about the army and his years of service. None of the Rwandans standing by could believe that I was both sitting on the truck and talking to the major.
Eventually we got on the taxi bus to Kigali once again crammed into a small place for a journey that took about one and a half hours. We arrived in Kigali had a meal it was now about 19.30hrs so I got a taxi back to the Chez Rose where I had been staying had a wonderful shower and crashed out.