Rwanda - Mpore Pefa Orphanage

 I get settled into the orphanage over a few days. Day 1 I get driven there with Claire and Bosco, as well as 2 other volunteers that wont be working with me. I am to be working by myself. We stay here just an hour or 2 on this first day. Day 2 another volunteer comes with me for the morning which is fantastic because I have a chaperone to help familiarise me with the buses and shortcuts to get to work! We walk down the main road about 10 minutes to get to the bus stop. There are a range of large buses and also small vans which dont leave the bus stop until they are full. They have extra seats in the aisles which fold down, hiace vans will hold 20 adults. Each bus has a driver as well as an assistant who runs up and down the street trying to get people on his bus. You tell him where you want to go and if his bus is the correct one he will grab your arm and run you to the bus. Its quite scary to begin with! I will ask for the Gikondo bus. 5-10 minutes later we get off the bus, the assistant knows you want to get off when you knock on the roof or window. I always manage to get the back corner seat which means that when I want to get off about 5 people also need to get out of the bus. It costs about 150 Rwandan Francs which is 25 cents. When we get off the bus we walk in a sewerage drain to get to the street across. It smells disgusting and on a hot day I have to hold my breath the whole way. You dont attempt it after heavy rain. Once through here we pretty much reach dirt road and its about half an hour to the orphanage. We navigate by foot, avoiding the massive pot holes and half buried litter. The beginning of the track has a few stores. A small butchery (or boucherie) in a concrete hut with a window to serve. You can see large slabs of red meat hanging inside, a knife and an old scale. There are convenience stores that have all range of things within 4 square metres, everything is stacked neatly from floor to ceiling. There is a music store which is pleasant to walk past with Bob Marley or Shaggy blasting from the speakers. And there is a tiny 1 metre square hut with a chap that makes and sells shoes.
The area here is very poor. The housing much like that described earlier. Woman are walking around with huge loads on their heads. Baskets with 20 cabbages in them, pineapples, carrots, banana's. A lot of them also have a baby on their back, they are strapped around their chest with a blanket. Some woman need to put a hand up to steady their loads, but most don't. There are also a lot of men carrying loads in a similar way. I have seen someone with 3 double mattresses on their head. I have noticed that the men here are very short, some the same height as me, I wonder if this is why!
There are lots of children around, as there are everywhere. As you walk by you hear them scream 'Amuzungu, Amuzungu!!!!' This means 'white person'. I will always call out mwaramutzi! Or Good morning! They love to practice their English. So within minutes you will often have a trail of kids behind you, I feel very much like the pied piper.



We finally reach the orphanage. Mpore Pefa. It is tucked in behind a church, and the man who started it was the priest of the church. He died in 2007 and his wife took over the running of the orphanage while others took over the church. To reach the gate of the orphanage we walk down a dangerously steep dirt track for about 20 metres. We are walking past the fence of the orphanage on your right and the children suddenly come out of nowhere screaming 'Amuzungu, Amuzungu!'. When you reach the gate at the bottom the kids are already there waiting and they literally throw themselves into your arms, dozens of them. They have looks of such pleasure on their face it touches your heart.
It takes several minutes before we are able to make it through the gate. The bottom tier of the orphanage has 2 longdrop toilets and 2 changing cubicles for the older boys, as well as 2 open huts - one for firewood and one for cooking. The cooking space has a large open fire with huge metal cauldrons for cooking rice and stews. Off the cooking area is an enclosed hut which has the food - a few bags of soghrum (kind of a yeasty flour), a bag of round beans, a couple of branches of green banana's, and a couple of cabbages. This will feed the 52 orphans. From here you go up the stairs to the first dormitory. It has a central common room with a wing to the right and left. Each wing has 6 rooms. This level is for the older boys of whom the oldest is perhaps 26. If you walk straight through the common room you come to a thin strip of outdoor area where the young children are playing. There is no grass, just concrete and dirt. There is a flight of stairs heading up to the next dorm and at the top of the stairs is another strip of dirt. The children play on both levels and there is a 2 metres unfenced drop between each. The second dorm is for the younger children and identical to the first. There is a charming colourful mural on one wall. Two old beat up tables and bench seats, which are in disrepair and have nails sticking out of them. There is nothing else in the room.The bedrooms have 2 bunk beds each. The younger children will share 3 or 4 to a bed. There is only a handful of beds with mosquito nets, and I find out that the boys tend to get these. Beyond this dorm is another outdoor area where there is a tap and the laundry and washing is done here.Another set of stairs will lead up to another toilet block which stinks to the high heavens. The younger children will all navigate the stairs to use these toilets.
It amazes me how despite these appalling conditions, the children are all happy and smiling. It is hard to accept these conditions, but I just hope I can do something to help keep the smiles on these children's faces.