It consists of a clay hearth that helps to reduce wood consumption for cooking food. To do this, we mixed clay with sawdust by hammering it with large clubs and the heels of Valentine, Maya, the many children there, but also Jonathan… for the photo, at least… Once the mixture is ready, it is transported to the house of the recipients to make sausage-like formations. These are plated around an interior structure made up of trunks of banana tree that will be removed once the work is completed.

A small anecdote: Valentine, journalist with La Libre Belgique, leaned against a drapery thinking to find a wall there and was rather taken by surprise when she found herself on the ground.

After a greatly appreciated dinner, we returned to Butare to visit the Ethnographic Museum that traces part of the history of the country. Alphonsine, our guide, managed to revive the traditions of “the people of the thousand hills” through various everyday Rwandan objects of the era. She compelled the men to cover their ears as she delivered an ancestral secret to the women about themselves. Very mysterious…

After a quick tour at the souvenir shop and a demonstration of the negotiation talents of Ms. Beauraind, we returned to the hotel on foot and in the rain, thanks to Jonathan who thought it was a good idea to send the driver back to the hotel. Oh, the places we’re going!

To be continued…

PS: During the drafting of this article we were under attack by a “flying cockroach”. We pay tribute to the survival reflexes of Mme Beauraind.

Text written by Loïc and Gauthier