Chinese new Year.....in Rwanda!

On the 30^th of January we celebrated our first Chinese New Year….in Rwanda.

To explain how this came about here is some background information:

Currently the government here have plans to improve and pave all the major roads in Rwanda. When they put this contract up for bidding the Chinese won it and so they have been in Rwanda for many years now working on these roads. The road from Kigali continues paved all the way south to a town call Buhinga where it splits to go south to Kamembe (at the border with Congo) or west towards Tyazo (pronounced Chazo) which is a ten minute walk from us. It then continues as a dirt track from here northwest, along the border of Lake Kivu to Kibuye. At the moment most of the work is concentrated around Tyazo and beyond, meaning lots of trucks, Rwandan laborers and Chinese engineers. Therefore there is a Chinese camp (known as China Road) about 30 minutes walk near to where Matt plays football every Sunday. There are about 80 Chinese workers there, all men except 4 women who are the interpreters between French and English. 

During Matt’s time in the ED has met quite a few of the Chinese either through trauma or fears for malaria. During one of their visits one of the interpreters gave him some invitations for their Chinese New Year party. We managed to get a few more invites for some of the visiting Americans and formed a party with some of the Rwandans the Chinese had also invited from the hospital. Our first party outside the compound – exciting times!

At 5.30pm on the 30^th January Tim (the American surgeon) drove us, his wife and son, the three visiting Americans and their child, Julie (permanent staff worker in neonates and runs the mission compound), Jospin (Congolese doctor working at the hospital), Esdras (Rwandan nurse in the ED) and their wives down the dirt track to China Road. We didn’t really know what to expect but I don’t think anyone expected to be security searched and scanned as we entered! China Road is a huge compound enclosed within an iron ring of fencing. It houses all their massive trucks which transport soil and rock, plus the rollers, the big and little diggers (technical terms I know!) as well as the staff quarters and their mess hall. This is all built around a large open space in the middle, usually home to their basketball court, but today it had a decorated tented area with seating, already surrounded by Rwandans and Chinese workers already dancing, a little further away stood a massive bonfire ready to be ignited. 

Multicultural celebrations: Rwanda, British, Chinese, Congolese

Bonfire action!

The bonfire...with it's petrol trails!

We were escorted to the officer’s mess hall decorated with streamers and lanterns where a large table was laden with dishes of Chinese food including some specially imported shellfish (which we hadn’t seen since we left the UK in September!) amongst other meat, fish and vegetable dishes. They also brought out lots of soft drinks, beers and even a bottle of whiskey! While seated they kept bringing in more and more dishes and making sure we had enough to drink, introducing us to the senior Chinese workers there and wishing us happy new year! We ate a lot, had a beer, talked and then hit the dance floor outside! We all gathered around the bonfire when it was time to light it…then hastily retreated as the Rwandans began chucking petrol on it from all sides out of large plastic jerry cans which created trails of fire exploding from the opposite side! Everyone there went crazy – loads of dancing and celebrating! We peeked into the workers large mess hall, spotted a bottle of Moet on each table and understood that the new year for them was their biggest holiday, and what a way to celebrate it!

We were so appreciative that they had chosen to invite us to help celebrate it. They were great to include the locals and us at the hospital as well – we had an absolutely amazing time. At the end they had lottery where they pulled names out of a box to give away loads of prizes ranging from airtime for mobile phones, to radios, to even an iPhone! After this we left them to their fire antics and dancing after exchanging numbers with one of the interpreters and promising to return to play basketball one evening.

Me, Matthew, Jospin and his wife