2nd to 19th of February, 2018.
Alberto Benvenuti. I could leave this post just like this and it would be enough. It should be. It is like trying to define the Brazilian Portuguese world ‘saudade’. It is quite difficult. I will do my best.
Alberto is an Italian guy who lives in Musanze for the last twelve years. He came in here as an NGO volunteer, and then just stayed and stayed. After working with different organizations for about ten years, he now owns this guest house called La Locanda.
Our talk lasts only about fifteen minutes, and it is enough to arrange everything. I will stay in one the bedrooms for the weekend, and move to one of the cottages on Sunday. There, I will be able to cook and to have my own place for the next two weeks. When he shows me the two places, I cannot believe it! Is this for real? I came to Musanze with the intention of staying in a village school, probably in very simple / local installations. And I try that, it simply didn’t work. Now, I am offered this incredible and gorgeous place. Alberto keeps showing me the whole place so naturally, that he probably did not understand why I am so surprised. About the work, we decide that until the end of the weekend, he would figure out in how I could help him. I agree in moving here that same night.
Back in Saidi’s house, I wait for him for a while. He is a little sad that I am moving that same night but of course he is also happy for my achievement, and decide to escort me there.
When we are arriving, I group of tourists are also going there. Among then, Michael.
In the living room, something around twelve people are comfortably sitting in the couch, chatting happily. Saidi and I are invited by Michael to join theml. He makes a brief introduction of me and I start talking with the gentleman just beside me. After a few minutes, Saidi decides to leave and I stay with them.
That night the dinner is pizza! And I keep not believing. I even order a beer! It is the first time I drink the Mützig. My pizza is mushroom flavor. Delicious! It is so good that I could eat two! Everybody remains there, eating and talking, not caring about anything. The guy who I am talking, Stephen, is nice and funny. We are also talking with a nice girl called Susan. At some point, I notice that most of them are here for work or business.
Everybody starts to leave around nine o’clock but what keeps me here is Jeff playing the guitar. But at some point I have to go to sleep and prepare myself for the next day.
Next morning: breakfast. Fruits, mushroom, eggs, toast and a big Italian coffee. I am in paradise! Everyone who works over here is really nice: The cooks, Kevin and Kevin 2; the waiters, Theo and Platine; the lovely manager, Michellin; and all the housekeepers and gatekeepers too. But I have to say Kevin is the closer one to me.
Stephen is leaving that morning and it is so cute of him asking me if he could give me a hug. I feel sad that he has to leave already.
At some point, Alberto and I sit to talk about my help. But first let’s talk more about him. He has a Nursery School, called L’Arc-en-ciel, which he founded. He also support ten of the thirty four children they help (with uniform, food, shoes and school materials). They keep looking for donors and children supporters, so they will be able to accept more kids. In the past, he helped a Centre to street kids, owned by a friend of him. When the Centre had to be closed, he took care, by himself, of three of the boys. Everything the boys needed, was supported by him. They are now in different boarding schools. I have the opportunity to meet two of them: wonderful smart kids, who want to prove their value and have stomped in their the mark of the street life. Now, the guest house is going well. Not just because it is a nice and peaceful place, but because Alberto is a great person who naturally attract friends and other good people, so they are always talking about his place and suggesting to other friends. It is like a big ‘chain of the good’.
We agree that I could help writing a document about the school, which they can send to possible donors. I will go to the school with Alberto on Monday morning, so I can get to know more about it and also take some photos. I will also help to find the correct doors for the few keys they have hanging around the guest house. Sounds funny, right? The last thing would be taking pictures of La Locanda to put in the website. IN the beginning it is just that. Alberto also gives me some pocket money that I supposed to use to buy fresh food. The grains, like rice and pasta, and the drinks, like tea, milk and coffee, he will bring it. When we go to the cottage next day, there is a lot of fruits and vegetables.
We go to the school as planed. It is a nice place that perhaps just need a little bit more of infrastructure. Grace, the director and the biggest help of Alberto, is a very kind woman and we talk a lot. After, while I am taking some pictures, I have some time with the kids. They are very sweet. I am helping in the class of the smallest ones and Grace invites me to have lunch with them. During lunch time, a big rain starts and I get stuck. Around two o’clock, somebody came to pick up Grace and she offers me a lift back.
As soon as I can, I write the document and prepare the pictures to send to Alberto. The pictures should wait until he could redecorated a little the bedrooms. And about the keys, I should wait until we have a free guests day.
Middle time, I talk with the incredible couple Rita and Jeff. They are from Canada and even not knowing anything about them, just looking the way they treat each other, you would love them. Alberto told them about my travel plan, so we just start talking. Their story is lovely: they are now retired and are using their time to do a kind of volunteer work, helping the families to create a sustainable way of farming. There is no money involved and their work is to put the hand on the shit. Jeff plays guitar and both drink wine and beers everyday. They look as they are still in love as they just met and look great together. Both are so involved in what is going on in each country and in the world. Rita sounds so lovely when we talk about my travel and she tells me to be concerned. Jeff has an amazing speech about money, and how we would be better if the monetary system was gone. I am so relieved to hear that someone intelligent and with so much experience talks about the same idea as me. One day, I heard them in a video call with their family back home, a birthday party, and they sounded lovely. I hope that, when I reach Canada they will be around so I can pass by to say ‘hi’. If everything goes well, I already have four friends to visit there.
I wrap some natural soaps which Alberto bought from local communities, and will sell to the guest in La Locanda. Rita and Jeff give me another idea to help Alberto: the living room bathroom is not decorated at all. It needs not only decoration but more light and some fresh smell. What started just with the bathroom, became a whole place redecoration. The living room itself, the cottage and the other bedrooms. Alberto has so many nice pictures and we ask to the carpenter to make some special frames, which I will paint. I am so exciting for working with decoration again, that I can almost not stop. If it is not for Alberto taking me for some coffee in town or having dinner out, I would stay all the time working.
For the bathroom, I repaint the mirror with some Imigongo art; I paint some old vases, fill it with dried sticks and have them by the window; I paint an old frame and use parts of sticks to create a small dry tree as “picture”; a vase and a shell holder, new painted, are decorating the sink; and of course the whole place it is filled with pieces of art about Africa.
In the cottage I also use Africa arts and a Indian rug in the wall. I paint some furniture and also some parts of the bathroom. I use one old window as frame for some bamboos and dry leaves and flowers from Africa, adding a touch of gold tint. Another frame I use to write “Coffee, Tea and Milk” with some seeds and put on the kitchen’s wall. Also in the kitchen, I hung some wine bottles from the celling and beside I wrote a big “Bon Appetit!”. For last, I paint with different colors and decorated with gold lines, six old mugs and hang in the cupboard.
I am happy to be able to help Alberto and doing something that I really like; I am meeting some great people all the time; I am having great meals or cooking something that I like; I am having coffee every morning, sometimes I have a beer or some wine, and I have tea every night before going to sleep. Alberto even arranges a deal with two travel agencies to bring me with them for free to take pictures and then promote both of investments. I go to a beekeeping plus a small hiking and a cannon trip. And even in those two days, just for the morning and lunch time, while out, I missed him. He always makes me laugh. He is such a good friend!
In the two trips I go, I am accompanying a nice family from California, U.S. They are also travelling around the world: Audrey, Brian, Colin and Decker (twelve and nine years old) will spend over an year on the road, visiting something around thirty countries. It is so awesome! The boys do not look spoiled for me at all, by the opposite, they strike me as really nice, smart and adorable kids. And I am sure that, apart from having some great parents like Audrey and Brian, this whole trip around the world has also a great impact on them.
I go to the school another day, this time alone. I get lost. I walk way more than I needed. So stupid. I am trying to get there at eight o’clock but just arrive passed nine. With the help of my great friend Saidi, I find the place and he is even giving me a lift there. I wish I could have helped more Grace and the school. If I had more time…
The frames and the living room look great! Alberto is so creative and full of ideas, so we work well as team. I am so happy every time he makes me a complement, and even more when he mentions that he would like to have me in La Locanda when he leaves for some holidays in Italy.
On my last day, we go out for a walk in the afternoon. Alberto, John and I. We visit Theo (one of our cooks, who Alberto knows and has helped since 2009) and have some beer and food at his place; we try to visit Grace but unfortunately they are not at home and then we come back. I am invited to eat out for dinner. I accept. We go to the restaurant I think it is very beautiful from outside and then I figure out it is also amazing inside. I have a delicious Tiramissu for desert.
I have to say goodbye that same night. The three of us would leave very early next morning: Alberto and John to Kigali and I to the border.
The hug I receive from Alberto it is the best one in a long time.
I really wish I could stay longer. I also wish I could’ve done more t help Alberto, and finished all the projects I’ve started.
I had just passed Saidi’s house when somebody pick me up and drive me until the border. I am happy because I have already left Rwanda so probably I would reach Kampala that same afternoon. I was so wrong…
10 Years Around the World 