My home base for this trip is the Benebikira Convent in Save. This is the “mother house” for the convent, the seat of the order. It is much like I imagine the original convents must have been back in the middle ages, containing acres of garden, stalls for two dozen or so cows, lamb, chickens, rabbits. If need be the convent can be self-sustaining. I enjoy this part especially. Breakfast consists of mangos and avocados straight from the trees. The avocados are so abundant that they litter the ground and many of them so big that they resemble small watermelons more than what I know as an avocado back in the US. The flavor is a slice of heaven. I believe I could subsist entirely on these avocados and mangoes with a little coffee and wine thrown in for good measure.
I’m trying to make myself useful while here. For the most part the sisters decline my help, not because they are sisters, but because they are Rwandan and I am a guest. But it seems I may have found a job I can do, shelling fresh beans. Today is the second day that they’ve let me help. It’s a peaceful and social job to sit for an hour or so and shell beans with them. They are also delicious on the dinner table.
The view of the chapel and garden is what I see each morning when I open my door. It’s incredibly peaceful and beautiful. Things are quiet and restive right now. In a few days more than six hundred students will return from the Christmas break and inhabit the dorms just beyond the chapel.
Melissa, this is beautiful (and so is your writing). Keep the blog posts coming! Linda