Conquering Mountains in Kigali

Conquering Mountains in Kigali By Rachel Garner

This is the third piece written by Rachel for her local newspaper The Brentwood Gazette!

What does it feel like knowing you’re going to be living and working with complete strangers for ten weeks? Honestly petrifying. I have to tell you for the entire week before my ICS placement I was racked with dread, uncertainty and at points convinced I wouldn’t be able to do it. A mammoth sized task lay before me – to immerse myself into an entirely new culture, with entirely new people for ten weeks and come out the other side unscathed.

It felt as if there was a ticking time bomb to judgement day.  Are they going to accept me? Will they like me? Am I really strong enough and mature enough to handle this? These thoughts were just the first of many challenges I would face during my time in Kigali. Challenges that felt like immovable mountains; too huge to face on your own. And then I realised something crucial – I don’t have to tackle these on my own. We are all part of one team! Team Kigali 2014 – international development volunteers, planners extrordinaires and mountain conquerors! Together we could achieve anything, and we proved that many times.

Some of the team on Mount Kigali with our lovely little guides!

Last Saturday we took a team trip to Mount Kigali. The plan was 45 minutes of climbing, finished off with a celebratory coffee and breath taking views. But in true “Team Kigali” fashion the plan went straight out of the window!  We actually spent about 2.5 hours climbing through densely packed forest, and we NEVER found that coffee shop. (Rwandan coffee is rather special).

Beautiful flower en-route up the mountain.

From an outsiders’ perspective this was a pretty rubbish day; lots of strenuous effort with no tangible reward. Yet this was one of my favourite days of the entire trip. We demonstrated how strong we were as a team; relying on each other to make it up steep hills right to the very top. We spent the day laughing, taking pictures, telling stories and revelling in each other’s company. When we reached the top we were proud – we’d achieved something to be genuinely proud of.

Some of the fantastic views we were lucky to see!!

It’s a good metaphor for our entire time in Kigali; trial after trial, not quite achieving what we set out to achieve but realising we’d actually achieved something else - something much more worthwhile. I never expected it to be easy, but I did have a glossy magazine view of volunteering. Take part in a few projects; snap some pics, tadah world saved! From an outsiders’ perspective what we have done is exert copious amounts of energy to no obvious avail.

But all these tests made us stronger, better, and more mature people. They demonstrated our personal strengths and weaknesses; allowed us to adapt as a team, to accommodate each other. Personally, I have been able to improve my flexibility, patience, understanding, forgiveness and the ability to think on my feet. And that’s just for starters. Together we have blossomed and moulded each other;  we have become a family; learning one from the other. We may not have had a glossy magazine experience of volunteering, but we’ve had something far more powerful – we have experienced life.

Beth, Vicky and Rachel midway through climbing Mount Kigali

There is something strangely liberating about spending your summer with strangers. You are free to loosen the chains of modern day society and live as who you are, with no pre-conceptions and no existing judgements. You are able to conquer mountains head on with a new zest and vigour. You are free to truly live!