Azizi Life
A quick tour of Azizi Life, the compound that the Sept. 2014 ICS Tearfund team (what a mouthful!) in Muhanga, Rwanda have had the pleasure of calling home for the past 7 weeks.
Village Food in Central Africa - RWANDAN FOOD and AMAZING DANCING in Rural Rwanda, Africa!
This was an amazing day of learning about Rwandan food and culture!
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I signed up to go on a tour with Azizi Life, and I did the home food tour. It turned out to be even better than I was expecting, and truly a glimpse into rural life and a community in Rwanda. The food, the culture, and the dancing after lunch was one of the highlights of the day!
Muhanga Town - In the morning we first drove from Kigali to Muhanga Town, about an hour outside of Kigali. The green mountain roads were spectacular. Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 hills, and I think that might be an underestimation as there are never ending hills in this part of Central Africa.
After being warmly greeted and welcomed by the community of ladies, we first went to go fetch water. This is something many of us, myself for sure, take for granted. But in the rural countryside of Africa, even in cities, there are many people who have no running water, and when they need water for anything, they must walk to the well or source of freshwater, and carry all the water they need. It’s something to always remember.
Next we got started cooking all the food. Most of the ingredients for the Rwandan feast they cooked were from right there, on the hillside, from the small family farms. We had dozens of different vegetables, and of course - beans which were one of the most important foods of this regions of Africa. It wouldn’t be Rwandan food without beans as I’ve heard! Final dish was akabenz, a famous Rwandan pork dish.
You could taste the freshness of all the ingredients. The food was honestly a little plain for my usual taste buds, but I fully appreciated the natural ingredients, the simplicity of the dishes, and the love poured into each dish.
After eating a giant Rwandan feast, all of a sudden they started breaking out into dance. It was one of the highlights of this entire experience.
Thank you to the entire community for hosting us and to Azizi Life for setting it up!
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The Real Rwanda
Visitors get a taste of what life is like for rural Rwandans by working alongside them for a day. They are warmly welcomed into a household and treated as a member of the family, joining in with agricultural activities, fetching water, sharing a traditional meal and trying their hand at weaving; all with expert instruction and translation.
One visitor said, 'I thought this experience was spectacular! Though I wouldn't say that the experience is for the faint of heart. For me, living in Rwanda and seeing women work from afar, it was great to be able to work alongside them and actually experience what their life is like. I can no longer flippantly say, I'm a Rwandan woman. I'm not! They are so much tougher than me!'
If you want to experience this for yourself, contact Azizi Life through our website.
The Story of Team Champion - ICS Tearfund - Muhanga, RWANDA - Sept to Dec 2014
Here's a summary of our experiences volunteering with Tearfund in Rwanda as part of the International Citizen Service (ICS), working alongside the Rural Development Interdiocesan Service (RDIS) in Muhanga between September and December 2014. It was an unforgettable experience! Long live Team Champion!